Just how common is oak tree poisoning?

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TequilaMist

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We will be moving to a new yard in next coming months.YO built a new place which is lovely,entrance very nice coded gates,wooden rail fencing very south forkish,looks lovely BUT he has lined drive- which has two of the main feild either side of it- with 28 Oak Trees.
At moment not a problem as young unestablished trees but obviously in years to come may be.
Am unsure at moment if horses will be able to stretch to get to them but this is Scotland and it gets windy so VERY likely any leaves/acorns in future will get blown into fields.
Obviously he's not going to uproot 28 trees so whats next option.
 
No practical suggestions, I'm afraid, other than trying to tape off access to the treeline? That's ok when the acorns are on the tree, but when they drop,or wind blows? I have a friend who lost her pony many years ago to acorn poisoning, but I don't know the quantity that was ingested. Sorry, not terribly helpful, I know.
 
My horse a few years ago took to stuffing his face full of acorns that had fallen on the floor. We have had the field with this mature oak tree for 20 years and hadn't had any problems with previous horses eating them (not stupid enough it would seem :rolleyes: )

The tree is now taped off during that time of year, as they seem uninterested in the green acorns. My horse did have VERY shiny brown poo during that period when he was eating them - but other than that (was 3 yrs ago now) there have been no other side effects.

I would say just fence them off tbh, as I don't think there's much else you can do, other than ensuring your horse is not turned out in those fields :)
 
We have oak trees in our fields & out of the 10 years I have been at the yard ( with an average of 8 horses there at any one time ) there has only been one incident. One of the horses stuffed herself full of green acorns and obviously felt very poorly, she was lying down & could hardly get up, her lower legs swelled, she was uncomfortable walking and did look very very poorly. The vet came & said to leave her for 24 hours and then call him again if necessary, but she was fine the next day.

I'm not sure how common it is for horses to eat as many acorns as this, but there has never been a problem with any other horse in all the time I've been there.
 
Thanks for replies.
Research on internet does say some horses appear to aquire a taste for them and will actively search them out but if enough grazing rarely go searching as a general rule.
Will give info to YO tho you would have thought he'd have researched it before as tbh he has put a lot of into new yard so am suprised.
Thanks again
 
My friends cob ate acorns and had an allergic reaction and seems even more attracted to them now (bizarre!) so we rope off the area when the acorns come to make sure he does not eat them when they fall.
 
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