Safe Treats For Your Horse

 treats is to put them in a bucket or feeder.

Some treats can be a choking hazard. Apples and carrots are safest to feed cut into pieces. Only feed a very small amount of any hard foods like mints and hay cubes. A greedy horse may not chew the treat completely and bolt it down. The food can then become lodged in the horse's throat, causing choke.

In the book, "Arabian Exodus," author Margaret Greely describes the Bedouin custom of feeding horses whole dates. After their meal, the trough would be covered in pits. While swallowing a few date pits might not cause a problem, you'll want to remove the pit or stone of any fruit you feed if it is large enough to cause a choking hazard.

Some things are not good for treats:

• Lawn, hedge or garden clippings.
• Anything in the mustard family like broccoli, cabbage leaves, kale or cauliflower.
• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Acorns
• Chocolate, which, if you are competing, can cause a positive drug test.

Don't feed treats to a strange horse. The horse could have a medical condition that disallows certain types of food. Some owners don't believe in feeding treats at all. Dispose of food wrappings out of reach of your horse. A bag smelling of sticky peppermints could be ingested and cause a blockage that could be deadly.1

surprisingly weird foods, from roast beef sandwiches to ice cream. Historically, horses have been fed some strange things to survive, like fish. However, horses are herbivores, or animals whose digestive system is geared to digesting grass and soft plant matter. Although some horses can eat these things with no apparent ill effects, it is always better to stick to treats similar to their natural foodstuffs. Learn about foods a horse should not eat.