</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Proper name is hedgeapple, but called horse apples around here )</font>
I grew up in southern Oklahoma, where they were also called horse apples, but I thought the proper name was bois d'arc. And when I was little kid, I thought I knew why they were called horse apples, because my first horse loved'em; ate'em like candy. We didn't have any in our pasture, so I'd go get them from the adjoining neighbor's pasture for him. And then later, I had two other horses, and I never saw a horse that would touch one except that first old horse.