GRASS ALERT

My husband was trimming limbs in the backyard last week: a red oak, magnolia, two oleander bushes and honeysuckle vines. Okay, by "trimming" he totally took out the honesuckle, leaving these two huge stumps with fat arms sticking out of the ground.

So I'm checking email when Big Guy comes in and asks me to find out if the honeysuckle or magnolia will hurt our horses. He wants to throw the limbs and leaves in their pasture. Good question. As anyone knows who researches the interwebs, answering a question can take hours and hours...not to mention the differing opinions one enounters. I never discovered if honeysuckle or magnolia is a problem.

I did find something, however, that is extremely disturbing: a woman from New Braunfels, TX writes that rye grass is poisonous to horses. Beautiful. Last fall I planted rye grass for Blaze and Star in their pasture: raking a 30' x 20' plot by hand; sowing seeds like pioneer women did, by hand; watering thrice-weekly by ... well, you know. The horses wintered on it since October, and love it. Nice to know I'm slowly poisoning them.

She also said red clover and fescue are poisonous to horses. The week before, I'm looking at a 50-pound sack of what was labeled "pasture seed for horses". Some of the varieties: rye, red clover and fescue!

This can only mean one thing: Tractor Supply is spearheading the equine-killing movement.
Now, it's gonna take more than the New Braunfels lady and me to stop this vast anti-horse conspiracy. We need all you horse lovers to unite. Any grass in your pasture is your horse's mortal enemy! Stop the grass madness now! Terminate all pasture feeding; you'll need to convert to a new regimen as soon as possible.

I can get you a sweet deal on honeysuckle and magnolia.