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  Discussion on Olive trees in pasture okay?
Author Message
New Member:
decache

Posted on Friday, Jun 19, 2009 - 2:31 pm:

We are creating a new turnout and it is directly under an olive tree. Every year it DrOps thousands of olives. We are putting up a fence so the horses can't eat the bark, but what about the olives? I know that people can't eat olives raw they need to be pickled. Can horses? I believe olives contain arsenic - though I'm not sure. The pits are also very sharp. I was going to put a net up to catch the vast majority of the olives as they fall. Will this be safe?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Jun 20, 2009 - 8:16 am:

Welcome Martha,
I cannot find any evidence that olives are toxic however they are considered inedible until they are processed. This usually takes the form of fermentation, brine, alkali, or some combination of the three. But this is to remove the very bitter phenolic compounds and glycosides and I do not find any cases of poisoning nor reports of specific toxicity. Maybe they are toxic but so bitter no one is ever poisoned?

But the bottom line is I really do not know how safe a olive tree might be in the pasture. Besides specific toxicity there is the concern of dietary change it represents during the fruiting season and as you mention the possibility the pits may cause trouble. If olive trees are common in your area your local extension office should have some further information for you.
DrO
Member:
frances

Posted on Sunday, Jun 21, 2009 - 7:14 am:

As I live in Greece, olive trees are all around, at home, at the stables, overhanging some paddocks, everywhere.

We've never had a problem, even though the horses eat a mouthful of the leaves once in a while and the leaves naturally fall into the water buckets now and then. I've never seen a horse choose to eat the actual olive fruit, although we don't have pasture - I suppose while grazing a horse could accidentally ingest olives along with the grass. However, horses are pretty good at separating out what they don't want to swallow.

So .. I know the leaves aren't poisonous to horses, I know that our horses do not eat the fruit and I've never heard of anyone else's horses eating the fruit - but I can't guarantee that yours will not. I agree that you wouldn't want them to swallow the pits in case they caused a blockage.

Olives are certainly not toxic to people(!), nor to dogs (mine gorge on them in autumn when they fall, even crunching up those rock-hard pits somehow - it always worried me but I couldn't keep them in all day).

IMHO it will be fine, but you might want to observe your horses just in case they find the olives to be a delicacy, and put up a net if so.
New Member:
alimay

Posted on Sunday, Nov 1, 2015 - 9:11 am:

I am moving to a new horse property and it has many lemon and grapefruit trees. Could this be in anyway harmful to my horses as they will be turned out most of the time with these trees around them? There are also lots of olive trees but I read the above answer from LL that they appear to cause no problem. One thing there though what if they eat the bark of the olive tree? Thanks!
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