Unfortunately, many pastures do not have as many different types of grass and herbs. The biodiversity of the average horse pasture has decreased significantly in recent years. While all these different plants are so healthy. A wild horse chooses the herbs that it needs, for example because they contain many vitamins or minerals.

Create your own herbal field for your horse

A fun way to offer your horse some more variety in roughage is by creating an herb garden. It can be done in or next to the paddock or the pasture. Marloes Vogel from Ukie's Paddock Paradise explains: "In order to offer our horses and ponies more variety, I have put together my own seed mix. It contains 12 different species of plants that you can sow in the field itself, in a strip alongside it, or in a vegetable garden box. It is good for varying your horse's diet and also good for biodiversity. You also help important pollinating insects, such as bees and bumblebees.

What goes into an edible herbal field for your horse?

All the plants in Ukie's seed mix are of course edible for horses. In fact, they often find them very tasty! Marloes: "The bag contains seeds of: fennel, yarrow, wild carrot, narrow plantain, sainfoin, caraway, chicory, alfalfa, chamomile, dill, salad burnet, and red fescue. Most of these plants are perennial, so you will enjoy them for years! The flowers also look very beautiful."

How to make an herb garden for your horse?

"You can sow the herb mix between April and September, in a container, next to the paddock, or in the pasture. Because horses often pull on plants with their teeth, it is wise to fence off young plants with a separate wire until the roots are deep enough. To enjoy the flowers for as long as possible, you can sow next to the paddock and cut off a few flowers or leaves a few times a week and feed them to your horse. This way you ensure more variety in the diet and discover which flowers and herbs your horse likes," Marloes explains.

Tip

You can also follow Marloes on Instagram for useful tips on your herb garden and creating a Paddock Paradise. Highly recommended because she shares super fun tips & tricks!

Source:

Cosyns, Eric & Degezelle, Tine & Demeulenaere, Else & Hoffmann, Maurice. (2001). Feeding ecology of Konik horses and donkeys in Belgian coastal dunes and its implication for nature management. Belgian Journal of Zoology. 131.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242600674_Feeding_ecology_of_Konik_horses_and_donkeys_in_Belgian_coastal_dunes_and_its_implication_for_nature_management