Horse eating Horse Chestnut Trees

[Pink Gorilla]

I have some horse chestnut trees in my horse field. This field has always had horses in and never any problems. A couple of my horses have had the odd nibble of the trees, but not really seemed fussed otherwise. My new horse seems to love them though! I thought it was because the grass was restricted, but he broke into the long grass yesterday and went straight over to much on the lower branches of the tree. I always heard they wouldn’t taste nice and horses would only eat them if other food sources were scarce. Vet suggested I fenced them off when I mentioned it, but the diameter of the branches is far bigger than the trunk itself, as they’re very big trees. He’s not showing any signs of being poorly and I have no where else to put the horses at the moment. Has anyone else had horses become poorly off them? He can only reach the bottom branches luckily.

 

[cobgoblin]

They are toxic..
https://wagwalking.com/horse/condition/horse-chestnut-toxicity

 

[Pink Gorilla]

Yep I know they are labelled as toxic. However horses have been on that field for over 100 yrs with no problems (it’s a cattle farm that used to have plough horses). So I was just wondering if anyone themselves had experienced poorly horses because of them, or if it is extremely rare or they have to consume a large amount to cause problems? As I’ve read, and it also says in your article, that not all horses have problems with them and it usually effects more the sensitive horses.

 

[I'm Dun]

They are toxic..
https://wagwalking.com/horse/condition/horse-chestnut-toxicity

Please dont rely on or link to that website. Its wildy inaccurate sadly. Horse chestnut is fine for horses, conkers arent though.

 

[spotty_pony]

They are fine, my horses have quite a few in their field and they provide great shelter and shade. Just have to rake up the conkers once they start falling.