posted 09-01-2003 02:01 PM         

It is an Old World grass brought to America from Europe years ago. It was hoped that the grass would kill off voles in KY because they kept killing the regular grass by eating the seeds.

The grass was first tested in New Zealand before it came here and even though a lot of herd animals, like horses and cows, had health problems, like foundering, it was brought to the U.S. anyway. It never did help get rid of the vole population by the way, but many other animals have suffered and died.

My mom lost her 3 horses to this grass in April and has recently discovered the fetscue grass to be the highly probable cause. My mom took very special care of her horses, giving them vitamins and suppliments that the rednecks here would only scoff and laugh at. The grass is the only possible cause.

A nieghbor moved in not too long ago and we think he discovered about the grass too. One of his horses foundered and the next day he had plowed up the entire pasture and planted grass seed. Unfortuantly the fetscue grass is hard to make go away, if that's even possible.

My mom found all her information on the 'Net. Kentucky is supposed to be the main place the grass was grown. I'm not sure of the spelling of the fetscue grass's name, but if it's incorrect try playing with it in the Search Engine box.

Just thought I'd warn other horse-owners about this. Thank you for your time. If anyone would like to write to me, you can at Matthais@webtv.net.