Horses chew the bark of the maples, damaging the tree and if they have access to the tree they will stand beneath it and compact the soil and stompping will do damage to the tree. I have read some will eat the bark and this can cause problems with the digestive tract. my pasture is full of Red Maples, & other species as well, and they did not damage most of them, not did I ever have a sick horse when they did. Cherry leaves when wilted can cause sickness in many animals if ingested.

Wilted red maple leaves, and the leaves for about a month after they die and fall off the trees, CAN be toxic to horses. If they DO eat them, it is usually fatal, due to irreversible red blood cell and liver damage. However, mostly it doesn't happen. If you want to take the chance, leave the tree.

Horses are the original proponents of the "grass is greener" theory, and they will chew at trees (to my knowledge the bark of red maples is not toxic, but being chewed on by horses won't do the tree any good) and things over or through fences, so moving the tree outside the paddock to more than 10' away from the fence (horses can, depending on their size and the length of their necks, stretch to reach things from 4-6' away from the fence), so they don't have an immediate chance to reach it while the tree is young, might be a good idea. While they can then still get to the tree as it grows and branches extend over the fence, and the fallen leaves can still fall or blow into the pasture, it's up to you to decide if that is an acceptable risk or not.

If you want more details, google/search for papers on red maple leaf toxicity - there are a number of them out there. You can also get lists of plants toxic to horses and to other livestock by googling for "plants, toxic, horses" or for "plants, toxic, livestock"; several of the vet schools and ag schools have published them, so you can get area specific ones.

Check to see if you have a true red maple, or a red norway maple. The true red is poisonous, the red norway is not. You'll need a good tree book, and key it out.

Learn something new every day! 50 years of horses and I never knew the Red Maple leaf when wilted was toxic to equines.

Well, its calle "Autumn Fantasy" and the tag said it was a red maple. I REALLY hate to move it....I planted it in memory of my Dad who passed away a few months before I bought it. It cost me a few hundred dollars and if it dies because I moved it I'll be heartbroken not to mention out a few bucks. Now, I know I'll be more heartbroken if I kill one of my horses, but you see the difficulty? Any thought on if I should move it now or wait till spring? Would anyone just leave it because surely they won't eat them? All of the leaves are gone and nobody died...my guess is that the goats gobbled them up as they fell anyways. It is, incidentely, outside the paddock on my back lawn about 8 feet or so from the fence line.

I have heard about a number of trees being toxic to horses. And I finally cornered my vet one day about it, after I found that the horses were chewing cherry bark and eating ACORNS, and they lived in a pasture with a black walnut tree. I also had them bedded in fallen oak and maple leaves. He told me there is a difference between WILTED GREEN leaves and fallen autumn leaves. Leaves from a tree, that had wilted would have a different chemistry than autumn leaves.
They didn't chew the walnut, which was his biggest concern.

I would suggest that you talk to your vet, bring him a sample of the leaves. Since the tree and the horses both have a place in your heart, a phone call or an office visit may save you some money. If there is a difference between WILTED leaves and autumn leaves you are in the clear.

All three of my horses are alive and healthy, but they about drove me nuts - who ever heard of a horse eating something as nasty tasting as an acorn?

Good luck on that.
Kitty

Niffer, I can understand your dilemma. Horses and toxic trees (red maples, wild cherry, oaks, etc.) have survived for years being in the same pastures, and mostly, there has been no problem. With certain horses (and who knows which ones or why) they decide to eat leaves or acorns or eat enough of the substance, and then there is a problem. Until recently, there wasn't the technology to trace WHY the horse was ill or died. Now that there is, the knowledge exists to say that certain trees CAN be bad for horses. It isn't a guaranteed death sentance - and isn't even a guarantee that there WILL be a problem. But, I think I would rather err on the side of caution. Your present horse(s) may not eat leaves, but future ones might.

I think I would move the tree, come early spring, to somewhere further from the pasture, either on the other side of the house, or just further away. If you can get a professional tree service to move it, with a 60" or better, a 90" tree spade, digging the new hole and then moving the tree, using the dirt from the new to fill the old. it can be done quickly. If you can't get that service - which will be some hundreds of dollars, but I can't say what prices are in your area - then you can hire it or do it yourself, digging the new hole and moving the tree. Do this in early spring, as soon as the ground thaws, but before the buds start to break on the tree.

If you go to the Tree Forum on GW, you can search and find more info (more than you wanted to know, perhaps) on properly planting/moving trees. If you post a question about how best to do so, you can get more advice also. I will try to attach a link to a good reference site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tree Planting suggestions

Thanks everyone for all of your input. I have checked several sites and some list the latin name as a rubrum and others list it as freemani. I am going to call the nursery where I bought it tomorrow to double check. Thanks so much everyone for all of your help....I'll move it no matter what in the spring, and pray it survives!

Can you move the horses? Rearrange their pasture?

This post is a full year old, but for anyone researching- Red maple is both Acer rubrum AND Acer freemani. Acer freemani is just a hybrid with the Silver maple.

Gene Logsdon said he had red maples in his pasture and never had trouble. I'd just try to plant something else. But keep that red maple somehow- it's a beautiful tree.