# Stinging Nettle??



## RedTree (Jan 20, 2010)

Okay I had a kinda scare with them, I saw them in my friends ponys paddock and got kinda worried, i had never seen them before so I went over to them and took a pic and accidently touched it and by golly it hurt for a bit it fel t like an ant bite. So of course when I got home googled it  and I came across some sites that said it was beneficial???? Could anyone enlighten me to this fact
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## mbender (Jul 22, 2009)

Beneficial/????? I had to clear out a bunch of weeds this last weekend and they are all over in there. So wouldnt ya know it, got stung. Feels so nice!  Here's a fun fact: they sting! And it hurts and itches! I havent looked up why they would be beneficial so I dont know.


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## twogeldings (Aug 11, 2008)

All three of my horses stuck there noses in stinging nettle (monkey see, monkey do, I swear). They had some irritation for a day or two, but some ointment on those cute noses cleared it right up. The worst was my mare though, she then went and rubbed her nose so it got even more irritated and scabbed over. My guess was that they where all grazing in the same area and ran into a patch. Ouch! I bumped into it once, thought I had found a bee hive.

Nettles especially love poultry dropping soil, the place where I keep my horses has quite a few chickens :lol: Nettles are apparently used in making fertilizer or something along those lines. The ones here seem especially nasty. I got stung by a wasp and first I thought it was nettles!


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

Grrr, I hate them! :-x

Went trail riding 2 weekends ago and we got into a huge patch of them.

Not only did we 3 riders get stung and ripped apart multiple times, so did our horses. Ugh!

You can eat stinging nettle leaves. They're supposed to be very nutritious when put in soup.


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## MaggiStar (Mar 19, 2010)

Im curious as to where you live that you dont have nettles i thought everywhere had them???

Nettle soup is very good for you and nettle tea


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## waterbuggies (Jun 9, 2009)

The only benefit I can think of is, your getting excerise when your out trying to get rid of them.  
They bite, hurt, and sometimes hard to kill, so I cant see them being more benefical to leave them and let them bite me, I have more benefit not worrying about being out in flipflops and getting bit by them.
Yes, I wear my flipflops in the pasture, just be glad I'm not barefoot. I'm a farm girl and wore shoes when I had to school and church.


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## tealamutt (Aug 21, 2009)

my silly horse loves to eat nettles, he thinks their delicious. Weirdo. Fun fact: if you have bracken ferns with spores on the underside of the leaves you can rub the spores on stinging nettle stings and it takes the itch and burn right out of them!


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Wealden Times | Food & Drink | Stinging nettles

I guess we must be a weird area. If we have nettles, I have never seen them in 20 years of riding every trail and pasture within about 15 miles of my house. I don't even think we have poison ivy/oak around here either :?.


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

smrobs, I guess you're lucky.

Not only do we have stinging nettles, but we have bull thistles, poison oak _and_ poison ivy. :-x


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## BitlessForHappiness (Sep 17, 2010)

tealamutt said:


> my silly horse loves to eat nettles, he thinks their delicious. Weirdo. Fun fact: if you have bracken ferns with spores on the underside of the leaves you can rub the spores on stinging nettle stings and it takes the itch and burn right out of them!


I am definitely going to use that trick!!! You rule!


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## Arksly (Mar 13, 2010)

Ugh! I can't stand stinging nettle! And when I get stung the whole area swells! It's all over the pasture, some of them are taller than me (I'm 5'4")! It's ridiculous. Then I look like a freakshow walking through the bushes with my arms above my head so my hands are safe.
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## RedTree (Jan 20, 2010)

okay so no one has heard of the benefits?? I dont really know if they are true but I was googling effects of stinging nettle on horses ad there were serval sites saying that you can dry out the leaves I think it was and feed it to horses and it helps with something. When I get home I will try and find the sites and post links
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## RedTree (Jan 20, 2010)

okay this one is on another forum
Stinging Nettles - Cyberhorse Virtual Forums
http://forum.cyberhorse.com.au/foru...berhorse.com.au/forums/showthread.php?t=39119


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## RedTree (Jan 20, 2010)

heres another one, there was alot of words I didn't understand lol, but it generally says its good

Herbs for Horses - Health Benefits of Nettles and Dandelions

heres another one sortof
Harvesting and Eating Stinging Nettle

haha I'm not really sure what it does though, like the sites say there good but not really what there good for...


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## Lthoma2 (Jun 15, 2015)

Yesterday saw a horse almost die from nettle exposure. He walked through big patch, several feet high, had his nose down, and then had a huge reaction. Went berserk, threw the rider then galloped off. Then collapsed for 30 min on the trail, then up & galloped off again. Arrived at our camp, alone, very shocky and out of his mind. Was striking at everyone who tried to catch or help him. Went down three times. Looked like a horse tying up but wasn't because every time he got up he tried to run again. Very scary. Vet on phone recommended we give Banamine which we did. May have not been the best idea but it did help calm him. 2nd vet arrived at camp and worked on him a couple of hours, including IV fluids. He made it but I've never seen a horse that sick and survive! We had nettles in UK but I never knew them to affect any horses. Think our CA strain is much more potent.


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