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The Green, Green Grass of Rome

Thought I'd share a few more grass shots from our place
on the outskirts of Rome, NY. Stella and Ally were grazing
the inner field this morning while Jewel remained out on the dirt turnout track.

Yesterday's chore was mowing the top half of the field to
prevent it from becoming a home for too many biting,
stinging insects. Mowing also keeps the grass on this
former hay field soft and palatable through the summer
instead of turning woody and brown.

Our Paddock Paradise Turnout Track (shall we call it
PPTT?) is doing wonders for my three horses, but most
notably for Jewel, the chestnut insulin-resistant (IR) Haf-
linger. I have to admit that I must be the soft touch around
here, because when my husband looked after the horses
for a month, I came home to find that Jewel had lost some
of her belly fat, and that camel-hump crest of hers was soft (indicating a healthy low amount of sugar in her diet). I was surprised because this is the time of year for the grass to rocket skyward, and I was afraid that Jewel's sugar levels would also reach to the sky with access to nearly a mile of fence line grass surrounding the PPTT.



(See Safergrass.org for more information on safe grazing, and the Equine Cushings yahoo group for more about
controlling IR.)

In addition to reducing her small serving of Triple Crown Lite pellets even further, it seems that our hay was part of
the problem. Despite the fact that it had tested low sugar (8.5) in the lab analysis, it was still rinsing frothy. While I
was away, we ran out of that hay and Jewel's hay ration was replaced with increased ODTB hay cubes and what-
ever grass she could find alongside the track. Great work, Dave. :-)

JoAnn Johnson
May 20, 2009

Ally loves her Cashel Crusader mask. It even prevents sunburned nose.

Jewel strikes a pose, Tangled Manes style!