My yearling doesn't like carrots...

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Dry Rot

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….which is a damned nuisance because a slice of carrot is so convenient to give as a reward. (It's alright, they have to earn it, we don't give treats here!). She will take a slice of carrot with a little pile of soaked sugar beet on the top which is a nuisance to arrange and impossible in a strong wind but she has developed an aversion to straight carrots. Very annoying!

Any ideas for a substitute? (Not Polos, it has to be cheap. I'm mean!).
 
Took me years to get my Arab to eat carrots, apple and polo's, the polo's took the longest and even now at 10 wont eat anything other than those and food meant for horses tried pear and swede wont touch it, I used to cut it very thinly almost like its been grated and he will eat swede this way in his feed, you could cut it really thin and dunk it in the sugar beet.
 
My mare much preferred the green tops to the carrots themselves and is still not fussed. I don't do treats at all, but there is no way I can eat a muesli bar without sharing with her and her big bro. They don't like chocolate though.

Try your Arabian on dates - mine love them. It's genetic.
 
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Hehehehe - I would relish it while you can. Mine didn't know what carrots, apples, polos etc were and now he can sniff them out at 80 paces.

Have you tried fibre cubes or similar? Although polo's might be cheaper, especially if broken into smaller pieces :D
 
My shetland doesn't like apples, though is your typical greedy pony and will take a piece of apple if you offer it to her before looking completely horrified and spitting it back out!
 
NZJenny said:
My mare much preferred the green tops to the carrots themselves and is still not fussed. I don't do treats at all, but there is no way I can eat a muesli bar without sharing with her and her big bro. They don't like chocolate though.

Try your Arabian on dates - mine love them. It's genetic.
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I will give them a try do you mean the dried ones that come in a box and eaten at Christmas?
 
Last summer I went XC training with Jay-man, and before we went I had some Tesco fruit salad. It was the basic one, with orange juice. I decided to leave Jay the apple pieces for after.....

We had a great time, I washed him, walked him and loaded him, and then fed him the apple pieces. Oh yes, apple, he tucked in, only to be startled and horrified that there was a trace of Orange juice on the pieces. He spat them out, and refused to eat them even when I had rinsed them off.

I forgot about it, but at home we have apple trees, and Jay had been having 3 or 4 apples in each feed. No, not any more. Jay designated apples as food of the devil, and ate his food from around them, or sometimes even threw them out of his dish.

It took winter with no apples before he forgot, he is just eating this year's crop now. I will not be offering any fruit salad.
 
Celery is a good healthy alternative, not so healthy, marmite on toast, ginger biscuits, melon, whisky, tea, (been mugged for Tea) one of mine will try anything, one memorable time, my daft daughter gave him a raw egg, which he took then spat it back all over her, my old sensible TB treats everything with suspicion, the only horse I know to nibble a biscuit, it took him ages to eat a banana skin, he would eat the banana and spit out the skin.
 
Red-1 said:
Last summer I went XC training with Jay-man, and before we went I had some Tesco fruit salad. It was the basic one, with orange juice. I decided to leave Jay the apple pieces for after.....

We had a great time, I washed him, walked him and loaded him, and then fed him the apple pieces. Oh yes, apple, he tucked in, only to be startled and horrified that there was a trace of Orange juice on the pieces. He spat them out, and refused to eat them even when I had rinsed them off.

I forgot about it, but at home we have apple trees, and Jay had been having 3 or 4 apples in each feed. No, not any more. Jay designated apples as food of the devil, and ate his food from around them, or sometimes even threw them out of his dish.

It took winter with no apples before he forgot, he is just eating this year's crop now. I will not be offering any fruit salad.
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I suspect something similar has happened with this filly. I don't know what but she really does not like carrots! I'll be trying some of the suggestions here but I suspect she will be suspicious of most new things until she gets weaned onto them. It is so much easier to entice a slightly nervous pony with a reward first, then do some scratching!
 
Pinkvboots said:
I will give them a try do you mean the dried ones that come in a box and eaten at Christmas?
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Don't know about them coming in a box just at Christmas. We can buy them in the super market all year around here, but yes, the dried ones without the stones.
 
I've often found the TB's off the track have had no experience with treats.

What I've done is to push a slice of carrot/apple or a mint as far as ossicle up the side of the cheek right to the back and often once they've worked it forward found they actually like it.

With mints I generally lick them first so that the flavour releases immediately. Mine frisk me for mints which I find to be a great treat as you can also eat them yourself and they don't go limp and soggy in your pocket.

Mine all get a couple of extra strong mints before they are wormed. It disguises the smell and taste of the wormer. Then they get one after as well.
 
We get the foals going by mixing grated carrot with soaked sugar beet. That has always worked until this one. Maybe I'd better start again? But once they are back with the herd, it is difficult to give feed to individuals.
 
not the cheapest, but the only treat I know that will get a wily old shetland to leave spring grass for - 'Herballs'. Can be fed safely to EMS ponies so should be fine for a youngster. The treats fit fine into a pocket.

Incidentally, Welshie has never liked carrots, still refuses them though she has now discovered the joys of getting an apple if she hacks to the village shop. Herballs trump everything for her too.
 
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