Safe horse treats?

[KristyHall]

I know you can give horses apples and carrots, and over the winter, when we were snowed in and ran out of hay I gave my horses turnips and turnip greens along with their grain and what they could forage in desperation until I could get supplies to them.

I have seen my horses eat all sorts of crazy things. So I have to wonder what other fruits and veggies do people give their horses for treats? Pears? Quince's? Cherries? Plums? peaches? squash? cooked beans?

 

[Akane]

It would take a lot of something to poison a horse so all fruits and vegetables are probably safe. There are only a handful that aren't considered safe in small mammals and birds like avocados and anything from the garlic or onion family. The only thing I'd really worry about is all pits should be removed because the pit of most fruit is toxic so I wouldn't hand them a whole cherry and let them eat the pits. Most other pits are probably big enough they'd spit them out but you can easily twist most ripe fruit in half and pop the pit out before feeding it to animals. We throw ours entire melons in the summer and they get a lot of leftover corn cobs and all the green parts from sweet corn.

None of this will replace hay at all. In fact without hay feeding a large amount of a fruit, vegetable, or grain that they aren't used to getting could increase the odds of colic. We just generally don't see colic and bloat from fruit or vegetable in horses since it would take so much of it and hay helps keep the digestive tract moving to prevent such things. Beet pulp can be used in place of hay and wheat bran would probably be an ok temporary fiber substitute if you ran out of hay. Both could be kept on hand as emergency ration so long as you keep the mice out of it.

 

[TMNTCkins]

Our horses LOVE watermelon.

 

[Luna9]

Other than the regular carrots and apples, mine LOVE strawberries!

 

[arabianequine]

They will love anything sweet but not sure that means all they will eat is good for them or won't cause them to get sick. I have heard of people giving them bread?

 

[Peaches Lee]

Bananas, peppermints, anise candies.

 

[GhostRider65]

My crazy horses will eat anything they see us eat, which has included banana's, toast with jelly, watermelon, apples, carrots, love pears, sweetcorn, oatmeal cookies, peanut butter cookies, muffins any kind, I make them there own sometimes. They also try to drink my coffee, if they can turn my cup over.
Whatever you try do be careful a horses diet should be 90% or better roughage,/Hay/Alfalfa/grass. Horses can not survive on treats, they also need an adjustment time when playing with there feed you got lucky no one got a belly ache or worse with the turnips. Always have an extra few bales of hay around when a storm is approaching, it may save your horses lives, I always watch to see when the weather is taking a turn for the worse and count bales to make sure I have plenty just in case of an emergency...... if need be I will run to get more if I think I might need it.
Horses are meant by nature to eat almost 24/7/365, their system requires large amounts of forage to digest to make heat and turn into energy, and growth. Quick changes in their feed start a cycle that is not good for them, their stomach make acid 24 hours a day, if they go too long without food or eat the wrong food, they could easily colic and die.
Keep treats to a minimum and feed hay/grass as their main stay diet. every 6 hours if that's possible, I feed mine 4 times a day, 5 in the winter when they need extra forage for heat. Plus their pellets which are not grain vit. minerals, and alfalfa, horses don't need grain it really isn't good for them. Kim

 

[gertiie]

Walnuts are poisonous to them. Our family horse loved applesauce and spaghetti. My personal horse would share my Moutain Dew and Doritos. Broccoli gives them bad gas !~

 

[petchickenlover]

I found out that my horse loves cookies

i was eating one next to her one day, and she snatched it when i wasn't paying attention. now whenever i have one she nickers at me

Edited to fix spell fail.

 

[welsummerchicks]

There isn't anything - no treat or even concentrate feed (grains) - except safe grazing - that can replace hay.

Please don't run out of hay in winter.