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Construction of the New Virginia Natural Horsemanship Training Center
     
    More Construction Pictures of the
    Virginia Natural Horsemanship Training Center
    9/13&14/05
    Potentially Poisonous Trees Are Removed
     
    I had our landscaper, Bill Osborne, of Southwestern Lawn and Landscaping, walk the pastures/property with me to identify all potentially toxic-to-horses trees & plantings I had on my list. Since I'm not a native Virginian (moved here from California 4 years ago), I don't know many of these plantings on sight, so called in the experts. Bill identified all plants/trees for me. Afterwards, I also had Dr. Wally Palmer, Clinical Instructor - Equine Field Services for the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, walk the property with me as well, to identify those potentially poisonous-to-horses trees he felt could be an issue himself, and he advised having the wild cherry trees in particular removed, to play it safe. Wild cherry trees are potentially particularly toxic to horses IF a branch breaks off and the wilted leaves there are eaten by horses -- that's the only time they are considered toxic -- those wilted leaves contain cyanide. Yet, oddly enough, when the cherry trees shed those leaves in fall naturally, they are not toxic. Go figure. So it would take a mouthy horse, bored with the lush grass, nibbling on a dropped-by-storm wilted leaf to receive that potentially toxic dosage of cyanide. Just not worth the risk we decided. And wild cherry trees grow rampantly here in Virginia, like weeds. So....we are having all wild cherry trees removed from the property here at the Virginia Natural Horsemanship Training Center to play it safest. Hard to watch those big cherry trees fall (sigh), but...we've gotta put horses first here! So...that we are doing. If you would like to learn more about this subject of toxic-to-horses trees and plantings, visit my web site here: http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/PoisonousPlants.html - Follow pictures of our tree removal project below:

 

One wild cherry tree that overhangs the 100' X 200' arena is downed

 

 

 

Cherry tree down & ready for chipping

 

 

Next, cherry tree by arena is chopped and a tractor gives it a last

push to fall the right direction (not on our new fencing!!)

 

 

Timberrrr....

I know this is hard to watch, was for us, too, but cherry trees can be

quite dangerous to horses if they eat the wilted leaves - horses must come first!

I

 

 

Bill Osborne's crew from Southwestern Lawn & Landscaping begin the job

of chain sawing down the pile of wild cherry trees, readying them for chipping or firewood.

The are making sure they rake up every speck of leaves.

 

 

Feeding the branches into the chipper

 

 

Cleaning up the cherry trees now removed from around the arnea

 

 

More wild cherry trees get cut down in pasture

 

 

Feeding the branches into the chipper -- all leaves are raked up and removed safely

 

 

More wild cherry trees are cut down in other pasture

 

 

 And more cherry trees are downed. We will plant more, safer-to-horses trees where we feel the need

 

 

Our horses are kept safely in the round pen, out of the way, throughout the tree-cutting process

 

 

 More Construction Pictures Continue - Click Here:
 
 

 

 

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