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Chewing my trees

My horse is a friendly 6 year old tb/wb x. I’ve had her for 5 months. Right now she’s on 2 acres of great grass with a friend (once the hay comes off the big field, they get all 10 acres). She gets free choice hay (very nice orchard/timothy mix) at night while in her stall and senior feed (because its a nice complete feed and her friend is an older fellow, so its easier to have one feed). Regular exercise. Turned out 8 hours a day.

I have a young sycamore tree that has a fence around it to keep them from rubbing and chewing, but she is reaching over and debarking it. She also likes to rake her teeth over the top of my wood mounting block and randomly bite the fencing. She is not cribbing and doesn’t seem obsessive about chewing, just does it randomly, but enough that I’m worried for my tree. She doesn’t chew on anything in the stall and isn’t a particularly mouthy horse.

What would cause her to chew on my wood? I’d rather not wire in my sycamore, but I don’t want the tree to get hurt - it’s purpose is to some day be a nice shade tree for them.

She is up to date on dental and vet, no known medical issues. Is she missing something in her diet? Is there something else she’s lacking??

thanks

I’ll be the 1st to say it. Ulcers?

Because she wants to.

Lots of horses chew on things even when there is nothing “wrong”.

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Could be either of the above…something, or nothing. Lots of horses chew wood or mouth other things.

I would definitely extend the fencing/wire on your tree so it doesn’t get damaged, but not sure there is a lot else to do. Some horse toys might be worth trying.

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Glad to hear it’s likely nothing but just her being her. She doesn’t have any ulcer symptoms, so likely not that. Thanks for ya’lls $0.02, its helpful to hear that I’m probably just a bit paranoid that I’m missing something, when the treatment is really to make a better barrier between her and tree. I did provide some toys but she hasn’t really been interested in them.

She is a bit of a wise-a$$, in a fun way.

You might need to move your fence farther out from the victim tree. Trees and wood can be delicious! Sadly, horses will bark trees to the point of killing them. My current horse is firmly in the wood is delicious camp. Her little red tree barking/wood eating wagon is fixed at her current residence where the fence posts are railway ties (not tasty), fencing is vinyl, her hay feeder is plastic, and her stall is concrete block. Ha! No more eating the barn or fences or trees, missy!

FWIW, tree size doesn’t matter. I’ve seen an old mare kill several giant willows in a pasture :frowning: Geldings had left those trees alone for years, but when pastures were changed moving the mare into that pasture, tree sadness ensued.

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Horses are “browsers” by nature, not just “grazers”. Given the opportunity, they will eat a number of different things. Especially in the spring, the sap runs sweet in a number of different types of trees. It’s delicious. They know that. My herd is out in a large pasture, and in spring, it is the poplar trees that are the delectable treat. Yes, they kill the trees. But they love the sweet taste, and the huge pasture has lots of poplar trees, and they grow back from the rootstock. Also, the horse’s “work” on the poplars opens up more pasture over time here. Not so great if you have a smaller pasture, and a tree you care about. If it’s a tree you want to save, it needs to be fenced off adequately- usually 4 steel fence panels do the trick OK.

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