Stupid family and Annoying horse

[Fanch]

Getting to the point, my mom, knowing we would have horses in the back yard, planted 2 apple trees there. Now, about 4 years later, MacDuff has taken a liking to eating them. Hes getting plenty of food, but still wants to nibble between meals. They spend all their time in 3/4 of an acre, which has som,e grass, bushes, etc. But he dosn't want to eat the grass, he wants the tree. So much so he has been spoted leaping on his hind legs to get to the leaves.

My mother and brother keep blaming me for this, saying I have to stop him. Its not like I can stand there all day and tick him off when he does. But they still insit that its my fault, and I have to fix the problem. I don't even want the trees. Last year I picked the apples for everyone, and they ALL went to rot. I say just get rid of the trees, my brother says thats a "horse person additude, and its beside the point." I don't really care, but until the problems done, I going to keep getting bugged about it.

Im the only one in the family that can do physical work, and don't have a lot of money. My first idea was to pound posts around the two trees and wrap page wire (we have the page wire) around those. But that would invole me diging 8 holes, which I could do, but having to pay someone to pound the post is out of my buget, unless I covince my mom to pay.

So, I'm out of ideas, and wondering if anyone has any???

I also really needed to vent, its very annoying that my family loves the horses, but when their "distructive" its all my fault and the horses are stupid.

 

[txminipinto]

Just wondering, but why are you the only one that can do physical work?

 

[Brandi*]

A few months ago I had to figure out a way to keep Miss Melody from eating all the cherries that were falling. I used the plastic t-posts that I already had and ran some hot wire to section off the area where they were falling. It worked very well and it was so easy to do. I did it myself, no digging involved. You can also use metal t-posts which aren't that big of a deal to put in especially if you have a pounder (not sure what it's called) for them. If you don't I am sure you could ask a local farmer if they have one you could use. Just an idea that worked for me

Edited to add:

Here are some pics of what I did. As you can see our cherry tree is huge. I angled the wire across the pasture but you could just as easily make a circle around your tree

I put electric tape in the middle so that they could see the new fence

 

[McBunz]

Run a little ribbon electric fencing around the trees.. all it will take is a few stakes pounded into the ground and

the hot wire..

 

[wpsellwood]

use t-post I can even pound them in

then wire attached to t-post.l I would never get rid of tree, Im a tree hugger, love my trees

 

[Fanch]

I'm not sure if they is anyone local with a pounder, but I know moms got one befoe, so I'll ask her this evening.

Where would I buy t-posts? Also, how far did you pound these down??

I am the only one that can do physical work because my mom has had a bad back since she was 20, and my brother slipped a disk at work last June, its to the point that walking down to the beach (15 minutes away) hurts his back. Hes trying to get wcb to cover him, but they have turned him down so far.

 

[Brandi*]

You just pound them in until they feel sturdy. Do you have a home depot or lowes near your house? They will have the metal t-posts. And you can get the plastic ones at feed supplies most of the time

 

[wpsellwood]

They usually have like a spade on them I guess you would call you will see, it keeps the t post in, just pound until that is covered by dirt. Like I said if I can do it then Im sure you can

good luck and heck you will save a tree for shade.

 

[Keri]

There's a T on the bottom of the t-post. You'll pound that until the T is all the way into the ground. You may be able to just wrap the tree good in fencing and keep him off of it (not sure how big the tree is??). But you'd have to redo the wire every year to add for growth.

 

[Boinky]

you can also buy the fiberglass or plastic posts. those are usually really easy to get in and work great in rocky ground that you can't get bigger posts (we can't get T posts in here even). Hot wire i would say is probably your cheapest and best bet.