I just had four trees cut down; three that were dead and one that was alive and well, but located in an inconvenient place. The trunks were cut into sections and a load of hardwood hauled away. The sawyer spotted my "burn pile" and asked if he could just add the leftover branches to it and, while I was out trail riding in Big South Fork National Park, my husband said, "No problem."
WHOA (so to speak)! Not so fast! This is horse country and a knowledgeable horseman is always concerned about what horses ingest. In this case, my horses were in wooded turnout which has no grazing. Given free rein (no pun intended), they would have eaten until the leafy greens were gone.
A few oak leaves here and there aren't all that toxic to horses and, if they have good-quality hay or pasture, they will generally not pay much attention to oak trees. They'd have to eat quite a quantity of leaves but oak is most dangerous early in the spring when the leaves and buds are the highest in toxicity. The toxins can cause fatal kidney failure.
The boys were left in lockdown overnight and the burn pile torched in the morning.
I wish I could make all of my problems go up in smoke that easily!
For information about Big South Fork real estate or horse properties in Jamestown, Tennessee, go to www.trailridersrealestate.com
There's also a lot of information about the area on the Tennessee Recreational Properties website.
Blooming for home buyers in Maryland.
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