Killing my trees

Mine tries to eat the leaves off of cane bamboo trees...*sighs* :)

He-he, Vida. You have to see my horses... You can call them anything but not starving (especially qh).

I was thinking about may be getting jolly balls or stall snack and put them on tree to see what's going to happen. May be it'll keep them occupied. My older neighbor's horses don't do that (they fed wa-a-ay less than mine), so may be it's just fun for youngsters.

I always joke that Dez is a survivor, because he tries to eat EVERYTHING he comes in contact with (thorn bushes, spruce needles, grass, roots, tree branches, etc.). :) :)

I think he likes sampling the world around him. Especially on trail rides.

I think it is something just like cribbing. Mostly mares do it I realized. Both mares at my barn do/did it. Also one gelding is picking it up from the mare.

The more I think about it they seem to do it during certain times of the year. I wonder if it has something to do with the sap in the trees Do elm trees have sap?

Last time I checked all tree have sap. But I'm no plant expert.

Mine don't eat tree bark but they'll eat might-near anything else in sight....vines, bushes, wild flowers, most weeds....whatever presents itself.
Besides what grass is growing this time of year, they (each) get 10# of 14/6 feed, a half-bale of hay a day and I keep a mineral block next to their water-trough. Due to my work schedule, I divide their feed/hay into two different feedings...11AM and 11PM.
They are currently on 2.5 AC's, have a ball which they like to kick around, sometimes I see my gelding playing "chase" with my dog and at other times, the 2 horses will chase each other. The time that I personaly interact with them ranges from 1 to 3 Hrs daily.

What I'm saying is......
I'm guessing that mine aint hungry, bored, nor neglected. They just like eating wild stuff. So, it wouldn't surprize me one bit if they started on tree bark next.

DGW

Heres a photo to give you some idea of the damage their doing. Grrr. Will have to cut this one down as I'm sure it will be dead with that much bark gone.

Judging from the green-stuff on the fence in the photo, I'm guessing that the side of the trees they ate-on was facing north. If so, there's a good chance that there was moss growing on that side of the trees ....and it was the moss that they was actualy after.

DGW

Grrr... I hate tree-eaters! At my old barn the paddocks were built into a forest (of course they thinned down the trees some, but still left a LOT standing) and it was gorgeous, and the trees provided enough shade in the summer that the horses didn't have to go into the stuffy shelters... but the buggers ate the bark!

My trainer started wrapping chicken wire around the ones that they had just started in on, and that seemed to help a lot.