Toxic Plants and Trees

and how are the peach trees poisonous to the horses. is it the fruit, the leaves, the bark, the wood??? we have one in our paddock, but Pumpkin has never had any illness like syptoms.

Peach trees are poisoness to horses because of the leaves and also when the fruit is ripe it can also cause colic. The reason the leaves are poisioness is because the leaves can produce something called cyanide. This is produced by the leaves when they are wilted or damaged. The results can be fatal in minutes if enough of it is eaten.

Symptons Include:

Troubled/labored breathing
Flared nostril
Lack of coordination
Trembling
Agitation

Cyanide poisoning is curable, however, it is usually impossible to get a vet to the horse quickly enough to save him. This is because the effects happen so quickly.

Cyanide is lethal because it reacts with iron in your horse's body to stop cellular respiration. Cyanide also prevents oxygen from being transported via the blood stream, so the cause of death is suffocation due to lack of oxygen.

Artical:
Peach Tree: A Poisonous Plant for Horses

oh shoot!! we'll have to watch Ching big time then as it's in his paddock. although i wouldn't be to worried as Pumpkin never ate it.

ITS IN CHINGA'S PADDOCK!!! Don't worry....ah hello he isn't like Pumpkin!

yeah i told mum. after the pole walking into incident, mum said he's not like Pumpkin at all. Pumpkin knows what not to eat in that paddock as he's had to live it rough for how long?? she says we can knock it down so he doesn't die on our land from the cause of our tree probably planted by us!!! is it the same with the plum & mango tree??

Horses overall know what is not good for them, however we must be careful because we don't want that our horses be poisened.

Sorry for my poor english

Please add Yew ( even a small mouthful can kill within an hour or so)
laburnum seeds and ragwort.
Horses seem to be pretty adept at avoiding what they sense to be poisonous but always eradicate the weeds if you see some sprouting

Barry G

We have both a huge oak (good for shade) and a couple of wild cherry trees. The horses eat the cherries and sleep under the shadow of the oak in the summertime, and so far they are fine.
I thing that horses that grow up and spend a lot of time in their paddock with their mum will learn from her which plants to avoid. Plus it is very important that they always have something to chew on (grass, hay...).

Shoemaker took a lot of the ones I was also thinking about, good job on finding them out. Lol :)

Poisoning episodes are relatively uncommon.... IF your horse has other food to eat. If your region is in a drought and the grass isn't growing or if your dry-lotting your horse you need to be certain non of these plants are within reach as they will eat them if they don't have anything else.

Sorry if this is redundant, but the attitude "horses know what's poisonous and they won't eat it" isn't really true. They'll eat anything if they're hungry enough.