What's the strangest thing your horse eats? Are they allowed chocolate for easter?

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katherine1975

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Just wondering whether horses eat chocolate, and is it bad for them? Silly Easter post! Also what other strange things does your horse like? As they like polos so much do they eat mint plants?
 
My lad loves mint plants - I discovered that by mistake when he got into a herb garden at Pony Camp!

I wouldn't give him chocolate; but I don't think it's poisonous for them - it is for dogs.

You could try Gingernut biscuits - just about everything on the yard goes nuts for them. (The horses I mean. I hadn't asked the staff!) Bannanas can be quite popular. As can a lick (or huge mouthful!) of small owner's ice cream. Mr Whippy type appears the most popular. Guiness out of the can. (Not the bottle - too risky..) Crisps.

Once you take a group of pony club kids on a picnic ride you'd be amazed at what the ponies will eat!
 
My Haffie stole worcester sauce crisps from me yesterday! I gave her one to show her how horrible they were and how she didn't want to bother me - but she wanted more. I think she'll eat anything apart from sugar free polos or spearmint stuff!

My NF likes to pick at thorny branches - she also likes cheese sandwiches - as we found out when we were trying to load her once, I think this might be a forester thing! They have evolved to steal sandwiches!

I used to have a pony who loved mars bars and coke, he would drink the coke out of a can or bottle.

My mum's old horse once nicked a burger over someone's shoulder!!
 
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you name it my cobx will eat it! shes the equine equivalent of a labrador!!
Just a short list of her likes:
Creme eggs, any type of biscuit, tea, crisps, ice cream, haribo, & her weirdest one yet....mustard sandwiches!!! There are plenty of others, but I wont bore you!
So far the only thing she wont eat is Lincoln crib stop to stop her eating the wood in her stable!
 
My friend's welshie likes to eat pot noodles!! I wish I were joking!! But my old loan pony used to like polos like most other horses, he would get them as a treat on easter, as well as some horse friendly flapjack thingies my tack shop used to sell! xx
 
Mine likes steak crisps, wotsits, lemonade,coke,dr pepper and other peoples ice cream. Be warned if you go near him whith dr pepper though you are not allowed to leave till he's had the lot:D
 
erm......my lad grew up living next to a busy footpath, and so far I've found he has a liking for chocolate, biscuits, crisps, sandwiches, tea, coffee, fizzy drinks (almost a stampede if a can's opened), you name it. I don't eat anything around him now - waste of all that healthy hooves !!! sm x
 
My TB adores bacon butties :s yes bad Binky for letting him eat that etc etc....but he'll sniff it out from a mile away at shows and get mugged until he gets said butty! So I look like a pig and buy two butties at shows now. One for me and one for him....saves me having mine pinched or some poor innocent bystander getting theirs nicked in a sneaky fashion!! lmao
 
Ted loves dolly mixture :) Ethel doesnt really understand treats and spends a long time sniffing them, taking them and shaking her head around before finally spitting them out and then she looks for more! She does this with mints, apples, carrots ... and yet she absolutly loved her horse lyx lick I got for her .. strange pony :P
 
My horses strangly love shreddies! :D(sure its not too good for them but eh well!)
I've fed my pony chocolate before and it hasnt done her any harm but i would only give it in moderation as its full of sugar!!! xx
 
Chocolate is poisonous to ALL animals - including humans strangely. Though less toxic to humans due to the amount it would require us to eat - 22kg!

It is to do with the metabolic rates of animals. I do believe there is no known antidote. Survival following an overdose of chocolate would very much depend on the condition of the animals liver, how much has been absorbed and how much the vet can flush through. Chocolate can build up in the liver so you would get a cumulative affect.. Not worth the risk in my honest opinion...

My horses eat most fruit including the skins of bananas, tea, biscuits....
 
My welsh pony once ate roast beef and mustard sandwiches out of the picnic basket in our car boot at a pony club rally. My lad likes most of the above, but won't touch worming tablets, even when given by hand amidst extra strong mints, polos and apple bits. It's amazing, he can sense them a mile off, he will eat the duds (placebos), however....
 
Crazyfriesian said:
Chocolate is poisonous to ALL animals - including humans strangely. Though less toxic to humans due to the amount it would require us to eat - 22kg!
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Lol that sounds like a challenge!

Mine eats anything, he's a complete gannet. Apart from oranges I've not found a single thing he won't eat (aside from bute :rolleyes:)... burgers, chips, pot noodles, mash, chocolate, crisps. He's terrible, he'll steal it right out your hands if you're not paying attention, hence knowing he'll eat all of the above!
 
Magic will try almost anything. If he sees you eating anything he insists he has a taste as well. If he doesn't like it, (bananas, hates them!) he spits it out. His favourites are cheese and onion sandwiches, cherryade, salt and vinegar crisps and those sour fizzy sweets you can get. He goes mad for them! The only thing I can't get him to eat is wormer. He does the wall of death round the stable when it's time for worming. Crazy horse!
notallthere.gif
 
Oh god my horse is a dustbin. My boy eats anything hes offered. He was at our village fun run yesterday and lots of children lost sandwiches to my horse...He doesnt like guiness, which is odd coz hes irish but he does like pear cider.

I didnt know you can feed horses banana skins, I will try and give one in the skin now instead of finding old skins in my car, im a skank. Although my boy wont eat them but my very fussy mare will???????????????
 
My cob who doesnt stop eating, wont eat anything "non-horsey" apples, carrots, polos and sometimes a little bit of bread is his limit. One of my Germans however loves food, espes bananas (and skin), oranges and watsits/ice buns you name it he will eat it. he likes chips but his favourite has got to be the homemade Jam tarts, he can spot the tin a mile off! Today he was given a mini caramel egg, he loved it!!
 
Mine adores Marmite sandwiches and will lick his lips for ages afterwards; also Gingernuts are good for bribery and corruption. He also scoffs down a banana if offered.

Ehm, might I sound a word of caution about horses eating stuff like worcester sauce crisps etc? I don't wanna sound stuffy but my old horse ate a bit of bread roll with barbeque sauce on it (which we think somebody had chucked in the field) and it gave him anaphylactic shock; his eyes, lips and nostrils swelled up so he was gasping for breath while we were waiting for the vet and it was awful. So I am just sounding a word of caution.
 
I don't let mine have anything 'human' ie, keep him just to what feed/forage horses are supposed to eat (though friend on yard will give him the occasional mint with my permission) but he did try and eat one of his own chestnuts once when it fell off as I was grooming him! He seemed to be quite enjoying it but eventually spat it out as I don't think he could break it up with his teeth - it was huge! He loves willow, bramble and hazel leaves, cow parsley, nettles and thistles but guess those are fairly natural.
 
Sidney will eat ANYTHING!

Except... coffee cake? Someone had a slice they didn't want, and I thought he would eat it... but he looked at me in disgust and spat it out!

I once left some apples in a carrier bag near him... I came back to find that he had chewed the apples to mush THROUGH the bag! Odd horse, thank God he didn't try to eat them bag and all!

OH's Section A is fed anything you could possibly think of (not my idea!) The one thing I have seen her turn down is... pink wafer biscuits! OH feels the same about them too.

Isabelle
 
The only thing the Spooky Pony has turned down so far is bananas. He's eaten (not often by my agency, I hasten to add) many of the odd things people have mentioned, but also prawn crackers and gummi candies, and appeared to enjoy sucking the juice out of orange slices. I don't tend to give him anything but a bit of fruit or veg when catching and turning out, but the second my back is turned, it appears that someone is stuffing something down his greedy gullet (big brown eyes, soft inquisitive nose, etc etc...).. Oh well, at least it's helped turn him from a fearful, nervous-around-people pony into a gently-searching-people's-pockets pony!
 
Crazyfriesian said:
Chocolate is poisonous to ALL animals - including humans strangely. Though less toxic to humans due to the amount it would require us to eat - 22kg!

It is to do with the metabolic rates of animals. I do believe there is no known antidote. Survival following an overdose of chocolate would very much depend on the condition of the animals liver, how much has been absorbed and how much the vet can flush through. Chocolate can build up in the liver so you would get a cumulative affect.. Not worth the risk in my honest opinion...

My horses eat most fruit including the skins of bananas, tea, biscuits....
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Really? My dog once broke into a friends dining room and devoured about 15 easter eggs, plus the gift lindt bunnies, choc bars in the boxes etc. She was fine - mum just didn't give her dinner or breakfast. other dog also ate both layers of a milk tray box once aswell. Both fine with no problems.
 
BrambleandMonty said:
Really? My dog once broke into a friends dining room and devoured about 15 easter eggs, plus the gift lindt bunnies, choc bars in the boxes etc. She was fine - mum just didn't give her dinner or breakfast. other dog also ate both layers of a milk tray box once aswell. Both fine with no problems.
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You were very lucky. The poisonous component to chocolate is Theobromine. Very dark (bitter and or cooking) chocolate has up to 100 times more in it than white chocolate - so if you're really determined to give your four legged friends a fix then go for the white.

If you're still not believing this, have a read...

http://www.talktothevet.com/ARTICLES/DOGS/chocolatetoxic.HTM

http://www.hillspet.co.uk/Dog/Adult...hocolate-poisonous-to-dogs.aspx?sc_lang=en-GB

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobromine_poisoning

It appears it works its way out after about 20 hours so it is not a cumulative poison, like lead.

Rhody (beige boy in my sig) once scoffed 2 kilos of "dog" chocolate after actually unsdrewing the lid on the plastic jar they were in. He was very ill after. I count my lucky stars half of them were white as we would probably have come home to an ex-dog. So don't belive the labelling when products say they are "pet safe". Everything in moderation - however dogs and horses given the chance have no concept of the word :)

BTW I feel somehow cheated... my boy only has carrots, apples, herbal treats and polo mints. He hates everything else. Spits it out and looks at me so accusingly. I have a pie and chips man. " like pies and I like chips and I like pie and chips.". You know where you stand with a horse like that :)
 
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