Horse Care Article
Protecting Your Horse From Ragwort Poisoning
There are many articles about the danger to horses and other livestock from ragwort - they all confirm one thing - we need to eradicate it from grazing land.
This pretty wild flower is a dangerous and poisonous weed, which probably kills thousands of horses every year. The poisoning is gradual and once noticeable symptoms appear, the liver will already be irreparably damaged.
An average plant produces more than 150,000 seeds, which then take up to 2 years to grow and can lay dormant for up to 20 years.
The earlier a plant is destroyed the better. First seedlings will appear from March, gradually growing into cabbage-like rosettes. Two year old plants will produce masses of yellow star shaped flowers from May, which will ripen and shed their seeds by September. Waiting until the flowers have formed to remove the plants increases the risk of spreading seedlings year by year.
Every part of the plant is poisonous to your horse and even the smallest amount ingested will be converted into toxins, which then multiply and spread, causing damage to the liver, lungs, kidneys and brain.
If there is plenty of grass and your horse is a selective grazer it may avoid eating living ragwort plants, though many will accidentally eat some. Dying or dead ragwort however becomes more palatable and is more likely to be eaten, so it is essential that the whole plant is removed and burned. A "Rag-Fork" is the most effective way to remove the plants, which have fibrous roots and take a firm hold.
Buy your hay and haylage from a reputable source and ensure that comes from pasture free from ragwort.
Ragwort is also poisonous to humans and you should wear rubber gloves when handling it. It is even advisable to wear a mask to prevent inhaling the tiny seeds.
There is a lot of research being undertaken into how the toxins are formed once ingested and how they can be detected before a horse dies from the poisoning.
It is now illegal for landowners to allow ragwort to spread to grazing land by failing to control it.
For more information or to complain about ragwort visit www.defra.gov.uk
Nancy Griffiths
2006