They do burn the natural areas around here for that purpose but I definitely can't do that where I am--too dangerous as it's a residential area (although large lots). So I'm hoping to achieve the same end by mowing (with a brush mower) and selectively encouraging/planting plants that are useful to out compete ones that aren't. I know I have a big job on my hands because of how the property looked when I bought it. I certainly can't sit back and do nothing and the horses aren't helping much! I am making sure not to let any really obnoxious plants take hold.

Wonderful! Best of luck. I sure do wish more Floridians had your sense of priorities!

+oM

I think it might be yaopon holly aka ilex vomitoria. The leaves look the same and I found a scraggly mature one with red berries. I also read that it has caffeine and can be made into a tea... Not 100% sure though as I am really south of it's range.

Our place has woods behind it, belonging to the neighbors, although oaks instead of pine. It is full of 5-6 ft tall weedy looking plant. Since our fence is chain link on that side which is our backyard, we see it continually. Not complaining, at least we have a backyard. My horse will eat some vines that grow on the trees and hang over, some parts of trees, but he won't touch any of those infringing weeds.

As far as everything I have read, most plants that horses won't eat are toxic to some degree, because they have a highly developed taste sensitivity for bitterness. The rare toxic plants they will eat are unusually sweet ones, like maples. So pretty much, if there is something they usually won't eat, beware if they actually do eat some for whatever reason.

Frequently, others recommend calling your local Agricultural extension office, in many areas they supposedly will come out for free, but either way they can come out and identify the plant and give guidance on getting rid of it.

If it happens to not be a toxic plant... the neatest solution is goats! There are actually people who will rent out their herd of goats for a week, drop them off in your pasture (sans horses) and pick them back up when the place is clean.

Funnily enough goats were my original idea for control, but then I realized that keeping goats was likely to be more expensive and more hassle than mowing--and they'd probably just want to eat the horses' hay. I suspect I'd need a pretty big herd to keep my property cleaned up--and one large area isn't even fenced. I did some reading on those people that will bring their herd over and they are expensive! They seemed to market themselves more to large corporations wanting to be eco-friendly.

The horses nibble on this stuff occasionally but don't put a real dent in it, so while it isn't actually poisonous (I checked the list of poisonous plants and scoured the paddock for them before putting the horses in it) they don't eat enough to control it. It's a large area so there's other stuff for them to browse on and this stuff is not very tasty (I tried it, LOL).

I'll try emailing pics to the extension office and see if they can confirm whether it's yaopon holly or something else.

Have you tried sending pix to your local extension service yet?

county extension offices index

Looks like possibly a seedling of a Dahoon Holly tree: the tree gets to be up to 10-12 foot tall and has reds berries in fall/winter. Check out trees close by that might have produced the seeds (probably won't see any red berries at this time). Of course, birds could have eaten them elsewhere and dropped them earlier.

The leaves aren't shiny like Dahoon (I think I have some of that growing too, but not as extensively). It looks more like pics I've seen of Yaopon holly. I do need to send pics to the extension and see what they say.