Horse care tips

In wet, mild weather, redworm larvae can travel up to three metres from a dropping in about five days. Keep up regular poo-picking when it's damp.

Before winter, put hardstanding around gateways, shelters and water troughs. It reduces poaching, and the bacteria behind mud fever live in wet soil.

Make sure horses living out can reach shelter, natural or man-made. Donkeys need a fully waterproof shelter.

Keep sweet-itch-prone horses away from standing water, soft mud, woodland and muck heaps — places midges breed. Breezy fields have fewer midges.

Gateways and troughs poach fast. Scraping out a semicircle about three horse-lengths wide and laying crushed stone pays off over winter; woodchip breaks down and can make it worse.

If a field has more than one gate, alternate which one you use so each gateway has a chance to dry out.

Sycamore seeds are poisonous to horses; field maple is safe. Sycamore 'helicopters' hang in a downward V, field maple wings are straight across.

Oak trees overhanging a paddock drop acorns in autumn, which can poison horses. Fence them off or clear them up.

Learn ragwort's stages: small seedlings appear in autumn, flat rosettes from early spring, and tall yellow-flowered plants from May to October.

Atypical myopathy peaks in autumn, when horses eat fallen sycamore seeds and leaves. Clear them from the paddock regularly — even fields without sycamores can have seeds blown in.

Where sycamore trees are close to the pasture, limit grazing to under six hours a day in the high-risk seasons.

Avoid harrowing paddocks with sycamore material in autumn — it spreads seeds and leaves across the field and has been linked to higher risk.

The sycamore toxin can pass into water. In high-risk seasons, avoid fields where horses drink from a stream or river, and provide another water supply.

Acorn fall increases after strong winds. Check fields with oaks after autumn storms and clear acorns, or fence off the area under the branches.

On a track system, spread hay along the track in small-holed nets and put it away from the water, so horses keep moving between resources.

Turning grass into a surfaced pen or track with hardcore or concrete may need permission from the landowner or local authority — check first.

Old dairy pastures are often perennial ryegrass, bred for milk production. Overseeding with timothy, cocksfoot or meadow fescues gives horses coarser, higher-fibre grazing.

Don't keep horses on sandy, overgrazed paddocks with little grass cover — eating sand off the ground risks sand colic.

Pick up droppings from the field at least twice a week. It removes worm eggs before larvae can spread onto the grass.

Harrowing spreads worm larvae across the whole paddock. Picking up droppings is the better way to keep worm levels down.

Rotate paddocks and rest them for several months when you can. Resting pasture gives worm larvae time to die off.

Cross-grazing with sheep or cattle helps break the worm cycle. They eat horse worm larvae, which can't survive in other species.

Dewormer residues harm dung beetles and aquatic life. Poo-pick daily after treating, and store that manure for at least four months before spreading.

Graze foals and youngstock on pasture rested from horses for as long as possible — ideally 12 months — and avoid using the same paddocks for them every year.

Only spread used bedding on pasture once it's well rotted down, so you're not spreading worm eggs back onto the grass.

Don't put the muck heap in the field. The grass around it grows lush and tempting, and grazing next to it greatly increases the worm burden.

Without regular poo-picking, horses create 'latrine' areas they won't graze, which turn into patches of rough grass and weeds.

A common guide is one acre per horse, plus one extra acre — so four horses need about five acres. Land type, breed and shelter all change the right figure.

Very short, over-grazed 'stubble' and weedy patches can be high in sugars — a problem for horses with metabolic conditions. Well-managed grass is safer.

Cross-grazing with sheep helps control weeds and worms. On wet or boggy land, ask your vet about testing horses for liver fluke, which sheep can pass on.

Never let anyone tip hedge or garden clippings into a horse field. Many garden plants, such as yew, laurel and privet, are poisonous to horses.

Ragwort damages the liver, and the effect builds up: small amounts over a long time are as harmful as a large amount at once.

Dead or dried ragwort is still poisonous, and is often eaten more readily. Check hay and haylage, and never leave pulled plants in the field.

Give each field its own water source if you can. Strangles bacteria can survive in water for several weeks.

Where your fields border another yard's horses, well-spaced double fencing stops nose-to-nose contact over the boundary.

Strip grazing? Use a back fence as well as a front one so the grazed strip can regrow, and make sure the horses can still reach water and shelter.

Never feed grass clippings to horses. Clippings are a known colic risk — keep mown grass well away from paddocks and ask neighbours not to tip them over the fence.

Grass growth surges in spring, including on paddocks recovering from winter. Restrict grazing for horses that are overweight or prone to laminitis.

Spring is the time to repair a poached field: harrow to aerate the soil and lift moss and dead grass, then roll to firm the soil around the roots.

Always poo-pick the whole field before harrowing — otherwise you spread worm larvae across the entire paddock.

Topping old, tough grass encourages fresh growth and can stop weeds seeding. If there's ragwort, remove every cut piece — it's more palatable once it dries.

If weeds need spraying, use a licensed contractor and follow the guidance on how long horses must stay off the pasture afterwards.

Test your soil before fertilising. A pH of about 6–6.5 is ideal, and the results show which nutrients actually need topping up.

If you fertilise horse paddocks, choose a lower-nitrogen product than farmers use. You want healthy roots and plants, not a flush of rich grass.

Walk your fences and hedges each spring looking for poisonous plants — yew, laurel, rhododendron, privet and laburnum are common garden and hedgerow culprits.

Hemlock looks like harmless cow parsley. Check the stem: hemlock has a round, hollow stem with purple streaks or spots.

Pull ragwort at the rosette stage, ideally after rain when the ground is soft. Get the whole root — it can regrow from fragments.

Ragwort seed can lie in the soil for years, so expect to pull plants every year. One plant can produce thousands of wind-blown seeds.

Sycamore seedlings in spring also carry the toxin that causes atypical myopathy. Mowing or spraying doesn't remove it — the seedlings need taking off the pasture.

Don't make hay or haylage from fields contaminated with sycamore seeds or seedlings — the toxin survives months of storage.

To reduce grass sickness risk: avoid disturbing the soil, don't graze fields down to bare earth, avoid sudden diet changes and provide extra forage.