Sycamore Dangers!

So how did everyone spend their weekend?

Mine was spent on my hands and knees searching for the infamous sycamore saplings, which have recently been linked to Atypical Myopathy.

Last week we had news that a girl at the neighbouring stables had lost both her horses to atypical myopathy after moving them to their summer grazing. I`ve heard of a couple more cases in Hampshire, which is scary as it is usually the autumn when horses are at risk.

Personally I`ve had hands on experience of this awful disease – https://therubbercurrycomb.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/atypical-myopathy/ – and would never wish it on my worst enemy.

So why is there such a high risk of atypical myopathy at this time of year? The vets say that there was a high crop of sycamore seeds last autumn and the high winds through the winter spread the seeds far and wide. The mild, wet winter then allowed many seeds to germinate and grow into little saplings, some of which have the fungus which causes atypical myopathy on.

Once we knew that atypical myopathy had struck so close to home my field family had a confabulation as to the course of action. We are particularly concerned as our field is surrounded on two sides by woods, and the majority of those trees are sycamores. Through the winter we have been careful to feed hay from builders sacks on the fenceline, as opposed to the ground to reduce the risk of ingesting seeds. The woods side of the field has been closely grazed and we are waiting until we stop feeding hay to move the horses to the rested half. The boss of the field (he loves organising the hay delivery and fertilising etc) and his partner spent a couple of hours at the end of last week weeding out sycamore saplings from the grazed side of the field. We think we have got the majority of them out, and have decided to continue feeding hay so that the horses are not hungry. After all, horses will eat the nicest food first, and only when hungry will they try and eat the saplings. Unless of course they accidentally ingest them, which could happen with longer grass.

On Monday evening five of us went to the rested half of the field and worked our way along it in lines, throughly weeding out the sycamores. 90 minutes later we had done half of the area, i.e. a quarter of the field. So what`s next?

Panic, really I guess. We, along with the rest of the livery yard have requested to move fields temporarily. The only problem is that sycamores cover the whole estate so all the fields are affected to a certain extent. We could stable the horses 24/7, but that doesn`t remove the problem of the sycamores, and I don`t think many people have the time to care for a horse living in all the time. Plus, what about those people who don`t have stables?

The field boss is also researching suitable weedkiller, but it seems it is an unusual request to the farms suppliers.

I am trying to stable the horses as much as possible, and ensuring they have full tummies so will not scrounge and graze the ground too closely. Whilst also keeping my fingers and toes crossed.