I’m looking for a pasture shade tree that is relatively fast growing with a nice canopy. Zone 7. My extension office recommends a Willow Oak, with the caveat of acorn toxicity. There’s plenty of grass, so should I be concerned about acorns? A friend suggested a Pin Oak. Should I stay away form oaks all together?
Tulip Poplar. It’s still going to be several years, but they get tall with a pretty good canopy
I LOVE our pin oaks, I just don’t know how fast they grow. The acorns are tiny, I’ve never seen mine go after them so I don’t know if that’s generally not a problem because of their size, or if mine just don’t care. I did have 1 horse who loved regular sized acorns, but he didn’t live here on the farm long enough to see if he liked the small ones 
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We have those oaks here and they are sloooooow growing. Any tree I can think of will take several decades of growth before you get that " canopy" you so desire and then you have to fence them out so they don’t eat the young bark and leaves.
I don’t have trees in my pasture but we do have them along one side where there is a nice shade cover and the horses prefer the barn. We also had big limbs down in the last severe weather that luckily got hung up on another tree and just missed smashing my fence by a mere 2 inches.
Put up a 3 sided shelter instead??
ETA: we have a Tulip tree we planted here by the house and now 9 years in it has grown but no where near a canopy. My in laws Tulip trees are 30 years old now and are huge. It just takes too long.
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I have several shade trees on one side of the pasture, but none on the other side. The unshaded side is normally what I use during winter months, so shade isn’t that important, but I’d like to plant something that won’t take 20 years to grow. 
What about what they used to call Austrees? They can be a windbreak or trimmed to be a tree? Supposed to grow very fast and in the poplar family , so may not be real strong in high wind.
I have one horse who will leave lush grass to go gorge herself on acorns, then have mini colic and laminitis episodes as a result.
So I vote no oak varieties period.
I would love some shade trees in my pasture. I’m considering Willow varieties or ash varieties.
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I had to go look it up because I knew the Tulip Poplars grew fast (based on how often we “suddenly” find them growing in inappropriate places 
)
They grow about 2’ a year, among the fastest, but one of the few horse-safe ones that grow in most soils
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Fruitless mulberry. Non-toxic to horses as well.
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We have a huge willow tree in our sacrifice area. It has a beautiful canopy and they grow fairly quickly, google says 6-10 feet a year. We didn’t plant it so the positives/negatives of a willow weren’t ours to decide. It’s far from water/power lines and while it does get aphids in the summer they don’t seem to bother it and our other plants are aphid free. Not sure how old it is but it’s still doing well here.
Don’t know much about Zone 7, but these things I do know. Don’t plant maples. Horses figure out pretty quickly that the sap is tasty. Don’t plant willows as the leaves and bark contain salicylate which is related to what’s in aspirin. My huge old willows had their canopy “banged” by horses reaching up and trimming it. And the wood is soft and chewy. Which is also why I wouldn’t plant poplars. Poplars and willows have been girded by my monsters. Ashes are great trees but there’s a disease going around killing them. We have taken down at least 15 dead and lots of others are in the process of dying. Our lot haven’t managed to kill hickories, but they do eat the nuts in the fall. It’s pretty funny. At turnout they’ll run all the way across the grassy field to check for nuts under the hickories. We have to cut their feed because they gain so much weight. (My dogs love them too)
And whatever tree, wrap chicken or turkey wire around the trunk so they don’t gird it. Best of luck!
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Leyland Cypress rated fast growth, grows up to 3 to 5 feet each year, will grow in zones zones 6 thru 10
adaptable to a variety of soils and conditions, even sandy and clay.
full sun is no problem, grows to 40 to 60 feet
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Not to mention the dried leaves of the red maple are toxic to horses.
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but they are a skinny, vertical grower with no shade canopy. They might be fine if you’re planting on the West side and can then create horizontal shade from the afternoon sun, but mid-day, they’re useless
yeah, but any tree in a pasture should be fenced off so the bark can’t be nibbled on
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I’ve actually heard this also cited as a positive to planting them. Willows have no known toxicity to horses. But anecdotally, it’s been said horses will chew willow to self-medicate pain issues. Now, I highly doubt that is actually true.
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We have a lot of maples here, and the fastest growing are (I think) Silver Maples.
As others have said, horses will eat, or rub on or otherwise kill a nice baby tree - so you really do have to put up a fence around it.
Otherwise trees located on the outside of the paddocks to provide shade throughout the day work well.
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That’s what I’m planting for my windbreak. My neighbor across the street has them at their TB barn and they look great along the fence line.
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I had a pony colic every Fall. Come to find out he was hoovering up acorns like it was candy. Once I banished him from that area, no more Fall colic.
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just be aware that a line of Leyland Cypress can be taken out in a big hurry by pests or age, or weather, and it’s not pretty when it happens.
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The city took out a fairly dead tree from the verge in front of my house and planted a Kentucky Coffee Tree (mmmm… coffeeeee!!!). It grew very quickly, but has yet to serve me a cuppa joe in the morning. FWIW - mine has produced no pods, but I can never get straight which type is female and which type is male.
Here’s a page from Fast Growing Trees: https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/products/kentucky-coffeetree?variant=39432710389822&msclkid=dca56c7443271587547208b5d4c0714a&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=CTC%20-%20US%20-%20Shopping%20-%20NB&utm_term=4581046492330128&utm_content=Ad%20group%20%231
Toxic to horses.
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