Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

Almost impossible to put a name on the breed Pete. We had a Conemara stallion here who gave two foals from slightly bigger 14-15 hand draft mares. We don't want anything bigger (any more) for that has proven to be no advantage on steep land.

We bought a new stallion this year,14 hands, 3 year old and something called pie-bald here. I presume what you would call "painted". This sort of horse was traditional for pulling gypsy/traveller caravans in days of old. A heavy boned, well behaved gentleman of a horse even if he had little training. My daughter rode him cold a few times.

What is special about this horse and something worth thinking about is that he has sky blue eyes instead of brown and this is something that Irish people do not like at all for it makes them think that these animals might have a brain or even a soul of their own. This makes it a good bit less likely that your horse disappears  without your approval. An important trait in difficult times?

john

Thanks John, what sort of horses do you have - just curious?

--- On Sun, 1/9/11, John D'hondt <dhondt@eircom.net> wrote:

From: John D'hondt <dhondt@eircom.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Haylage for horses?
To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Sunday, January 9, 2011, 1:15 PM

Our horses sleep inside every day of the year and then get a bit of hay. Reason being that we have seen laminitis appear when they get a chance to eat their heads off on sweet grass and clover 24 hours per day.

In winter they often stay in for weeks or months at a time depending on the weather and then they get haylage or even silage the same as our cows and goats. Never seen a problem with colic but I suppose a lot depends on the quality of the herbage. We never add molasses to the feed.

Horses are "end-gut" fermenters and I think that you can avoid colic almost completely if you don't feed them stuff that would start fermenting in the small intestine. So when they are stabled for long times they don't get many carrots, apples or other soft things. Just haylage, fresh water ad lib and a small amount of sea salt.

john

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