Is White Clover Ok For Horses?

When used as a feed source, clover can provide your horses with sufficient protein, energy, and fiber to help meet their daily requirements. The three varieties that will most commonly grow in your horse’s pastures are red clover, white clover, and alsike clover.

What is the best clover for horses?

Common white clover and Ladino white clover are the most popular legumes for horse pastures. Although alfalfa is commonly recommended, it is seldom found in pasture mixes. Red clover is also commonly recommended but most horse owners avoid it because it can cause the slobbers.

Can horses have clover?

Clover in moderate amounts brings benefit to the health of any pasture as clover is a nitrogen-fixing plant, and when consumed in appropriate amounts, clover can be a valuable nutrient for the horse.

Are white clovers poisonous?

Summary: The common weed known as white clover releases toxic cyanide when its leaf tissues are damaged.

Can horses founder on clover?

There is no fructan in warm-season grasses, yet horses can still founder on them. Since the same environmental conditions that create high fructan concentrations also increase sugar and starch levels, it’s best to just limit all NSCs.

Which is better red clover or white clover?

Red clover tends to fix more nitrogen than white Dutch clover does, so it can better fertilize your soil for other grasses. The more nitrogen clover fixes, the healthier your lawn will be — with no synthetic fertilizer needed.

Can horses get clover poisoning?

Horses show the photosensitization syndrome with short-term exposure, while liver damage and enlargement is usually associated with long-term exposure. This problem has occurred mainly in horses and, occasionally, in cattle. There is also a potential for nitrate poisoning with alsike clover (2).

Is white clover toxic to livestock?

Sweet clover contains a high level of a chemical that can be converted to an anticoagulant. Improperly curing hay made from certain sweet clover varieties such as white and yellow sweet clover can cause severe and often fatal hemorrhages in livestock such as cattle, sheep and goats.

Does clover cause liver damage in horses?

When mold-infected clovers are ingested by horses, photosensitivity (sunburn) and liver damage can occur. Sunburn of non-pigmented skin, and also discharge of the mucous membranes of the mouth, eyes, and vulva, are often the first noticeable signs.

Is red and white clover poisonous to horses?

Alsike clover, in either hay or pasture form, is poisonous to horses. It can trigger a severe skin reaction to sunlight or it can kill horses within 24 hours of exposure.

What animals eat white clover?

White clover is eaten by wild animals such as squirrels and bears, as well as domestic animals such as deer, cattle, horses, sheep, and goats.

Should I cut white clover?

Clover lawns do need to be mowed if grown with traditional lawn grass, and timing of mowing is important. If you prefer to control blooming and grass height mowing may be necessary as much as weekly. Grass stains usually are not from grass, they are from clover.

What is the difference between white clover and white Dutch clover?

The term “white Dutch clover” refers to intermediately-sized varieties of white clover, larger than wild white clover but smaller than Ladino clover. Because white Dutch clover is a highly common variety of white clover, some experts use the terms interchangeably.

Can clover cause laminitis in horses?

Clover and alfalfa are dangerous for horses who are susceptible to laminitis. True. Clover and alfalfa contain relatively high levels of sugars and starch, both in pasture and as part of hay. These nutrients can start the chain of events that leads to digestive laminitis.

Is white clover high in sugar?

Clover can be very high in sugar and starch and is not a good forage for horses with EMS. Thick, properly fertilized grass will keep clover from taking over.

Can clover cause gas colic in horses?

Long-term exposure to the alsike clover may lead to big liver syndrome, which is the progressive destruction of the liver. Symptoms of liver failure due to alsike clover consumption include loss of appetite, weight loss, depression, jaundice, colic and death.

What clover is best for hay?

Red clover
Red clover is effective as a pasture legume and for hay. It can withstand more shading in the seedling stage than most other legumes, making it easy to establish in grass sods.

Does white clover fix nitrogen?

Nitrogen fixation is one of many economically important features of clover, particularly when clover represents a substantial proportion of available forage. A vigorous stand of white clover will fix 100-150 pounds of nitrogen per year depending on soil and growing conditions (Table 3).

Is white clover toxic to dogs?

A: All clovers have been noted as being potentially poisonous to pets if they constantly graze. Chemicals used on grass are also harmful.

Why do horses not eat clover?

The liver is damaged by substances called alkaloids contained in the clover. The damage results in the toxic metabolites of plant ingestion being deposited in the skin.

Can clover cause laminitis?

Try to reduce the amount of clover in your sward year on year. This very early season high sugar grass can easily set off laminitis in sensitive animals due to the effect that is has on blood glucose and therefore circulating insulin levels.