Posted: Sunday 4 September, 2005
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!
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claire
Friday 16 September, 2005 at 10:33pm
hi Rosemary, I am over the hill from you here in Lennoxtown, I'm just reading that Smokey is into the branches and bark and this can be a clear indication of a mineral or vitamin deficiency, I had a horse like this several years ago, he never came to any harm though he destroyed several trees in the field and the vet saw no other obvious problems caused by it and suggested it might have been his indivual way of getting the right minerals etc, Claire