Planting trees in the Horse's Pasture

[ducks4you]

Ok. I have 6 trees to plant in my horse's pasture/turnout. One is a GD apple tree. It was a $5 clearance tree and it's really just a gift to my ponies. The other trees are, I think, junipers. I have kept them going now for 3 years. Right now, I have them planted around my raised beds, and I want to put them in along the west fence as a windbreak. I know WHERE and HOW FAR APART to plant them bc the previous property owner planted >40 pines in my south pasture. These have made a great windbreak, and he planted them about 12 feet from the fence and about 10-12 feet from each other. They've grown together enough to stop the wind, but I need an evergreen windbreak for the horses in the winter.
If I just plant them, my horses will run them over and kill them. Once they start running, it's too much fun to care about anything else, and their shelter is in this turnout area, so I can't fence them off of it.
Here is my plan:
1) prune stupid XXXXing (excuse my french) ash trees that have fallen apart but NOT died. The limbs are about 4 inches in diameter, and about 15 ft. tall.
2) lash 4 limbs/tree together to make a protective fence for each tree AND secure at the top
3) dig the hole, place the "fence", plant the tree, refill dirt
4) pray for enough rain
My thought is that each tree will grow up and hopefully the "fences" will just rot out over the years.
Has anyone every done this before? If you think I should use fence posts, I really cannot bc they could get impaled on a metal post, thus my idea of using wood.
If you have ANY ideas, I'm listening. Probably won't get the GD apple tree planted for a few weeks, but I want them all in before Spring is over, so I don't have to water them.

The GOOD thing about this is that the junipers were free, so I've only invested $5 so far in this project.

 

[canesisters]

My old mare is a merciless belly scratcher. Any fence that doesn't 'bite' WILL be scratched on and if possible climbed, straddled and broken down. I wanted very much to plant some memosas in the pasture for summer shade but knowing how Gale has bent down and killed EVERY single tree with a trunk she can bend in the other pasture I figured it wasn't worth the trouble. I assume that your fences are either wood or woven wire? If your ponies are usually respectful of the fences, then I don't see any reason that this won't work - being careful, of course, of any projecting points. But you know this already.

 

[thistlebloom]

I think your protective branch fencing should work Ducks. One thing you've probably already thought about, but I'll bring up, is making sure your protection is solid enough that a horse itching his hind end on it won't bring it tumbling down on the tree it's protecting.

I don't know if you get reliable rain in the summer, we don't here, but a new tree is going to have a tough time establishing a good root system if it's not watered regularly for at least the first year. That first year is crucial for how the tree will thrive for the rest of it's life.

Since you probably don't have a convenient way to get water on them, maybe you could get some 5 gallon buckets ( you can scrounge them up free at various places ), drill a small hole at the base, then drill another small hole in the lid and put two by each tree to slow water them.

Naturally you'll need to figure a way to fill the buckets. I have a little trailer that is pulled by our quad, and I load the buckets, drive to the spigot, plug the hole in the bucket with a little stick, fill buckets, haul them back. Yeah, it's a lot of labor, but water makes the difference between trees that just survive and those that grow and are healthy.

Good luck with those trees, I hope they do well for you!

 

[ducks4you]

I have metal fencing. Plenty of it--4 acres worth.

This is the GD apple tree that will be a neighbor to the little $5 one I want to put in.
I believe that they might rub on the baby tree...after they've exhausted all of their other favorite rubbing spots..like the two stripped pines behind.
I CAN connect hoses to water them...just a pain in the neck to have to do it.