Hawthorne Bushes - experiences?

[megansmum]

my horses love it and I feed it as a herb in the winter too'

[cbc]

We have some very old hawthorn and two hedges that me and my OH planted 20 odd years ago now.
It is a relatively cheap and effective field boundary, good windbreak and horses enjoy eating the leafy bits in the spring. If you are looking for a long term barrier, definitely worth considering.
Someone tell me if I am wrong, but isnt blackthorn considered a menace in a hedge surrounding stock? (like the sloes for sloe gin though!) Supposed to be nasty for thorn punctures (then I would have thought any thorn would) and toxic if eaten?

[kafee]

I have a lot of blackthorn around the field I rent, and wounds from blackthorn thorns often swell painfully and dramatically, I believe there is a bacteria associated with them.

It's not just creatures that suffer either from puncture wounds either, the thorns are strong enough to puncture car tyres as I found out to my cost when hedge cutting. Hawthorn thorns would probably puncture car tyres as well if you're daft enough to drive over them like me.

[Sarah Dent]

Yes, one of them is very toxic...not sure which one. Haw, Black or Quickthorn....
An old acquaintance of mine had a brilliant team chase horse. They'd had a great ride one day, gone home and suddenly the horse went downhill really fast. They got him to the vet but he died within hours. The PM revealed that a thorn was stuck in a coronet band (from jumping a hedge) and had poisoned him. Very sad.

[mandal]

Jan 9, 2010 18:35:05 GMT 1 Mrs Craig said:

but one caveat. Protect them fiercely when you plant, as the young whips won't take hold if the horses find em!!

Definitely protect them well!! Horses will trash saplings in minutes!!! ;D

[feemac]

I remember doing poo picking on a event yard in county durham and every wheel barrow got a puncture the bike repair kits came out. I'm planting a willow hedge after Ian told us about his next door neighbours old pony seeking it out! (asprin)

[Liz]

Blackthorns were the bane of my life when I helped a friend with his 3 hunters. He hunted 3 times a week in country with a lot of blackthorn hedges and I had to check the horses' legs thoroughly for blackthorns on his return. If one was missed it caused great discomfort to the horse. Hawthorne, as everyone else has said, is wonderful for hedging and the horses love nibbling on it.

[emma]

We have lots of hawthorn and they go mad for it. I actually trim the little branches off and put it in the stables for them

[mollymoo]

I livery on a very old farm and all our feilds are seperated and edged with hawthorne. All the ponies love to munch on it and it is also great for creating homes for wildlife.
I was told it takes over 50 years to grow a good Hawthorne hedge though.

[lauranash]

Blackthorn is the nasty one - my dog nearly died from blood poisoning after getting a tiny thorn in her leg.

Nearly all councils in rural areas will give grants for planting hedging. Here in Somerset we give grants to help with the cost of buying hawthorne plants for planting new hedges.

[marianne]

I'm a big fan of planting hedges using shrubs/trees that are therapeutic to horses as well as useful wind-breakers! I have hawthorn in my field and last year planted several willow trees too.

Now however I'm looking for something that's good for horses but evergreen too ... because a hedge with leaves is only useful when the leaves are there! ;D

[clara81]

My field is surrounded by hawthorn and the ponies love to nibble on it and it's makes a good shelter BUT I have had several eye injuries form it. A few times in the youngsters it was just an ulcer but they did need antibiotics and were left with a scar but one mare had a bad scratch which got infected and her eye ruptured. She needed surgery to save the eye but was left blind in it and had recurrent uveitis. Her eye was also a little shrunken as it didn't fully refill after the surgery. Should add though that they were all Welsh Mountain Ponies with massive eyes, hence the reason I now have an Exmoor lol!

[Catrin]

Okay, scrub the blackthorn them, we don't seem to have anything else round here - have holed a few car tyres when they are cut in the autumn. Never heard of any animal injuries, but the thorns could definitely puncture feet. The hedge along the back or our garden is blackthorn and the farmer just cut it, surprisingly while the sheep are on the field, no lame sheep so far. The horses are in blackthorn fields and I suppose adlib haylage stops them browsing the potentially dangerous hedges. Still got two bottles of sloe gin!