In the summertime especially, I take my students out on regular trail rides. Part of their lesson is to learn and identify which poisonous plants are on the trails. We frequently come across bracken fern, tansy ragwort, horsetail, creeping buttercup, St. John's Wort, cherry trees and foxglove.
Yes, St johns wort is poisonous. Also the biggest here in Aus, Pattersons Curse. Bad bad bad stuff. Also here, mustard weed. Dandelions cause stringhalt.
I have oak trees nearby my barn. I don't have my horses at my house yet, as we are still preparing for them. Should I be worried about the leaves dropping into the fence and them accidentally eating them? There will be grass for them to graze on and I'd hate for them to get sick. Should we take the trees out or just make sure we leaf blow when they start to fall off the trees? Thanks!
We just discussed this in my Equine Nutrition class. Check out this document it lists poisonous plants for North Central US. Its lengthy, but I don't think that's really an issue! http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...ems/DI8491.pdf
It has pics of all the plants and descriptions of what they do, what part of the plant causes the issue, how to control the plant, toxicity, etc. Lots of info!
A good book for all horse owners to own is 'horseowners field guide to toxic plants" by sandra burger. Sells for 12.95 paperback. Yes, buttercups are poisonous. Amazon.com: Horse Owners Field Guide to Toxic...
Hope this helps!