What could this tree be and is it poisonous?

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somethingorother

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MY share gelding absolutely loves a certain tree which seems to be all over the place. He eats it in his field and will try his best to snatch a mouthful if we walk past anywhere.

It has leaves which are longish in shape but have little stubby 'fingers' about 5/7, and are about the size of a 50p. Then is has clusters of tiny white flowers all over it. The whole tree looks white from a distance.

When he eats it, he eats the whole little twig, not just leaves. We were getting funny looks today on our little hack, and when we got back i realised his mouth had browny red spit all round it where he had foamed up a bit after snatching a mouthfull on the way out. It looked like he'd been bleeding!

Any ideas on what it could be? Then i could google photos of them? As it is, a lot of the general lists of poisonous plants don't have photos for them all, and i have no idea where to start!

Ice cream to anyone who can suggest anything! :D
 
Is it cow parsley? We have it growing out of the verges everywhere at the moment and my horse loves it. Don't think it's poisonous though, think the other one that has white flowers is hemlock(?) or something which is poisonous
 
I don't think it is cow parsley. The little white flowers are similar, but more evenly dispersed, rather than in clusters. Plus, it is an actual tree, with short little branches. The ones behind his field are about 10 foot tall, at least.

ETS: i keep meaning to get a photo of the leaves, but then forgetting, doh!

The leaves looks like this:
leaf.jpg

And are the same sort of size.
 
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I think it's probably hawthorn - and it's not poisonous if it is.

Just to be sure though I think you should take some photos and post them? Or ask someone local to identify it for you?
 
Thats hawthorn and horses love it! It's not poisonous and grazing in the hedgerows is great for horses as they can eat and get great value from all types of plants other than just grass, in fact it's a lot, lot heathier for them and they can even self medicate. The danger these days is that we can be so fixed on grass and grass only, that they are being denied the the most natual of habits which is real grazing.

I love to hand graze the hedges with my mare as it's amazing to watch what she eats and how she eats. Try it.
 
Sloe and Blackthorn also look very similar to common hawthorn and neither are poisonous. If it is a sloe remember where it is and pick the fruits come autumn for gin!
 
Ah, yes it looks like it is hawthorn then. I will keep an eye out for berries for gin lol. But it does sound/ look like hawthorn from the replies to this. I think he's an addict, he would rather stand and eat the tree all day than grass! Maybe that's a good thing since he's a fatty at the moment. :D

Thanks for all the replies, i knew it was probably something obvious!
 
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