What kind of tree??

[Karen]

Horse vet was just out at the new place for the first time. There's a tree in the front of our paddock that I think is half dead, but the vet thought might be a red maple. I'm about 95% sure it's not a maple (at least not any kind of maple I've ever seen), but she said if it's a red maple, it'll kill our horses for sure. Did a web search and I'm thinking White Oak but the "it'll kill your horses" phrase has me wanting confirmation. So? Maple? Oak? What do you think?

We're in NE PA.

[ezzy333]

It is a red or black Oak. White oaks have a more rounded lobe on the leaf. Also the white oak bark is smoother and whiter bark than the deeply grooved black oak family. I have never heard of a maple or oak bothering horses as we have them in our pastures around here.

Ezzy

[shags]

You might want to google something like "horses toxic plants Pennsylvania" to find out the bad stuff that's local to you. UPenn probably has a list, and your local extension office should, too. Red maple, red oak, black walnut, rhododendron, yews, buttercups, milkweed, jimsom weed, red clover, horsetails...the list can be endless For a lot of them, you have to check they aren't in your hay, either.

The good thing is, even though so many plants are toxic, horses usually won't eat them unless there's nothing else available; some of them, small quantities -like a mouthful- aren't harmful.

Ezzy, the leaves of red maples contain a compound, a type of acid, that causes hemolytic anemia in equines.

[birddog1968]

oak

[zrp]

It's a white oak. quercus alba. a favorite of deer and other wildlife like turkeys and squirrels. perfectly safe for the horse paddock. should be able to see some small acorns on the leaves this time of year. red maple has leaf like the canadian flag.

[displaced_texan]

Definitely Oak. I'd look into a new vet.

[Neil]

It is an oak. I hope she is a better with horses than trees. If she is I would keep her, honest mistake, she was trying to help.

[Karen]

Thanks guys. This particular vet is the most highly recommended in our area, so she will be our emergency go-to vet, although I will be giving shots in the future. Her bill was double what we paid last year (the vet we used last year won't come to the new house).

The vet was aware that we had moved the horses home in December and that the place is a work-in-progress right now. She offered a bunch of suggestions on mud control in the front portion of the paddock, and then noticed the tree with red leaves. Truth be told, the horses have used several of the trees as rubbing posts, and that particular tree is half dead, so the leaves LOOK red now, when in truth, they're just dying.

Anyway, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to kill my horses while we tried to find the time to take it down.

[PntrRookie]

Always best with pictures...

White Oak... quercus alba...yours

dried-white-oak-quercus-alba-leaf.jpg

Red Maple

redmapleleaf.jpg

[ezzy333]

http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.46213687 ... &h=126&p=0 red

http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.50559807 ... &h=192&p=0 white

[Sharon]

Ezzy is right.

I have a 300 year old white oak in my back yard and that OP tree post is a red oak - pointy lobes not rounded (white).

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http ... KABEP4dMA4

All maples turn red. Red doesn't mean it is a red maple.A red maple has only 3 main lobes

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http ... Aw&dur=295

Can you tell it is 31 degrees out and I can't find much to do?

[birddog1968]

Norway maples turn Yellow/Gold