those with trees in and around your paddocks.....

charlie76

charlie76

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Am I the only one who is constantly worries about them? I have lots of good grass but I am spending my whole life fencing off oaks and we also have a sycamore that is fenced off but I stood there yesterday and watches the seeds fly everywhere for miles so how can you can control this?
My horses are only out for four hours a day , the grass is superb and they have and lib hay when in and over night but its a constant worry.
What do others do about oaks, sycamores etc?
Tomorrow I'm off to rake leaves, check for acorns and sycamore seeds.
Oh and now I'm removing mushrooms whilst poo picking daily.
Stressful!
 
You are not alone. Everyone admires the natural shelter but they're all bloomin oak trees so have to fence them off or not use those paddocks for ages! Also worry about them coming down and breaking fences and ponies escaping!
 
Well I have 5 oaks in my 3 acre field and several in the boundry fencing plus the ash trees and no I don't worry as the land is spit off into small paddocks, if I stressed out as much as you I'd be selling my horses and land, chill out a little. :)
 
No, you are not the only one to worry. Sadly this year my horse took a liking to acorns (ingested them hourly despite my efforts to make it safe by daily clearing of fallen acorns). We also have Sycamore and mushrooms (grrrr)and fencing the trees off was not easy as he also likes to jump so has very high fences. Thus he is now turned out only in his arena, not as much fun for him, but much safer.
 
We used to have to fence off the big oak tree on our boundary, but it lost the entire side that overhangs our land one year. This not only gave us a ton of wood, but also reduced the acorns, as I'm sure some still fall. Other than that they can eat what they like, ash trees and hawthorn are favourites.
 
OH and I spent best part of two weeks this autumn with the chainsaw removing as many overhanging branches on our field from neighbouring land/wood as we could. So glad we did as many were heavily ladened with acorns, in the event I have managed to keep up with checking and picking up daily.

My neighbour has lost three sheep who ate acorns, so dare not relax routine until last ones have fallen. Luckily the boys seem to prefer my rugose hedge and quince hedge! They also use the field edge as latrine area so are not so likely to eat acorns from amongst poo.

Just as I can relax about pink noses and sun and ponies getting too much grass, acorns fall!!
 
We've spent the last couple of months planting up the sides of two long fields with new trees which will be a future windbreak. We wanted variety but it's amazing how many trees are not suitable for this use.
 
Luckily the oak trees are in the corners of my fields so easy to fence off but hurricane force winds had me picking acorns up from all over the field - hopefully they will all be gone soon!
 
Luckily most of mine are willow, which they love. If branches fall they strip the bark off it with enthusiasm. I have Oaks by the home paddock, which I've never really worried about, but with the heavy acorn drop this year, I think I will run the pigs through it before I put the horses out.
 
pennyturner said:
Luckily most of mine are willow, which they love. If branches fall they strip the bark off it with enthusiasm. I have Oaks by the home paddock, which I've never really worried about, but with the heavy acorn drop this year, I think I will run the pigs through it before I put the horses out.
Click to expand...
That's the answer of course we all need a couple of pigs
 
Happy to loan them out - but better check your fencing first.
Imagine Steve McQueen as a Shetland pony with a fork lift truck instead of a motor bike. That's a pig.

They'll also start digging up the turf the moment the last acorn's gone. Bless :/
 
All of my fields are totally surrounded by trees ranging from cedars to maples, combined with thick hedgerows with wild berries and lilacs. I do have some very old oaks too. I don't worry about them as the horses have plenty of room to graze away from the tree-lines. Occasionally they'll pick about at the wild raspberries and on the bark of some trees but for the most part they don't bother with the trees.
 
We have lots of trees including sycamore, but not beech or oak in the field, and we have mushrooms too. These fields have had horses in for at least 30 years and haven't had problems yet.
Previously had horses in fields surrounded by oak trees - never had a problem there either.

I keep an eye out for problems but don't get paranoid about it. Be careful what you wish for - there are so many tree diseases going round; we may lose all our ash, oaks, larch and horse chestnuts if the diseases take hold.
 
I'll admit that for over ten years my mare was in fields surrounded by trees and I never payed them the slightest bit of attention...there were almost certainly oaks and I have no idea what else :o
Where I am atm we don't have any trees at all (open moorland) and I do miss the shelter!
 
just moved from a place with trees all round the paddocks-except the side where the river was. The oaks were fenced off (I have Natives that really a) don't know whats good for them b) programmed to eat whatever is available when its available). I never worried about the sycamore, ash, beech, limes, hawthorn, rowan, chestnut, hazel etc and liked the fact they could browse off them. Blackthorn was a pain though. Having just moved to a scrubby hillside with little natural shelter (we will be planting hedges) I expect they are missing them atm.
 
Most of mine aren't poisonous, the horses are out 24/7 so pond it fenced off and we have a pine tree to which if you snap branches smells like mint or eucalyptus so we have fenced it off as pretty sure it's not good i think we have one oak but it's in the woody area .
 
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