Capeweed is a terrible weed for horses which, if too much is eaten, can cause magnesium deficiency and THAT can lead to abnormally nervous horses and even to stringhalt. Put the word stringhalt in the “search this site” above and get all the blogs that I have written about that condition and how to fix it.
Capeweed is usually a simple result of overgrazing – having our horse in too small an area, having too many horses in too small an area, of not resting the land so that the grass can recover sufficiently with good deep root systems and resistance to heat and dry weather, spraying to kill other weeds and leaving the earth bare. All these things will create the conditions in which capeweed will flourish.
The earth needs to cover herself – otherwise the soil itself blows away or washes away in the rain – and capeweed is one of the earth’s last ditch attempts to get the earth covered by something that will keep the soil there.
Capeweed is actually a very useful weed from the earth’s point of view. Have a look under the leaf of the capeweed and see how there is usually dampness underneath there. Its leaves lift their little arms to the sky for the night, so that all the dew can get access to the ground and then the sun comes out in the daytime and the leaves lie flat on the ground to keep that moisture in. It’s roots go deep into the ground so that it survives the toughest conditions.
How very clever of Mother Nature – as she so often is.
So spraying it with poisons to get rid of it is SUCH a waste of money and environmentally not a good deal either. When we kill the capeweed, the earth still has to keep itself covered – which is why it will so often come back or some other even nastier weed can come instead and you’re just left with the toxicity of that poison both in the ground and in whatever is grown on that ground and then in your horse too, causing God knows what symptoms further down the track.
So what to do? Here are some effective options:
-
- Sprinkle the capeweed LIGHTLY with dolomite. That will take care of the majority of the toxicity of the capeweed for the horses, provided that you have other feed for the horse – either other grass so they don’t have to eat it for hunger or access to a well dried, good quality hay 24 hours a day. Dolomite is cheap, specially in the bigger bags from the produce stores.
-
- You can feed the horse dolomite in their feed but this is NOT a long term fix, you are much better off and it is more effective to treat the land itself.
-
- At certain times of the year when capeweed can really cause a big magnesium deficiency, then you can add magnesium to the horses diet. Put the word “magnesium” in the search this site box at the top of the page and see where I and others have written the different types and dosages that we have used.
- Rest the area where possible. This is actually the best option, both for your horse, environmentally and from the point of view of eliminating the capeweed. There is an article here on my website about a way to manage our horse’s grazing that reduces weeds like capeweed and dockweed quite quickly. We’ve been here three years and already the capeweed and dockweed is gone in those paddocks where we are able to give the right kind of management. This is an even cheaper option than dolomiting.
-
- We can dig the capeweed at the right time of the year for planting new grass and seed the area with new grass. In this instance, we have to protect that grass seed from grazing until it has significant root growth, so that is not always an option for many people because you have to keep the horses away from the grass while it gets strong enough to get walked on and chewed at.
- We can mow the capeweed at the right time of the year for new grass growth and plant new fast growing pasture seed varieties. For this option to work, you often have to mow the capeweed a few times and stop mowing just before the new grass gets long enough to be adversely affected by the mower.
You can probably see from this blog that in my opinion, resting the land is the best option for eliminating capeweed. If you can’t do that, treatment of the land with dolomite is the next best option, followed by treatment of the horse to compensate for the eating of capeweed.
I write this blog for two reasons. I enjoy sharing the information I have learned over many years as a therapist, noticing the damage caused by some drugs and pesticides and herbicides and it also gives me the opportunity to spread my free horse lessons around. Every horse and rider connected more deeply to each other, makes the world a better place for both humans and horses.
If you haven’t got my FREE LESSONS The Nine Keys to Happiness with Your Horse yet, then you’ll find them at the top of the Training Programs page here.
My wife and I, here in Prunedale, California, have been battling Capeweed on our 3-acre property for 5 or 6 years now , a little after learning about this “new” invasive weed. We have been digging the plants out after learning about this menace to out 5 Gypsy’s, and have been laying out plastic tarps where the weed is taking over. Gusty winds in the winter are a problem, but. We’ve had some success, though you have to stay vigilant. We are trying to educate folks about our “new” weed problem, as we educate ourselves. Apparently Capeweed is used in forested areas, after forest fires, to protect soils…
G’day Bill. 🙂 I wonder if you might find it useful to think of why the earth has put capeweed in such abundance on your farm? i.e. the soil protection aspect that you’ve already discovered for yourself? How might you protect the soil form blowing away, how could you maybe rotate your grazing (which solved my capeweed problem here) or what could you plant that would protect the soil from blowing away or getting washed away in the rain, that would negate the need for the earth to grow capeweed?
Hi when you say put dolomite on cape weed are you referring to dolomite lime or dolomite powder. Where would I buy it from garden supplies or fodder store?
As far as I know, they’re both pretty much the same thing. Our feed store supplies one called Coopers dolomite which has 2 parts calcium to one part magnesium – that’s the one that Pat Coleby recommended. Pat was the guru of mineralising and is responsible for the good health of vast amounts of what has become common practice in Australia. I’ve bought mine from the garden store to throw in the water when I couldn’t get the Coopers.
I have a pony that’s been in a paddock with cape weed and not a lot of grass. He now looks & walks ( very slowly) like he’s on some kind of drug. I open the stable door & he won’t move, like there is a disconnect with his legs and brain. I have to lock him up in spring & have now realised the cape weed has really affected him. Are these symptoms short term & will feeding magnesium help?
I feed him once a day
That’s some big questions Carolyn and the answers will depend on knowing a lot more information. How long is he locked up for at a time? i.e. is he off the grass for just a few weeks or longer? How much and what kind of exercise is he getting while he’s locked up? When he does move, are his hind legs lifting a little higher than usual, kind of jerky looking? If he knew how to back up before, if you ask him politely and wait for his response, can he back up now? If there’s a chronic muscular problem caused by the imbalance of magnesium, then he’ll need some muscle work to recover as well as the magnesium being brought back into balance.
Please note though, that just stuffing him full of magnesium could do more harm than good. It needs to be RIGHT amount of magnesium, otherwise you’ll throw his calcium out as well.
Short answer, I need more info for a good answer AND you need help to get his specific needs to get the best result AND it sounds recoverable to me.
Hi,
Is the dry Capeweed as bad as when it is fresh?
my horse will not eat it fresh but loves it when it is dry in Summer and he does get very nervous at that time of the year!! I already feed magnesium but will increase it until I can eradicate the Capeweed. Thanks for all the comments – very interesting. Kay
My horses used to be more nervous in spring time on the fresher capeweed and mine just about disappears in summer? And you’re welcome.
It is summer here in Tasmania at the moment. and I am on the digging frenzy of Cape weed in our Paddock. Thanks for the blog about Liming, I might do that after I cleared all the cape weed so that the ground will recover as some of the patch of Cape weed has no other grass on them at all, once I dig the cape weed the ground is bare nothing at all . Luckily we always supplement all our horses with Magnesium because we have a case of Stringhalt few years back and since then we always supplement our horses with Magnesium.
If you dig up all the capeweed you might find some more difficult weeds popping up – that’s the way the Earth seems to work. At this time of the year you won’t get any grass to take, so it WILL be weeds that will pop up to cover the earth. A friend of mine next door got a lot of barley grass which I think is worse than capeweed for horses. So if I was you I would dolomite the paddock with a sprinkle over the capeweed and relax from the frenzy… And magnesium all year round is probably not a great idea either. It needs to balance with the calcium and it’s spring and autumn those early rains are the worst time to need it and occasionally after a much needed summer rain. Do you know how to use a pendulum? Or do you put the magnesium in a separate source of water so that they can drink it when they need it only?
Interesting. I sprayed for Capeweed a few years ago and then following the long dry and recent rains, it has again come up in abundance! I have sprayed it again (reluctantly) this year, as it was completely covering the ground with no sign of new grass anywhere! I did not spray the sacrifice area the horses are currently on and am feeding them hay. I did note that one of them was extremely excitable and nervy recently so I am concerned about magnesium deficiency and/or ryegrass staggers! I will sprinkle some dolomite over the Capeweed patches. It is raining here at present. Would it be ok to do it now or wait for a dry day?
Getting the dolomite rained in is excellent… 🙂
Thanks very much. Will go and spread some now. Will be a good control area!
Hi thinking of liming can i leave horses on? Also thinking of using volcanic fert form fertag but need to look into that abit more got any thoughts it would be very appreciated thanks Janet
No idea about lime and horses eating recently limed grass Janet – Google it! 🙂 We feed DOLOMITE to horses for their benefit, so you would expect having a small amount of DOLOMITE on the grass would be fine. I rotate my paddocks so would never have to have horses on something recently dressed with anything. As you’re aware (cos’ I know your story) putting anything on the grass – specially fertilizer – and having the horses on it, can cause incredibly terrible effects. If you were willing to share your story, I would do a blog about it. Everyone should be warned about the dangers of fertilizing a horses paddock and leaving them on it. So write a bit of a story, email it to me and don’t worry, I’ll put it into my style. 🙂 You could even include a lovely picture of Christopher if you can. It would be good to share and save some other people from going through what you went through.
Thankyou Jennya , Very interesting , I have some bad patches of cape weed , and remembered Peter Andrews mowing weeds turning them back into nutrients and mulch so decided to use my little ride mower as a tractor and mowed down enormous clumps of cape weed , will do it earlier this year .. Was tempted to spray but after reading your article Thankyou for that) Have decided to go back to natural. I think where I mowed last year is a little less cape weed . So will keep you posted.
Peter Andrews – what a star the man is… I do native pasture regeneration and carbon sequestering via pasture management as a micro management of his big picture mega herd theory with my horses grazing and their health is much improved in what is usually rich dairy country. Yes please, keep us posted with your progress.
We have 2 lowlines cows who have significantly reduced our cape weed. They live it. Before cows we would mow heavily infested patches before they flowered and mulch. We also feed weed free large squares, we lay them out and Smithers the weeds. They get churned in and then over seeded by the hay. We’ve been doing this for 2 years and the improvement us significant. I did lots of research 15 years ago when my Andy got string halt. We sprayed and eradicated then but now we are certified organic and are trying other methods.
Excellent comment Nina – is a great way to change the composition of the soil so that the weeds change to useful feed, without the need for any chemicals. Less work, costs less money and healthier for us and our animals too. Well done!