What do you give your horses as treats?

C

caitli

New User
Joined
11 March 2011
Messages
3
Visit site
I currently don't own a horse, but I am in the process of buying one so I am learning all of the little things that will help me transition from rider to owner. For all my life, I have been taught that treats for horses are things such as carrots but I have a friend who treats her horses with violet sweets like parma violets, you know these things: http://www.twenga.co.uk/dir-Food-and-Drink,Sweet-delicacies,Violet-sweets she used to get them for the kids and then the horses got hold of them and adore them. Can these be any good for a horse? Can they be harming a horse? I was thinking more along the apple route myself... natural sugars... everything I have found online seems to be all about the natural. Can anyone advise? I'm sure she hasn't even thought about it harming her animals but I know she would want to know.
 
I don't buy treats, mine seldom get anything as I spend my whole life trying to balance their workload with their food intake. Occasionally they get a polo or two or an extra apple, or a sip of coke at a pub but generally, I am more inclined to reward them in other ways.
 
I used to buy those Spillers treats or the equibites but now my girl is on a very strict diet she's not allowed any. I do have a bag of Spillers High Fibre Nuts and if we are doing some clicker training I will put a handful in my pocket, she only gets about 2 at a time :)
 
Mine don't get treats really, I've had a few youngsters and they can get a bit nippy with treats from your hand so I don't tend to do it. A couple of the older one get a carrot or parsnip or a lump of swede now and then. If I want to reward one that has worked well they get a small feed afterwards.
 
Ours don't get treats aside from a sugar lump just before work (gets them salivating round the bit), and a sugar lump after work. Maybe a sugar lump during work if Bruce is being particularly outstanding!

We have spillers herb treats too, as sisters/PS horse is so fussy and doesn't eat apples, or carrots (unless they're grated...) or sugar lumps!


We make them cakes out of porridge oats/horse feed at Christmas though :)
 
I don't give many treats apart from a carrot each in their tea but they do get a piece of licorish each at the weekend.
An American friend told me that horses love it, I wasn't sure if mine would but they do, most horses seem to really like it.
 
i used to give my lad 'badminton tasty treats' but now i dont feed him treats by hand as he was getting to the stage he would constantly bug you for them. he gets small amounts of either broccoli stumps, carrots or cabbage which i put in with his feed.
 
I don't really like to give treats too much. They just get nippy and constantly check pockets!

I use lickitts for bribes with youngsters for clipping/shoeing etc for the first times.

I give spillers treats or a handful of mix when they've gone into the trailer first time (they all do!).

Other than that, they occasionally get a carrot/parsnip/apple, but there is no routine to that - there may be weeks inbetween times, so they don't expect treats.

I can't see that parma violets would be any worse than polos really (but what a crime! Parma violets are gorgeous!). Natural treats would obviously be better.
 
I'm always giving treats, pony nuts are brilliant, there tiny so don't make any dietary difference, the horses love them, and there quick and easy.
I also make a big fuss (of value more than the treat) and some of my horses have gone on do very well for themselves.
I recently heard back of one now owned by the saudi royal family!
Tit bits clearly never did him any harm. LOL


(PS, I don't give apples, they are ridiculously acidic and excess acid causes stomach ulcers)

:)
 
Polos morning and evening and after work, carrots in the feed an odd old apple here and there, but mainly to Juno as she is the one who will eat them. Meg is too fussy and Penny can't seem to get the idea about apples yet!
I've never had a problem hand treating any of my horses.
 
I rarely give treats by hand, but love trying our two with new things in their
suppers.
Both love marmite on toast, bananas, one eats the skin as well, the other one
eats the banana and spits the skin out, they get cabbages, swede, parsnip, carrots, apples, celery, boiled potatoes, baked potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, what they don't like they leave.
Oh and my boy loves slurping a large cup of white tea with sugar
 
George has a polo when I put his bridle on, I wanted him to associate being tacked up with something nice and now he practically opens his mouth when I pick up the bridle :eek:

He also gets one of the Hilton Herbal treats after he's been worked.

Other than that he doesn't get treats by hand, but usually has a carrot in his hay most days and he loves a whole swede in his stable which I get him now and again.
 
Mine loves a handful of cleavers and they are meant to be good for the immune system, so those. Also, though, probably not so good, he does have a Spillers treat when I catch him. He has always been good for being caught and I like to reinforce being caught is good!
 
Mine get Ginger biscuits. They love them. One in the morning before turnout (no brekkie), one after being ridden, and one on way to field, and then one at bedtime.

Don't have any probs with nipping, as they know thats as much as they get.

Very good for making baby horse stand for farrier at the start. Now he just gets tied up.
 
Nothing! Bea is not allowed treats from me, because once he has one, he fights for more and then constantly 'paws' like a dog everytime I go in the stable. But on occasions I allow little cousins to feed a polo, as long as he doesn't associate me with the food it's fine :) But I do know that he is extremely partial to my gran's sponge cake! I went to check on him at night - pj's on, tea and cake in hand and he took a huge chunk out of it! bad, bad pony :D
 
Mine has half a carrot in his muzzle, he sticks his head into it great ! He has another one before I leave in the eve, oh the looks if I go to walk away without giving it !

I give him sugar free polo's (max 2) now and then, used to give him apples but have gone off that idea.

Didn't think they could digest potato very well and high in starch aren't they ?

He can't have any sugary treats which most of them contain and especially not the lickets or horslyx, he had lami few years back and tyed up few years before that so no sugar
 
Don't tend to buy treats (what a nasty mean mummy :D) although I did sometimes used to buy the packets of Leoveties horse treats years ago, odd time I may buy a pack of polo’s but it's about twice a year :o

They don't get carrots either, maybe the odd one or two again once or twice a year.

I always give them a handful of mix as a treat when I came back from ride once I've untacked them, as a thank you for being good, but don't give them tit bits as Mackenzie can smell stuff in your pocket from a mile away and it just makes him even more nasty around other horses if you give him treats...even if it's well away from other horses like on the yard or in the stable, only makes him more possessive and I don't like him nuzzling my pockets looking for food all the time, which he’d do if I gave him regular treats.
 
A pat !

... or the soggy apples my mum gives me out of her fruit bowl sometimes ! I really don't see the need in treats - she appreciates being told she's a good girl in a nice voice when she behaves !
 
I don't give treats. Can't stand it when horses head-but you or try and get into your pockets etc. I especially don't like being nipped!! Also I'm really not convinced horses link it to you "loving them"!! But maybe I'm just a miserable old bugger!!

I find a good groom, or finding their favourite "scratchy place" much more rewarding, and think it helps strengthen your bond a lot more. I'd much rather be the one that knows exactly where he likes to be scratched and loved for that reason, rather than him just loving whoever is currently holding the polos!!
 
A polo when I put his head collar on and one when he takes the bit. No nipping because he knows that is when the polos come out, no other time. I don't do it to make him love me I do it to reward and smooth out those situations as he has been tricky in the past.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top