Side Effect of all the Rain

Dave Hoskins

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5,252
Location
Parker County, Texas
Even though I do love the rain and love to see it coming down and filling the rivers and lakes, now and then there is a bad side effect. A friend of mine and his wife have several horses and I usually do the tractor work for them. I usually have to mow down the pastures (about 20 acres) every two months. With all the rain they have developed some sort of sweet clover that gives the horses some sort of hoof disease. Don't get me to lying on what the disease is called because I like horses and they generally like me, but I am no vet. Until the rain stops for a while nothing can be spread on the pastures to kill this stuff, so I am mowing down the pastures about every two weeks right now. Getting it in dodging the storms. I am leaving here in about 30 minutes to go get started, in fact. Did have today as a clear day to get it all done, but now I might not get finished as the forecast as added chances of storms this afternoon. AWK!!! Oh, well. Get as much done as I can. But, on the other hand while I am doing all of this mowing I do start thinking about new ideas of what may or may not sell. Guess something good does come from it. That is besides the lakes filled up to the brim and even flowing into the flood zones.
 
Dave, if it is a clover, especially sweet clover, wet it creates an impaction in the bowels that causes distress that can cause founder which is the delamination of the hoof walls and allows the coffin bone to rotate and cause weird growth as well as increased/rapid hoof growth. It is a problem all over. The mown grass can create an issue also as they can eat large mouthfuls which again packs the gut quickly.
 
Yup there are so many ways a horse can do itself in its kind of a wonder. Some of it makes more sense once you remember that horses were steppe animals that naturally would have eaten fairly hard dry grass most of the time. Thier digestive system is pretty sensitive and fresh lush feed can actually kill them.
 
:D
Dave, if it is a clover, especially sweet clover, wet it creates an impaction in the bowels that causes distress that can cause founder which is the delamination of the hoof walls and allows the coffin bone to rotate and cause weird growth as well as increased/rapid hoof growth. It is a problem all over. The mown grass can create an issue also as they can eat large mouthfuls which again packs the gut quickly.


I hate it when that happens :eek:
 
Thanks, Jonathan for the info. I was told today it also had something to do with the fertilizer they used apparently has a sweetness to it as well????? Sounds weird to me. Somewhere along the line I figger it will all work out and the horses will be happy. Funny. Out of six horses only two came down with whatever it is. Apparently it only effects their hooves. One of the horses effected is a paint named Kid. I was around when he came to be. He runs up to me all the time and sits his head on my shoulder so I'll rub him. Since he's a fair bit bigger than me, I certainly accommodate him. Anyway, the humidity was so high my brain is fried and not gonna do another thing for the day. uhuh
 
Here's a bit more for the interested. The causes of food induced founder are discussed a bit here. High nitrogen food can cause it as can grass with an excess of certain kinds of sugar at some phases of growth. If they'd fertilized heavily and then got a rash of lush fresh growth it would've been kind of a double whammy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminitis

I remember as a kid we got in one pony for dad to do some reconstructive hoof work on that had been foundered so bad his feet looked like skis. As I recall he was able to walk some after six months or so of aggressive reconstruction but never very well (he was a family pet otherwise...). Was pretty sad to see. Hopefully your buddy got his horses taken care of before it progressed to far.
 
Peter R out in NS hope you see this thread and let me know whats in your pasture. I was thinking of your old horse and all the green i saw at your place last year.

I feel like a real dumbass, there is a lot more to these animals than one would think. Shows just how disconnected city folk are from reality. Man i need to go to ag school.
 
Some of this stuff just kinda baffles me a bit. But, I am sure it will all come out in the wash. Hope so, anyway. I keep getting little tidbits of info on the situation and it gets a bit confusing that way. Oh, well. I will continue to mow when asked to. Whatever fertilizer they used is potent stuff. I mowed about 2 weeks ago and the grass was already up to the hubs on the tractor in a lot of the areas. That's doing some growing.
 
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