How good is the horses' sense of sniff out a carrot smell?

newforest

newforest

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Mar 15, 2008
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The cob will take what I offer her, she might then spit it out, but she will trust me enough to try the food.
When she arrived she didn't know what a polo was, and bless her she wasn't confident to trust me either.

So, carrots are commonly orange.
But you can get, black, purple, red, yellow and white varieties.
You know me and challenges. :D

Who knows where you can buy the other varieties, are they a) edible for humans and more important edible for horses.
I want to see if she will eat a piece that looks completely odd.
Can you get different coloured apples?
 
Oooh I didn't know about different coloured carrots! Lol
Storm sniffs and sniffs and then makes a scared dragon snort if offered anything remotely different. First time giving her a banana and she ran to the corner of her stable. Hmm. She doesn't react that badly now, I think she has a bit more trust. But they don't see colours like we do - least I thought not. Think they might see them similar to sheep???
 
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Mine will eat almost anything from my hand, or as you say try it, so can't imagine a purple carrot being an issue. I've only seen them for sale in fancier places.
 
We used to grow them at Calke Abbey where I was a garden volunteer, we sold them to the public if there were any left after the restaurant had had there pick. I imagine if you can get them she’ll be able to tell right away what they are, they taste and smell exactly the same as orange carrots, in fact carrots were never orange originally but white, yellow and purple, the ones we grew were old varieties.
 
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When I scatter chopped carrots in the grass, Ziggy homes in on them by eye, but finds them in the end by scent. I don't think colour would make any difference at all. If I see a purple carrot, I will try it!
 
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Torin, Rhan and Tigger ate purple carrots just as they would orange. Didn't sniff or look unsure for even a second. My dad grew them last year,very pretty to look at but obviously not a jot of difference in the 4 leggeds eyes :rolleyes:
 
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mystiquemalaika said:
Torin, Rhan and Tigger ate purple carrots just as they would orange. Didn't sniff or look unsure for even a second. My dad grew them last year,very pretty to look at but obviously not a jot of difference in the 4 leggeds eyes :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Maybe not worth the hassle then.
It might just be a case of yum thanks. She trusts me not to poison her then. :D
 
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That's a cracking photo, I'd like to try a nibble from each of those.

I called in the little Tesco I pass on my way home to get Raf some carrots. They only had organic ones that were all mouldy or these long thin ones, specially packaged up with a fancy name - £1.75 for 450 g :eek: I had to get them because there was no alternative, so when I broke the package open I tried one, expecting some sort of miracle in the mouth. It just tasted like ... carrot :rolleyes:
 
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This thread piped up in my notifications so had a look as forgot about my carrot search.
However I found this article and the horse sees our orange carrot as plain green, our blue is their moave. So the only one of those she might look twice at would be the yellow, because they see that brighter than us.
I hid an orange/ green carrot in her grooming kit and let her sniff she didn't pick it out.

PicsArt_10-29-10.35.14.png
 
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newforest said:
This thread piped up in my notifications so had a look as forgot about my carrot search.
However I found this article and the horse sees our orange carrot as plain green, our blue is their moave. So the only one of those she might look twice at would be the yellow, because they see that brighter than us.
I hid an orange/ green carrot in her grooming kit and let her sniff she didn't pick it out.

View attachment 95473
Click to expand...

Fascinating!!!!
 
lucky horse M&S carrots.....some of ours like the filly would be suspicious, she expects to be poisoned. Buddy would eat anything, suze would be more cautious, leo wouldn't hesitate. Doubt the donkeys would notice the difference.
 
What do you buy a cob who has everything. A purple carrot.

I tried one piece and I think it tasted less sweet than I am used to.

Check out the inside. Yellow. She just stuck her head in and ate them. Possibly because orange ones do not look orange.
PicsArt_12-06-07.17.51.jpg
 
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