What Human Foods Can Your Horse Eat?

As a horse owner, dog owner, and pet owner in general, I love giving my animals a taste of the food I’m eating. When it comes to sharing food with my horse, I’ve discovered that my horse enjoys a lot of human food besides just apples and carrots. Here’s a list of the human foods I find great for sharing with your horse!

*Disclaimer: The particular foods I have fed my horses have not caused any negative reaction in my horses; however, if you’d like to know how these foods might affect your horse, consult a veterinarian. Another disclaimer is obviously don’t feed your horses these treats in large quantity.*

Cheerios

All of my horses LOVE cheerios, and its a simple and healthy treat! I’ve found one of my old horses with her nose in my lunchbox trying to get to a bag of cheerios I had inside. They especially like the honey-nut flavor.

Granola

Granola makes a nutritious treat for horses just as much as it does for humans. I buy the bags of crumbled granola to give to my horses, but I’m sure you could feed them a granola bar as well. Just make sure you break the granola bar in half before feeding to avoid choke.

French Fries

I’m not sure how many equestrians will back me up on this, but horses love french fries. (as mentioned above, fed in small quantity!) It’s probably due to the salt sprinkled across the french fries that make this such an endearing treat for a horse.

I once took my horse to Chick-Fil-A for a fundraiser and she stole a box of french fries right out of a kid’s hand. That’s how I learned that horses like french fries. (This was the same horse breaking into my lunchbox for cheerios.)

Popsicles

When I was growing up, I would spend every day during the summer at the barn from sun-up to sun-down. I basically lived off of the popsicles in the barn refrigerator. This is when I started giving bites of my popsicle to my horse. It was one of those plastic tube popsicles, so my horse and I would take turns having a bite of ice.

Sugar Cubes

It’s no secret that horses love sugar cubes. They like to eat sugar cubes just as much as humans like to put it in their coffee. These make a great small and tasty treat for your horse, plus it’s fun to stack them in a pyramid.

Peppermints

Horses and humans alike love peppermint treats. Horses like peppermint so much that many oral medications for horses are masked in peppermint flavor.

If you want to feed your horse peppermints, be sure to purchase the soft peppermint candies. If you feed your horse the hard candy peppermint, the hard candy can cause cuts to the horse’s throat and may cause choke.

Peanut Butter

Did you know that the way they were able to make Mr. Ed talk on that old T.V show was by sticking peanut butter in his bottom lip? Horses love peanut butter, and it also makes them move their lips as if they were talking! You can use peanut butter to feed your horse medicine or just to give them a small treat. It’s usually an ingredient in home-made horse treats.

Raisins

I’ve always fed my horses raisins since I can’t stand them. If my mom had packed them in my lunch for the barn, I just gave them to my horse. It’s said that raisins are nature’s candy, and horses sure seem to think so. They’re a fast and easy treat that your horse will enjoy.

 

That that you have your treats picked out, it’s time to sit down and enjoy your horse move. Check out our article 18 Greatest Horse Movies (Picked By an Actual Equestrian.)

 

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