Tasty roadsides - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Sunday 4 September, 2005

by Rosemary at 9:21pm in Equines 1 comment Comments closed

I see Smokey five days out of seven. Two days a week my friends, Karen and Linda, feed him for me. Generally I ride three times a week and on the other two days, I feed him and check him over.

Almost every day, I let him have 15 to 20 minutes grazing the roadside. I love watching him - his whiskers, nose and top lip are constantly on the search for the tastiest bites. And on the roadside, these are many.

I suppose to us, grass is grass but the roadside is full of weeds. And for Smokey, these are just great. His favourites are what we call "sticky willie" (Goosegrass or Cleavers) - he eats that like long strands of spaghetti; what I think is Knapweed - he picks the flowers off the plant; and Cow Parsley. He likes the flowers and the leaves of Cow Parsley but not the stems. He doesn't like brambles, which is good, because I eat them while he's grazing.

Today, he was going mad for the leaves on a tree in the hedge. I don't know what it is - I brought a leaf home but couldn't find the tree identification book. He was also eating the twigs, stripping the leaves off first. I suppose this is how horses would graze if we didn't restrict them to relatively small fields with sown grassland.

I must say, though, I think my roadside foraging is tastier than his!