Horse Friendly Landscaping/Plants

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GypsyMoonMinis

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I have cabin fever and am wanting to start planning my outdoor handy work early. I live in town (its a small town, less than 500 people, unincorporated etc) and my minis are kept here at home. I have two pens, with two horses in each, on either side of my house, plus I've converted our 1 car garage into a barn with 1 extra large and 2 smaller stalls. They have enough room to run and play (each pen is roughly 900 to 1000 sq feet in size). My neighbors love them as much as we do (yay!) and it works for now, until we are able to purchase some property.

So on to my question. I want to landscape the yard, so that I dont look like a stock yard. I keep everything very clean. One pen is the old driveway in front of the garage (obviously cleaned up well with nice footing) and the other pen is down the length of the house. Im going to put a gate between the house and that pen to block off the back yard from the front, and keep the dogs in back so I can work on my *curb* appeal (with an equine flair ;) )

Already I have alot of flowers and shrubs, and Im extremely careful not to let the horses in the beds, because i dont know whats ok for them or not. I let them have the run of the yard for a period daily when weather permits, but they are heavily supervised when they are out. Currently I have iris, daffodil, ferns, day lilies, Asiatic lilies, peony, roses, columbine, hostas and some old fashioned type flowers that I don't know what they are. ALso a large amount of Shasta and Rebecka daisies.

I have gotten rid of a couple chokecherry trees (dried leaves are deadly toxic to horses i found out), as well as got rid of all my chamomile.

I am wanting to plant more lilies and I want to use herbs for fill, such as basil varieties, mints, and lavender to name a few. I want to put some shrubs around the ends of the horse pens, both for asthetic value and as a bit of a screen from the street. I don't really want any evergreen type shrubs or bushes, but I need something that the horses could chew on if it grew into their pens and they would be ok.

So any suggestions for nice looking yard plants that are horse safe? Anything that I should avoid like the plague? Any landscaping hints/tips/tricks?

Thanks in advance! :D
 
I'm sure plants in Montana are far different than what we have in California but just in case, don't plant any oleander! Very poisonous to horses. I've found it very helpful to go online and resarch any plants/trees I'm considering, googling the name of the plant and the words poisonous to horses. Amazing what you can find!

My minis will eat anything within reach so I've had to put wire up around trees in their field and even so, they can figure out ways to stand on their hind legs and STRETCH to reach branches. I would think your minis would devour any herbs you'd plant! Are you going to put up a barrier of some sort? I'd just hate to see you lose all your hard work!
 
As a general rule of thumb, most ornamental plants are poisonous to horses. I wouldn't plant anything where the horses have access.

Having said that, I have an area of iris that grows in my front pasture. It's been here ever since I've lived on this property (1984) and my horses ignore them. I really haven't worried about them much. The foals would be the most likely interested, but none have ever eaten them. Here's a picture I took of a 2009 foal, Santiago, standing in the middle of them when they were blooming this past spring.

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I love to pretty up my barnyard and give it some curb appeal as well, but I can't take chance of the horses getting into anything. Therefore, I use "stuff".......

You can spruce it up with pretty gates and hanging baskets works for me. I use all kinds of things that aren't plants to compensate, garden flags and yard art. I also had an arch I made out of vinal lattce over the side gate where I grew roses. Take a look at my Farm Tour page and you might get an idea.

http://www.equineobsession.com/bravelittle...rs/farmtour.htm
 
Our Senior QH mare has the run of the yard in the fall and winter, and some of her favorites include day lilies, iris, pampas grass, fountain grass, some sedum, hostas, onions, pumkpkins, melons, and of course sweet corn stalks! We have lots of mulberry trees around and ALL the horses show up with purple lips in the summer
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I don't have any shrubs or trees around the house, but have seen the horses in the pens and pasture eating the leaves off the ground in the fall, and all of the trees around the pasture fence are trimmed "horse high". The only thing they don't seem to bother are the red cedar that grow up everywhere!!
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I do try to search my toxic plant book before buying something new tho, which has led me to avoid Elephant Ears, Castor Bean, Japanese Yew, Maple trees and several other nice shade/screen type plants and trees.

Good luck with your landscaping!!! Just remember tho....when it looks it's best is when the little lawn mowers will find it the most tasty!!
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A lot can be done with rosemary. The horses won't eat it, and if they taste it, it won't hurt them. It grows fairly fast and can be clipped like a hedge. They are not difficult to propagate, so once you have one plant, you could make a whole bunch more little ones that will grow quickly. It looks really nice when clipped, or can be left to grow to its own shape. They come in an upright form and a prostrate form.

There are a bunch of different tyme varieties. I love to make a patchwork quilt out of this low growing beauty, mixing it with different sedems.

There are also a lot of ornamental grasses that are beautiful. Some, like pampass grass, have a sharp blade so the horses probably won't bother it. I didn't look to see what is hardy in your area, but if you know what zone you are in, you can find many plants that will work in a horsey friendly landscape. Most herbs will taste funny to them and they won't eat it. Of course, as with deer proof plants, there are always exceptions to this rule.
 

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