There are a number of Grass-like plant genera that have thin leaves and modest flower stalks.
For example the Rushes and Sedges.

Most Rushes and Sedges are eaten in some quantity by horses and unlikely to be toxic.
They also are generally higher in fibre than grasses. So they are seen as weeds by production farmers who want maximum nutritive value and fast through-put of forage.

But for horse property owners, we often want plenty of fibre for slow gut through-put. Easy Keeper horses, and particularly those prone to laminitis, are better off eating a greater quantity of feed, providing it is less digestible.

Why aren't we looking to these species to provide options for ponies locked in weedy, bare yards?

I have been doing horse palatability trials on rushes and sedges as they may offer alternate grazing/browsing to horses to balance out high sugar diets. The horses are certainly keen on a couple of species, now I just need to get them analysed by a laboratory to see what their numbers are.

Stay tunned.