Does anyone have experience with alkali on their
property?Is it toxic to horses?
We just bought a boarding facility in south eastern Colorado and there
is a large pasture with a year round stream behind the main facilities.None of the boarder horses have access,
but the previous owner put her horses on it and never fed or watered them, just
expecting them to eat the grass and drink the water in the pasture.We just got the fencing in decent shape and
wanted to let our horses down.I
took my mare, who is a fanatic eater and drinker and she ate a few bites of
grass, but would not drink the water – even after racing around for a
couple hours and really wanting to drink.And really didn’t seem interested in the grass – she’d
sniff and walk on.
It is a little smelly, there are also some little standing
pools where the water isn’t flowing as well, which contributes
to the smell, but there is a lot of fast flowing water too.And there is a lot of alkali as well.
So I am worried that it might be bad for the horses to eat
the grass or drink the water.Or
that it might also be bad against their skin since the area is fairly wet.I have one horse prone to scratches so I
probably won’t even let him out there until we can do some rerouting of
the water so that some areas can dry out for better grazing, but maybe should
shouldn’t be near it at all?
Any experience out there?I know the previous owner kept her
horses down there year round (and didn’t even feed hay in the
winter.)I saw lots of alkali
growing up on the western slope in Colorado and know
some farmers would put onions in fields to neutralize it.Not sure this is really an option, but
if there is something reasonable to get rid of it, I’d be interested.
