We are buying a piece of property that is not currently a horse property. The former owners were really into gardening and have cultivated fruit trees (maybe 10) in areas that I want to fence for the horses.
Do I need to cut all these down or do horses try to eat fruit? I’m sort of thinking that of course they would want to eat apples but what about cherries and peaches? Do I need to get these out of there as well?
In my experience They’ll park under the trees and gorge.
I have the orchard fenced and have to keep it closed off when the trees are in fruit.
Probably not much help, but my horses seem to pay no attention to the crabapple trees in their turnouts. Would definitely not put horses anywhere near apple trees. I know horses have eaten peaches.
Maybe the trees can be moved? I had my apple tree (small, might be a dwarf variety) moved since it was in the path of the driveway that was going to be made for the barn.
I’ve also seen horses park under the fruit trees and eat as much as they could stuff in …apple trees
our horses ate the fruit trees, sort of cleared the land for more grass
I love trees but is it worth losing your horse to colic and if you have farm dogs depending on the type of fruit tree I’ve just learned how toxic some fruit is to dogs.
When I bought my last place the prior horse man who breed expensive show Arabs had box fenced Red maples in the pasture. Now that is just insane, later found out he kept the horses stabled most of the time. I had to cut them all down ASAP.
I made a tree mistake in my new place as I just couldn’t cut down several 100 year old oak trees. I now spend days raking and gathering up acorns every year ,this year the acorns never stopped . Lots of work but these trees are so big it would cost thousands to remove them anyway I just couldn’t do it.
So love trees but not worth my horses life.
I love trees but is it worth losing your horse to colic and if you have farm dogs depending on the type of fruit tree I’ve just learned how toxic some fruit is to dogs.
When I bought my last place the prior horse man who breed expensive show Arabs had box fenced Red maples in the pasture. Now that is just insane, later found out he kept the horses stabled most of the time. I had to cut them all down ASAP.
I made a tree mistake in my new place as I just couldn’t cut down several 100 year old oak trees. I now spend days raking and gathering up acorns every year ,this year the acorns never stopped . Lots of work but these trees are so big it would cost thousands to remove them anyway I just couldn’t do it.
So love trees but not worth my horses life.
Trees in the prunus family, including cherry and peaches, are toxic to horses due to cyanide. http://www.equineguelph.ca/pdf/facts/Prunus%20Poisoning%20June%2026_08.pdf
We have mango trees overhanging some of the paddocks here. The horses gorge on the fallen fruit. Fortunately not much falls because we have folks out with pickers snatching up the fruit. We did have one horse who could peel and pit a mango in under 30 seconds. It was fun to watch him roll the fruit on his foreleg to get the skin off/pit out. His owner, however, was less than pleased with the sticky mess it left on his white socks, or the occasional bouts of (fortunately mild) colic from too many mangoes
There was a pear tree in a field that I turned into pasture at my last place. I built a fence around the tree so the mules couldn’t get close enough to gorge on fallen fruit. I also tried to keep the fruit picked as it ripened.
If it’s planted as a small orchard, I like the idea of fencing it separately and only letting the horses in there during non-fruiting times.
I am going to have someone come and either take them out or move them.
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