Spring is in the country, the days are getting longer, the sun is shining and the grass is starting to grow.
Great for humans and animals!
Yet this also brings risks.
The sugar content can be very high in spring grass.
Especially the amount of fructan should be a major concern in pasture management.
Under the influence of sunlight, a grass plant produces fructan which it uses to grow.
During frosts, it also protects the plant from freezing.
When it is still very cold at night and night frost occurs the grass hardly grows and fructan is not consumed.
Sunny spring days interspersed with night frosts are therefore dangerous times to have high fructan levels in grass.
Of course, other factors also play a role in grass fructan levels such as grass type and the availability of nutrients and moisture in the soil.
Overloaded, stressed plants produce more fructan than plants that have no problem surviving.
High levels of fructan are very stressful for any horse.
It has a considerable impact on healthy intestinal flora and gives rise to acidification of the colon.
Toxins from the intestinal wall can leak and enter the blood.
In sensitive horses, this increases the risk of laminitis or laminitis, a very painful condition caused by disrupted blood flow to the blood vessels in the lower foot.
So we must avoid ingesting a large amount of fructan in one go for our horse.
The same advice applies to all horses: switch carefully and give the bacterial populations in the gut time to adapt.
It is also of utmost importance to ensure that the soil conditions of your pasture are optimal.
In addition, it is highly recommended that you feed your horse a low-sugar roughage mix before it goes out to pasture.
Author: Hilde Vrancken
Veterinary specialist
