Favorite treats/recipies

[DappleGray]

Whats everyone's favourite treat to give their horse/the horse they ride? are they just plain apples or carrots or do they have a recipe and different ingredients? p.s. yeah, i know don't give a horse too many treats and hand feeding can encourage nipping..

[HAYLEY GITTOES]

My horse loves all treats she isn't fussy! I dont feed apples never. I feed carrots with food but not as a treat.

I also give her plently of polos, but I carn't recommend any as she loves them all!

[maverick927]

My pony likes polos.

[Miriam]

Fruit and veg. We have tried Apples , carrots, pea pods, melon, oranges all of which she likes. Then we have tried broad beans, pears and bannanas which she does not like.

[¶¤Lil Cowgirl¤¶]

I usually make homemade treats for my own horse but last summer the pony i worked with all summer well i gave him the greens from carrots, carrots, apples, and stud muffins... but this pony would eat ANYTHING he ate appricots, pixie sticks (sugar), he would drink any kind of pop, any kind of cady lol, but i didnt feed that to him... lol. ;)

[Soleil]

I usually just feed Sadie a carrot, or apple, and an alfalfa treat if we've got 'em (which is rare.) I've not had the time to look at the horse treat recipicies that are out there as of yet....so not tried those.

[Georgie B]

Rhia obviously likes apples (for which she always get one after she's been worked only). I put carrots in her feed and in her haynet. She loves parsnips and swede. She obviously has the rare treat of polos and sugar cubes. She loves hula hoops (my 3 young children told me that!) and oh yes, every now and again I'll buy her a big jaffa orange or some fresh orange juice (she prefers freshly squeezed!!). My children also tell me she likes digestives and rich tea biscuits!

[Hevz2001]

There is a pear tree just before you enter Roz's paddock. Roz is sneaky and when you turn her out she will often grab a pear!!!!
She doesn't seem to be affected by pears and her owner doesn't seem too bothered, but I was just wondering if it really is ok to let her eat pears, and whether or not pears make good treats because I have never heard of people feeding them to horses before.

[chapsi]

My vet says that it's ok to feed all kinds of fruit to your horse, as long as it has stones. My horse loves pears, everyday I make an issue of feeding him 1-1,5 kg of fresh goodies on top of this feed, after work. When he eats pears, he mashes them up, salivates froth on top of the mash and then he slurps happily... very disgusting. Just one more thing, my vet alerts that any fruit or vegetables must be cut in quarters to avoid risk of chock.

[¶¤Lil Cowgirl¤¶]

Hey!

There was a article about what types of fruit not to feed to horses in the Q&A section of last months HI ( horse illustrated);)

[chapsi]

Sorry guys,
I made a mistake; it is ok to feed any fruit to horses, as long as it has NO stones. So, apples, pears, quinces are good for them.

[Mazpup]

hehe, after seeing all the horse treat recipes there are around, I dont think I'll ever buy treats again! Then again, I'm already saving money, by using the free sugar cubes u get with tea etc.! I always give my apple cores to the horses - but can they eat bananas - once Buzz (our yards resident shetland who isnt ridden but thinks he's a dog!) stole my banana out of my bag, and ate the whole thing, including the peel!

[ali cat]

the horse i used to look after when i was a bairn loved oranges---juicier the better--and would take treacle (thick black molasses)off a wooden spoon too

[GingerPonyz]

Ginger likes all fruits i've tried. especially strawberries, which she dosen't get much. Occasionally she gets a sugar cube, which she likes too. Other treats ive tried are alfalfa chews, carrots, and homeade treats with mollasses and carrots, etc.

[SJ]

I'm sure this isn't usually done and some of you will tell me it's probably dangerous but my daughter's Irish jumping pony literally begs for a bite of a Mr Whippy ice cream at shows. If you eat one in front of her she stands with one hoof up in the air snorting until she gets a mouthful. Then makes the funniest faces and asks for more. Makes us all laugh and hasn't done her any harm yet.

Sara Jane

[Jay.o]

i give mine Sugar Free polos.
they are all quite fat so these are great as they are on a diet and they dont put any more wieght on.
plus you can eat them to !!!!!

[Lucy J]

my old horse loved chocolate, salt and vinegar chipsticks, tea biscuits, digestives, polos, especially mint aeros, flakes and wispas, carrots, apples, pears.

hated bananas, oranges. carnation milk!, ice cream.

[lisae]

This past weekend my husband wanted to try and get a recipe going for horse treats, which he wants to offer along with the hay we sell. We put together a mix from some recipes on the net and got a nice baked cookie consisting of sweet feed, minced apples and carrots, soy oil, a little ground flaxseed and lots of oatmeal. We had lots of baggies of baked treats in the refrigerator, which my kids kept thinking were human cookies! The horses liked them but the goat was wild for them. She'd break into a canter with her head down, running wildly and trying to get to the fence for the handout before the three horses did. Too cute.

I note that bananas will give a goat almost instant diarrhea, so I've never tried them on the horses!

[floppy]

my horse loves bananas. She is the only one out of the 20 horses at the yard that loves bananas...but she doesnt get them too often..only when there is a really brown one sitting in the ktichen that noone wants to eat. Only other fruit and veg i have given her is apples and carrots.

after riding she walways get something - a few carrots, or apples or bananas etc.

IF she has down somethign REALLY good and i am really proud of her she gets a small bowl of her favourtie feed with some fruit and veg in it.

I gave her a polo once and she thought they were great and so i offered her another one and she almost took my hand with the polo...she goes a bit wild for them.

but i also buy a kile of horse treats from my local tack shop for £1.50 and they are really yummy. you can choose from lots of different types and i always take carrot treats, herb treats, vanilla treats - smell yummy. and then there are these funny donut treats and banana treats and apple treats - all biscuit type (cookie) treats.

And whenever my mum goes to england she buys me differnt horses treats. She told me yesterday she bough tme some honey bix and horse peppermints.

[tasha]

Pears are fine, in fact ours go mad for them! We're on what used to be orchard, and the old trees line each paddock. We've got plum paddock, pear paddock and apple paddock.

Only Kally really likes the apples, and I dont blame them because they are mostly cookers so are sharp and horrible! If you pick a pear you will end up with 5 fighting horses each desperate for some. They too froth with the juice, but are too greedy to do anything about it like chapsi's horse.

We have fed the odd plum but are wary cos of the stones. But the horses do like them. They also like the leaves from the trees, and will strip them if they are particularly hungry!

Other treats I have fed are the 80p bags of biscuits you get from most tack shops, and the diamond biscuits from Spiller's Cool Mix!

[*cowgirl up*]

I on a ranch and we have 55 acres of pears, they are great for horses. i feed them to them whole, My Appy mare likes to chomp them in 3 bites and then drools all over me as she chews it. Pears are fine to give your horse!:)

[Tina&Dale]

I've tried to feed my horse lots of different fruits and vegetables, but he's just very boring about his food - he only eats carrots!

I tried apples, watermelon, mango, cherries, grapes, turnips, but all he eats are carrots, oh and these disgusting tasting little fruits that fall off a tree in the clubs quadrangle.

I even stewed pumpkin to mix with his food one time and he totally turned up his nose!

Oh well, carrots are cheap! :D

[Kerry Claire]

Apples
Carrots
bread
the odd liquorice sweet
turnip and the other thing people always confuse it with
sugar cubes
polos
the odd orange segment

[laura jeanne]

What are polos exactly? Are they mints. I never heard of them here in Texas.

[Kerry Claire]

laura jeanne: yep, that's exactly what they are, polo mints. They're the shape of a ring doughnut but much smaller - about 1cm in diameter, they come in 3 flavours: original, spearmint and citrus, and they are "the mint with a hole"!

[barebackqueen76]

wat r polos? i thought that was a game?

my horse LOVES anything. he'll even eat nilla wafers and animal crackers! i usually give him Nicker Makers and/or Harvest Hearts (i font know the brand name but there r also Super Stars, some kind of square treats that r different mint flavors, and a new kind that has flaxseed in it.)

i also give him watermelon, cucumber, umm....carrots, nectarines, and apples. i think i have given him a banana before but i dont know if he ate it or not. if he didnt then i gave it to another horse.

where r some of the recipes yall found? do yall have recipes?

~Rachel

[barebackqueen76]

oops someone has already asked that question. i live in GA i have never heard of them.

i didnt read all the way to the bottom so i didnt see that ? asked.

oopps ill guess ill read more next time

~Rachel

[horseygal90]

:eek: You guys don't know about polos? Wow... :D (No offense, of course) The horses at our old stables were very boring, just eating polos and Carrots. Can't you make your own 'ice lollies' for horses when its really hot? Water, their fave fruit, and a freezer! I don't really know if it works though!

[barebackqueen76]

i guess polos r only in UK or somin.

wat r "ice lollies"

~Rachel

[horseygal90]

Sorry, basically its a tub of ice with various bits of fruit in it... Like icecream, but with out the cream and sugar. They do them for zoo animals sometimes, when it's so hot that they can't cope. Not that I'm comparing horses to zoo animals! Also, it takes a while to defrost/melt and keeps them busy!

[^_^pEpPeRpOt^_^]

This is probly bad for them but my instrutor fed one of the horses chocolate it was so cute he loved it =D lol

[fizz-tally]

there have been several horse deaths lately due to chocolate:(
bananas can be fed to horses but not too many as they can not handle all the potassium[sp].
bread is another thing you should not feed to horses.
we feed apples[not cooking as harmful in large amouts]/carrots/mints/bananas/turnip[without the peel as horses should not eat it]horse treats & we have large field licks in with them which they love:D