Cherries and horses- warning

[Paint it Lucky]

When I was studying equine nutrition at uni my lecturer told us about an experiment she did for a feed company to find out which novel flavours horses liked best. Cherry won and now I have noticed that some horse feeds, in particular chaffs and lickits are being made in this flavour. The lecturer also told us that cherry is POISONOUS to horses. The flavouring is fine but the actual fruit is not, so please everyone don't be tempted to try feeding your horses real cherries! Personally I find it very worrying that feed companies use this flavouring but offer no warnings about it as I'm sure many people will think that if they can give their horse cherry flavoured food then why not give them cherries as well!

Disclaimer: (You'll probably all tell me you do feed cherries to your horses now and with no adverse effects!)

 

[nuffield]

Thanks PaintedLucky for the info. i have recently found this out too, apparently CHERRY LEAVES are LETHAL
so i'll be removing the 4 cherry saplings I planted by the paddock fence last year.

 

[yvettewest]

ooo I didn't know that cherries were bad for horses

. Thanks for the warning. I know this will sound a bit thick of me

but i have forgotten if BLACKBERRIES are also good or bad for horses?

There is a HUGE Blackberry hedge partway down one side of our new paddock and the boys have been nibbling the berries from it, so i am a bit worried as i cannot remember if they are good or bad for them? The boys seem fine for now, just very greedy as usual. lol

. Can someone tell me if i should be worried though if they keep doing this? Cheers.

 

[PapaFrita]

Blackberries are fine

 

[GatefieldHorses]

Liquid cortaflex tastes like cherries too....it smelt nice so i had to dip my finger in a try a bit LOL
tastes like the corkys cherry shots u can get! haha

 

[PapaFrita]

That's odd; I had 2 huge cherry trees in my 'starvation' paddock and all my horses liked eating cherries, especially PF . It was a bit annoying as I like cherries too

None of them ever became sick. I think I checked with my vet, but perhaps I didn't. I don't remember if they ate the leaves. Assume not as they're all still alive

 

[Tia]

You know, I don't know whose horses they do these studies on, because none of mine can stand cherry or banana flavour anything. Sadly my bute is cherry flavoured and it is a real trial getting them to eat it.

 

[Sal_E]

Never heard that before! Our horse paddocks are filled with cherry trees & the horses eat all the cherries (including crunching the stones!) & no horse has ever had any sort of reaction - I also feed my horse regular cherry Likits!

 

[ThatConnemara]

the edge of my horses paddock is about an acre away from my neighbors garden which is full of cherry trees. The birds often pick them up and drop them in the paddock. What can I do? nothings happened so far but , Seeing this post, I'm a little worried

 

[The Jokers Girl]

They are toxic due to the cyanide in the fruit pits and the cyanide produced when the leaves wilt. Peach and plum trees are also toxic to horses, as are maples. I'm.sure there are many others but these are the ones I know of

 

[HappyHollyDays]

the edge of my horses paddock is about an acre away from my neighbors garden which is full of cherry trees. The birds often pick them up and drop them in the paddock. What can I do? nothings happened so far but , Seeing this post, I'm a little worried

Don’t worry, one of mine will eat the leaves straight off a cherry tree if they are close enough. Fresh and from the tree has never hurt him but they should never have access to them if they have become wilted. As for the fruit it’s unlikely your horse will go hunting for ones that have been dropped by birds.

 

[dogatemysalad]

All parts of many varieties of cherry trees are toxic to horses, but I don't think the artificial favouring used in treats and feed resembles the taste or smell of real cherries.
It's also true that eating cracked or broken cherry pits is toxic to people. Accidentally swallowing one or two intact pits ( as I've done) won't cause any harm though, as they'll probably pass straight through the gut.

 

[Keith_Beef]

All parts of many varieties of cherry trees are toxic to horses, but I don't think the artificial favouring used in treats and feed resembles the taste or smell of real cherries.
It's also true that eating cracked or broken cherry pits is toxic to people. Accidentally swallowing one or two intact pits ( as I've done) won't cause any harm though, as they'll probably pass straight through the gut.

I'm not convinced by the whole story of the almond inside a cherry or peach stone being especially toxic to people. I've had people tell me that they contain cyanide, and I've read it plenty of times, but I've been eating them for the past forty years and I'm still alive. In 2018 I bought "apricot almonds" (sold as "marelica") in Croatia, where they are a commercial crop.

And then it's not always the case that what is toxic to one species of mammal is toxic to another species of mammal.