Safety of wild pears?

[lisae]

My horses are pastured 24/7 and their primary shade is a huge pear tree. It's covered in fruit this year, it's a wild seckel pear (small hard pears developed for canning in the 1800s but generally too bitter to enjoy off the tree).

Anyways, when I fed the horses last night we had a windy day and a bough had broken off, covered in unripe pears. It looked like one of the ponies had sampled and left 1/2 fruit uneaten.

When I was cleaning up the branch, Mara came over and started eating them! I got them all out promptly.

Should I now fence them away from the tree? Heat has broken so shade not as necessary.

[becs]

I had a similar thread recently, having found wild cherries in our fields. Galadriel gave helpful info and I googled for ages!

It appears that fruit trees are potentially toxic in all parts except the fruit, mostly either the spring buds or wilted leaves - some trees worse than others (cherry worst!). So I guess pear may come into this category? Is it's latin name PRUNUS something? if so, I think it will.

It's all to do with "cyanogenic glycosides" - when the leaf is damaged (wilting / horses eating it) then small amounts of cyanide are released. This can theoretically be fatal. In reality horses would not usually eat such unless desperate. The fruits are fine though large amounts of pips / stones aren't - as applies to us (as you may have heard; a cup of apple pips can poison a human). Apparently the Romans ground peach kernels to make poison! Nice guys...

So i wouldn't panic if they only sampled the fruit. But I would clear any fallen branches / leaves asap and consider limiting access. Maybe you could cut the lower branches so they can't reach?