Plenty of good grazing - so why eat the flipping acorns !

My cob is the same, plenty of grazing yet always heads for the acorn tree so its now sectioned off and partner is on acorn collection duty eveynite lol!

Silly annoying (but loveable) cob lol ;)
 
I caught Ted resembling a chipmunk, he had so many acorns stuffed in his face. He has the best grazing on the place, is fed and has a haynet when he comes inside for Ted taming sessions.

The cob mare I can understand a little more, she is on ryvita paddock and nearing starvation, according to her ! We have some ancient and beautiful oaks that provide fabulous shelter, but I have never seen them so heavily laden as they are this year.
 
Please please either pick up or fence off the acorns, I lost my previous horse to acorn poisoning nearly 2 years ago to the day. It was the most horrific experience and had I known how quickly it can happen and how terrible it can be I would have kept my horse in rather than turn him out in the field with the acorns.
 
Apart from taping off, which I will do in the next week or two, I spread the poo picking barrow contents under the oak trees here - deters them from picking around the acorns. But once they start I gather they are addictive so important to stop it in the early stages.
 
The weather forecast is predicting increasing winds so that will speed up the drop of acorns. Ted was caught picking his own straight off the tree.

I have been reading a few articles about acorn poisoning and the vets are saying it is quite rare, but there are plenty of owner comments about very sick horses to also be found on the internet. Not worth taking the chance, so mine are grounded and hopefully the speedy postage fee I have paid for will work and the kit will arrive in the morning.
 
I have always been wary of them after my mare had colic many years ago and vet thought the might have been the cause so i always fence them off.

However where i used to work they had loads and never bothered about it, one horses used to eat them by the bucket full and according to owner always has!!! me thinks she has just been lucky?

I certainly wouldnt take the risk especially after i lost my mare last year ( not acorn related) but has made me paranoid about EVERYTHING lol i always expect the worst!!

I openly admit to being a paranoid freak;)
 
We have spent the last two weeks with our new best friend the chain saw raising canopy of the oaks round our field and removing as many over hanging branches as we can from neighbouring land.

I watched one of the 2yr olds today go all round the edge of the field this morning grazing every branch he could reach, fortunately we have foiled his attempts at oak. The young ones seem to like trying new tastes.

They have made their latrine area down the side of the wall where most of the oaks are so I do not think they will pick acorns out of that area but I have doned gloves and routed them out just in case!
 
We always move one lot to another field at this time of year mainly because it has a good few oaks in it and partly its worked so that it gets a rest before they go back on at the end of the year through to spring. it saves having to try and tape off the trees and with the amount of acorns it also gives plenty of time to clear them
 
I've had to fence off one of my fields which has an acorn tree sitting on the edge of the field which I did about a month ago when i noticed them slowly start to drop, when do the acorns stop falling? (First time at a yard with acorn exposure!)
 
mischamoo said:
I've had to fence off one of my fields which has an acorn tree sitting on the edge of the field which I did about a month ago when i noticed them slowly start to drop, when do the acorns stop falling? (First time at a yard with acorn exposure!)
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Autumn winds will take the acorns down, but oaks tend to be the last trees to shed their leaves and fruit, so acorns could still be dropping in December.
 
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