Update on the boy

Thank goodness for him and for me - he was in the round pen all day and relatively calm - I caught him easily with the freak out and he led nicely. I let him have some old long grass for 30 minutes while I barrowed six loads of peelings into the pen....

My Parelli friends have been so kind and helpful and led me to adding more salt which really does seem to be working.... thanks everyone....

Here's an except from Jenny Paterson's Website


Potassium in the grass.

Potassium is involved in cell division so it is always in the tips of growing grass. Rye Grass, Clover and Lucerne are normally 3-4% potassium. This can easily double when fertilisers are applied to enhance growth, especially potash (potassium), urea, superphosphate and nitrogen.

Horses consume approximately 2% of their body weight per day, therefore a 500Kg horse can consume 10Kgs of pasture/day meaning they can consume 300-400g of potassium/day. Their daily requirement is around 25g (up to 40 or 50 when in heavy work). At the same time, as grass gets high in potassium it is extremely LOW in sodium (0.02%). The same 10Kgs of pasture yields a mere 2g of sodium.

On actively growing pasture the horse is consuming too much potassium and too little sodium.

As potassium is always in the tips, short grass and grass just a few inches long may contain the same levels of potassium.

All the literature states that too much potassium is rarely a problem when the kidneys are functioning normally as any excess is excreted in urine, BUT:

1. Horses on green, growing pasture are flooded in potassium (hundreds of grams) at the same time...
2. As sodium levels are grossly inadequate (approx 2g).+6