I am trying to walk as much as possible. The theory is that I will walk my spinal pain into submission.
So, after going for a very quiet ride on Haakon with Daisy and Iacs, I followed up by a walk. For company, Flossie and Klængur came along too.
And BeAnne, obviously.
We walked along my usual route – the road to the cattle grid and back.
Haakon was with me.
I thought I would see if Klængur liked thistles, or fistles as we call them. Haakon adores these prickly plants. They are a delicacy to him and on the way home, he always drags me off to find them on the side of the road.
He eats them right back to the root.
After little encouragement, Klængur found he liked thistles too.
Klængur took huge mouthfuls around the whole plant like it was boiling hot or a whole chilli.
Flossie likened it to eating a pop-tart hot from the toaster (an unknown concept to me).
I am sure thistles are good for the horses. They would’nt ask to eat them if they didn’t want to. It is odd, however, but at no other time of the year do my horses bother to eat them.
After we had stopped for every thistle on the side of the road, we wended our way home.
PS All the thistles at Leradale have been ripped out and eaten too. Most odd. Maybe it is an Icelandic horse thing.
My Arab Pico loved thistles. I used to call him Eeyore for it. He’d curl his lips way back from his teeth and nip off bits of thistle and chew them up making sure not to poke himself in the lips.
Good to know we are not alone! Xx
Otto adores thistles too, but only in the autumn and winter. He’s been known to dig up the roots to eat once they have died back. Dead thistles are a special delicacy to him.
I wonder what it is? What do they love about them?
My pony curls her lips back and tucks in to “fistles” too. As you say they wouldn’t eat them if they weren’t tasty. Fab photos too. Let’s hope you can beat that spinal pain into submission.
dumb question. What is a cattle grid? in the several years i have been following your blog I don’t recall ever seeing any photos of cows. Also, I hope the regular walking helps with the pain.
A cattle grid is a metal grid across the whole road with boundary fences either side to stop animals (in our case sheep) from wandering in or out.
Prickly salad
But these thistles….aren’t they sharp and don’t they hurt their tongues and mouths when they eat them? Amazing. When my back goes out, the last thing I do is a lot of walking….I lie on ice pads a lot and that helps me. Glad your walking and riding works for you!
Funny post about fistles! Humans eat artichokes, which are a type of thistle. We love them! The best ones grow on the coast of Northern California (perfect soil/climate).
I wonder if your kind are also edible (by humans). Keep walking! (it helps my back too)