too much clover?

[the funny farm6615]

we bought 2 acers of pasture joining our dry lot for our horses. we have been leting them out for longer peiriods of time durring the day. but there is a lot of clover and they have been slobering a lot, i was told it was the clover and they would be ok. i would like to be able to leave them out there, but should i? thanks. and we and some friends checked for poisonous plants and there are none.

 

[ksalvagno]

I know a lot of clover can make alpacas slobber but not sure about horses. It doesn't hurt the alpacas, just looks bad.

 

[ducks4you]

Sure does!! MINE eat a lot of clover and slobber a lot, too.

 

[freemotion]

The culprit is usually red clover. Do they stand there and drool? If so, I'd tend to back them off a bit. Mow the taller red clover before it goes to seed to reduce it a bit if possible. Just thinking out loud.

 

[patandchickens]

It's from an endophytic fungus that affects clovers, not from the clover itself. (Which is why some peoples' horses DO get clover slobbers, and others' DON'T -- depends on whether the endophyte is preesent in their pastures)

It's 100% harmless. Just gross and obviously it increases their water consumption a little bit.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[LauraM]

It's from an endophytic fungus that affects clovers, not from the clover itself. (Which is why some peoples' horses DO get clover slobbers, and others' DON'T -- depends on whether the endophyte is preesent in their pastures)

It's 100% harmless. Just gross and obviously it increases their water consumption a little bit.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

Yes, that's it exactly. Won't hurt the horses.....they may drink more.


But I can't tell you how many clients call me up in a panic telling me their horses are "throwing up."

 

[the funny farm6615]

mowed the clover patches and turned them back out, no slobering today! and yes it was gross, my 2 year old loves to put her head on my shoulder, and then, slimed and not just once! yuck.

 

[goodhors]

We mow our fields regularly, when the growth is over 8 inches tall. This allows new growth in the roots instead of all in height that is dried out. Horses like the new growth best, will ignore the tall stuff and regraze the short patches until they are dirt.

As mentioned, the fungus grows well in clover patches. So regular mowing allows better air flow to dry out the clover and prevent the wet enviornment fungus needs to survive.

With the slobbers, you do need to get animals off the clover, let their system straightened up again.

And Clover poisoning as it is called, can cause skin problems in sunshine, photosensitivity. White parts on the horse will start oozing serum. Not going to hurt the horse really, but the animal can sunburn and the oozing just does not stop unless you go to night turnout. Can be treated with applying diaper cream, or any zinc oxide product that blocks sun on the skin. Most folks don't want to do that daily, so a horse with the problem can be an issue in resale.

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/212214.htm&word=clover,poison

Photosensitivity

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/info_alsike_clover.htm

You might want to split your acreage, have two or more grazing areas. This will let one rest after mowing, regrow, while the another part is grazed. Horses have those favorite places, so they ignore other areas to regraze the short stuff. You get better, more even grazing in smaller areas that are mowed and rotated often. They never will graze the potty area, so you need to cut it short and drag or rake apart the poops.

 

[patandchickens]

I've never noticed any visible correlation between clover slobbers and clover-cause photosensitization. I believe they are two separate things? (Many other plants can cause photosensitization too, st johns wort being a very common offender)

Alsike clover (specifically), which is what the second of the two links above is about, should probably be discouraged in horse pastures, as it can cause poisoning per se not just photodermatitis. Also can be a problem in hay. Should learn to recognize it.

Pat

 

[goodhors]

I've never noticed any visible correlation between clover slobbers and clover-cause photosensitization.
Pat

I wrote incorrectly, because both the clovers have the pink/red flowers that are easily confused. You have to look at them hard to ID each kind. BOTH types can cause the liver problems if clovers are too big a part of the diet. Scroll down to find information on both types and how to ID each plant.

http://www.horse-previews.com/0805articles/WSU_commonplantsaretoxic.html

Red clover is the source for slobbers.

Alsike has pink flowers and is the culprit for photo sensitivity.
When the horse does get sensitized, the problem is for the rest of their life. Have seen a couple of horses that got sensitized in 4-H, where the kids had to deal with the oozy stuff to be presentable in horse showing. Luckily for the kids I knew, horses had minimal white markings to keep covered in the zinc oxide so they were not crusted or getting sunburned. One ankle sock and a snip, the other had a skinny blaze and both front socks. The pink skin parts were what got sensitized, black skin was fine.

Just would hate to see the problem happen again if it can be avoided.