Summer has arrived with a bang, and with the first warm sunshine came delicious fresh green grass, which had us all kicking our hooves for joy. Some of us may be old, but a 10 course taster menu of grass definitely puts a spring in our step.

We may weigh 400 to 700kg on average (though just like humans, we vary enormously), but we were cleverly designed to derive almost all the nutrition we need from the green stuff. Clever, huh?

I famously don’t have any teeth, but if I say so myself, I’m pretty skilled at pulling up grass with my gums. Yum.

I’m mostly at my country retreat in the summer (aka the field), where there’s plentiful food that I can eat, shade for when the sun gets a bit much, and salt licks to keep dehydration at bay. Frankly it’s not a bad life for us oldies who reminisce about the days when we were all running about with riders on our backs. Just thinking about all that activity makes me want to go for a nap.

Summers have their challenges too, though. Did you know that those of us with pink noses (that’s most grey horses) are prone to sunburn? And that can be just as dangerous for us as it is for humans. So we need a human helper to slather on the sunblock for us.

Then there are the flies, oh.... the flies! Why do horses attract them like a magnet? Fly spray is a must, despite the smell of the stuff, and fly masks over our heads can keep the pesky little blighters out of our ears and eyes – and do make us look rather dashing. Biting insects can also cause sweet itch, which isn’t sweet at all. It’s an allergic reaction of the skin to bites and can be really serious and painful if not nipped in the bud. Some of us are more prone to it than others, but if you see a horse in summer almost entirely covered up, with fly mask and rug, that’ll be why.

When you see horses swishing their tails in a field in summer it would be easy to assume that we’re low maintenance, but when you add up all these things you start to realise we’re not at all. (Sorry Natalie.) And that’s before the hot weather turns the grass brown and we have to eat bales of hay until the rains bring on a fresh green banquet.

I may not be a working member of the team any more, but I like to do what I can for the smooth running of the stables. If any of you would like to send any essential summer supplies our way, we’d all be very grateful. From equine sunscreen to fly masks, and not to mention bales of hay to be prepared to supplement the grass if it shrivels up – your support makes such a difference. We’ve even updated our Amazon Wishlist to make it super-easy to send something perfect in our direction.

Meanwhile I’m getting back to the serious activity of tugging up grass. Long may it last.

If you’d like to help top up our summer supplies, do head over to our Amazon Wishlist. Thank you!

Prodney is Chief Equine Officer (CEO) at Park Lane Stables, and achieved celebrity status following the TV coverage in 2021. And yes, he really is a bit of a star on YouTube and TikTok. Just search for Park Lane Stables and do follow us!