plant an apple tree

[lamprellsarah]

i know it might sound weird and it will take a while to get apples off it, but why not plant an apple tree, it needs so little care and it if it does it's in the early stages,
i have one and it supplys me with loads of apples over a two month period in summer.

[Mazpup]

good idea but it will take a long time 2 grow!

[lamprellsarah]

yeah i know but if i plant another one now it will properly be ten years before i get an apple off but i hope to still have horses when i am 26!! and i will unless something happens!!

[Hayleyb277]

Crikes another apple tree, we've got four plum trees, a yellow plum tree, three apple trees producing footballs and a crabapple, I'm begging friends family and foe to come pick the damn things as they're driving me mad, nice to have fruit to eat that's not in a fruit bowl but this is a bit much, the blackberries have gone bonkers and we've buried the rhubarb under three feet of soil and I'll bet the blasted stuff comes back next year:D

[floppy]

my cousins horses live in paradise...they have one field fileld with apple trees.
My share horse is an expert at picking apples of the trees

[KarlR]

Our horses are in a field with at least 4 huge (40 foot plus) apples trees, each with thousands of apples on.

My horse hasn't had solid droppings for weeks: I hope that horses aren't allergic to anything in apples! :)

[Hayleyb277]

Be careful Karl.

A friend of mine a few years ago was left in charge of his father's Polo ponies while his father was on holiday. He got home from work one day to find his dad's extremely valuable and favourite Argentinian polo pony flat out on its side groaning, whilst seriously panicking he rang the vet and while he was waiting he got the horse to its feet where it staggered forward and fell down. The horse got up again and promptly walked into a tree and fell down again. Simon was convinced the horse was going to die and that Simon would follow suit when his dad got home. Outcome was that the horse had stuffed itself full of the rotten fermenting apples off the ground which had continued to ferment in the stomach and the animal was basically blind drunk. Apparently the horse recovered but had one hell of a hangover.

Too many apples can also cause gas colic.

H

[KarlR]

That's very funny! I'd better get the wife to pick up the apples too when she does the poo picking!

[Hayleyb277]

Now c'mon Karl a job shared.........

Or perhaps you don't DO pooh picking???????????????? :D :D

[ANDREA BOYES]

Well said Hayley thought the same thing when I visited earlier I mean LOVE IS picking up rotting apples and poo together:D

[horselover]

I read Hayley's story five munutes ago and I am still laughing!!!! :) Too funny!

[KarlR]

Oh no. I'd better not start another marital argument here - I've already got that happening in another thread! :)

Caroline is the poo picker though. I WOULD do it of course, but there's always so many other things to keep me busy that by the time I get there she's normally already done it ! ;)

That said, I do often help out by pushing the poo wheelbarrow around the field (although our two horses produce so much daily poo that if we collected apples too we would need a trailer :eek: ).

[floppy]

hehe i can understand that...my haflinger did a poo in the riding arena the other day and after you finish riding in the arena you have to remove your horses poo..it took 3 heaped shovel full!!she poos liek an elephant!:D

[Hayleyb277]

Karl, is that the 'who's horse is prettiest' argy on the Prelim 14 thread? Took me ages to find it :D :D :D Perhaps if you've (conveniently?) missed the poo picking you could go around picking a barrow of apples instead :p Think of your horses' tummies.....

[KarlR]

That's the one Hayley! It could have escalated, but a holiday got in the way of us both posting. :) It sometimes takes folks a little while to get used to us as a couple - but it IS purely light hearted!

On the subject of apples, the situation has changed. Now the apples are RIPE, which means that each day when they are turned out they race each other to the biggest apple tree to eat that nights windfalls - usually about 20 or so. No obvious problems so far except for the circular path around the tree where all the grass has been worn away as they circle around it hoping for apples to drop.

[floppy]

so the horse arent too clever yet? the horse i ride use to always pull her head down to munch on grass whilst riding over it but now she knows it is naughty to do so unless she is free in her field she now walks along pulling her head upwards trying to pluck apples fromt he trees instead! yesterday whilst riding we noticed tht the apples were looking rather yummy so i reach up to pick an apple off the higher branches and my horse merrily ate the ones form the lower branches!

[Hayleyb277]

Thought I hadn't seen you on the boards lately, have a nice holiday?

Bonnie's the apple addict (my little girl's pony), she shoots through the gate when I'm bringing in Lenny and hoovers up the apples that have fallen onto the track leading to the paddocks. The others don't get much of a chance while I'm leading them just the occasional windfall, I'm such a horrible mum :D

[KarlR]

Not too bad Hayley, except that I fell ill on the first day of my holiday and was told not to ride - I had two weeks off - but NO riding!! :( Ah well - a week away recuperating was still enjoyable!

In truth, I'm less worried about apples now than those small mushrooms that were in the paddock (you know the type I mean) and are now disappearing fast - the last thing that I want is to ride a horse that's hallucinating! :D

[Yann]

Karl, re. the marital discord - I hope we managed to keep the praise and admiration balanced enough on Saturday afternoon;)

I expect Zak and Charlie needed a few mushrooms after experiencing my rudimentary horsemanship:D

Thanks!

[KarlR]

Yann - yes, you kept the praise about equal - must have been difficult when you found out how wonderful Zak was! :p

(BTW, your riding was fine - at least as good as mine was after I'd only been riding that long! They both seems perfectly happy.)