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Chapter
8
THE PASTURE
Unless sown
with a specific type of seed, grassland is usually made up of a
wide variety of species of grasses providing variety for the pony
as he grazes.
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Grasses
with good nutritional value
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Grasses
with poor nutritional value
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Timothy
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Yorkshire
fog
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Meadow
fescue
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Wall barley
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Crested
dog's tail
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Sweet
vernal
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Cocksfoot
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Common
bent grass
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Rye grasses
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Figure
8.1 Different types of grasses
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ITQ
8.1 Why might a pony living out begin to lose condition?
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Learn
to recognise the different varieties of grasses and which
have good feeding value and which do not.
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Growth
rate of grass
Grass on well drained land will start to grow more quickly in the
spring than that on wet or marshy land, because the soil warms up
more quickly.
Usually in Great Britain, it begins to start growing in April and
is at it's best during May and June.
Spring grass is very rich and may cause digestive disorders such
as colic and diarrhoea, as well as laminitis. In the autumn the
grass has a second spurt of growth, which can also be quite rich
and cause the same problems.
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Hay
is cut, depending on the weather, any time after the grasses
have come into flower and before they turn to seed. This is
usually late May and early June.
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The grass continues
growing all summer.
By the end of
October the goodness has gone out of it and it is growing very slowly
or may have stopped all together.
From October
to the end of March, there is no nutritional value in the grass
at all and ponies living out may need to be fed hay, and possibly
a hard feed.
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