What Treats Can Horses Eat?

Apples and carrots are the classic horse treats, and a few other fruits and vegetables join them, along with plain store bought horse treats. The question is less what than how much and in what shape.

Apples, carrots and what else

A horse takes an apple wedge or a carrot stick from a flat palm and crunches it with obvious pleasure. Cut an apple into wedges and not into rounds, and cut a carrot into sticks as long as your finger, not coins. A piece that is too small to bite properly is the one that slips straight down.

Beyond those two, the list is short and ordinary. Banana, pear, melon and the middle of a pumpkin all come up in barns, and some horses take a sprig of fresh mint. Every horse has opinions, and a horse that has refused apples all its life will take a peppermint without hesitating.

Wash what you give, and give it fresh. A bruised apple from the bottom of a bag is still an apple, but a moldy one is not a treat.

A tub of apple wedges rides well on a trail ride if it has a lid, and a carrot or two in a saddle bag is the original travel treat. Both bruise, so cut them the same day. Leftovers go in the compost, not in the tack room.

Store bought horse treats

Store bought treats come as cookies, pellets, cubes and chews, and they exist because they travel well and keep. A bag in the tack room is easier to carry than a bucket of apples. They are also the treat that needs the most reading, because a label lists what is in the bag and an apple does not.

Shape matters in a store bought treat the way it does in a wedge. A cookie that breaks is a cookie that turns to dust in a pocket, and a pellet treat pours easily into a palm and also onto the ground. Pick the one that matches how you carry it.

Turn the bag over and read the start of the ingredient list. One that opens with sugar, molasses or a syrup tells you where the sweetness comes from. A list that opens with oats or alfalfa or bran tells you something else. Neither one is wrong, and both are worth noticing before you buy a second bag.

The horse treats collection lists what is in stock. For the hands on side of giving one, how to hand feed a horse a treat covers technique.

How many treats a horse gets

The Merck Veterinary Manual calls forage, meaning hay and pasture, the basis of the equine diet, and everything else is an addition to it. A treat is part of the day's feed, not a separate allowance on top of it. If a horse has had a handful of cookies, it has had a share of the day.

A treat does not need to be sweet to work. Many horses will come across a field for a plain carrot stick, so try the plain one before reaching for the cookie. A bucket of leftovers does not belong in the stall overnight either, since it draws flies and mice.

A practical way to hold the line: decide the number before you walk to the stall. Three pieces of apple are three pieces of apple. A bag in a pocket with no number attached is a bag that is empty by the time you reach the gate.

Horses learn pockets fast. A horse that has been hand fed from a jacket pocket will nose at every jacket in the barn, including the farrier's, and a horse that checks pockets is not a rude horse, only a well trained one. The trade off for hand feeding is that bond and a pocket checker arrive together. If that is not what you want, put the treat in a bucket and not in your hand.

The number is also a way to tell the rest of the household. Whoever feeds in the evening should know what was given in the morning, and a note on the stall door, three wedges and one cookie, is enough to do it.

Sugar on the label

Treat labels and real food speak different languages, and USDA FoodData Central is the bridge between them. USDA entries put raw apple with skin at about 10 grams of sugars per 100 grams, and raw carrot at about 5 grams per 100 grams. That gives you two real foods to measure a cookie against.

Some horse treat labels print a sugar or starch figure in the analysis, and where a label does, set that line beside the apple and carrot figures, all per 100 grams. A treat that prints a lot more than a real apple is a treat in the old sense of the word, and it belongs in the pocket for a particular day, not for every one. If a label prints no sugar figure at all, the ingredient order is the next best clue.

Barns tend to have a dog or two underfoot. Sniff and Shift freeze dries and air dries treats in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania, for dogs and cats, and none of that line is suggested for the horse. Treats for every animal in the house sorts the site by animal for a barn that has several.

Common questions

Can horses eat apple cores and seeds?

Many people cut the core out and give wedges, which is simpler and avoids the question. If you want a firm answer on seeds, ask a licensed professional who cares for your horse. Wedges are easier for a horse to bite than a whole apple.

How many carrots can a horse have in a day?

The Merck Veterinary Manual calls forage the basis of a horse's diet, so carrots are an addition to it. Decide the number before you go to the stall, and keep it small. A carrot cut into sticks lasts longer than a whole one thrown into a bucket.

Why does my horse nose my pockets?

A horse that has been fed from a pocket learns where the treats live. It is a learned habit, not bad manners. Feed from a bucket, or ask for a step back before any treat.

Are horse treats with molasses worth buying?

That depends on what you want from the treat. Molasses near the front of the ingredient list tells you where the sweetness comes from. Compare the label with the sugar figures in USDA FoodData Central for apple and carrot.