Almost any fruits, and many vegetables, are safe treats for healthy horses. Apples and carrots are traditional favorites. You can safely offer your horse raisins, grapes, bananas, strawberries, cantaloupe or other melons, celery, pumpkin, and snow peas.
Carrots are also high in potassium, making them unsuitable for horses with Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP). Generally, you can give a healthy, average-sized horse about two large carrots per day or two small handfuls of baby carrots.
Yes, horses can eat cucumbers – a welcome answer to those of you with an overabundance of cucumbers growing in your gardens. Cucumbers are a fantastic source of vitamins such as A, K, and C, as well as potassium. What's more, cucumber skin provides horses with a natural dietary fibre.
Horses can eat banana peels, but not all of them will be interested in eating them, owing to their bitter taste. The peels are just as healthy for your horse as the banana itself, also containing potassium and vitamin B.
Feeding potato skins to horses is a BIG no. Though it may seem harmless (or even efficient in terms of waste reduction), you should never allow your horse to eat potato skins. Even more so than the potato flesh itself, the peels present an even greater concentration of toxic solanine.
As members of the nightshade family, potatoes are toxic to horses. Raw potatoes are more dangerous than cooked potatoes, but potato poisoning is possible will all types of this starchy vegetable.
Cauliflower, Cabbage, and Broccoli: Vegetables in the brassica family, such as cauliflowers, broccoli, brussels sprouts etc., can lead to detrimental gas and colic problems for horses; therefore those should be avoided entirely.
Parsnips are low in sugar, which makes them an ideal treat for horses. If you horse isn't fond of carrots, you might give parsnips a try as many picky horses do like them. As with carrots, be sure to clean them to ensure that they are free of any dirt or debris before you feed them to your horse.
Under no circumstances should tomatoes be fed to horses, she says. They contain multiple toxins in the fruit and plant that are poisonous to horses and many other animals. Tomatoes come from the Solanaceae family, which also includes deadly nightshade and many other toxic plants.
Dairy Products
When it comes to cheese, unfortunately, you cannot give horses this pleasure. It is really important to understand that horses are lactose intolerant, so cheese, ice cream, yogurt, milk, and other similar products should be avoided.
Carrots, regardless of their hue, are all healthy treats for horses, as long as they are fed in moderation. All treats fed to our equine friends should be fed only in limited quantities.
Do not feed rotten carrots. In rotten carrots, the potassium content is very high, which can cause thin manure in the horses. Carrots contain 90% water, if you feed 1 kg of carrots, it is only 15% of a kilo of bread. So feed carrots as a treat and not as a substitute for concentrates.
Yes! In fact, cucumbers are one of the best treats for horses that are insulin resistant. Because cucumbers are both hard and round in shape, it is important to cut them up into smaller pieces to avoid choking. Horses are known to enjoy cucumbers as a standalone treat or when added into their regular feed.
There is no harm in occasionally feeding bread, but it is not the most nutritious feedstuff when used as the sole concentrate. While bread is chock full of calories, it provides few nutrients. When only bread is fed with hay, the major nutritional problem is an imbalance and/or deficiency of some minerals and vitamins.
Grapes, just like apples, are a horse's favorite fruit and safe for them to eat. Grapes provide your horse with carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, etc.
While a lot of time is spent focussed on horses that can't eat grain in their diet, cereal grains such as oats, barley, triticale, corn, rice, rye, sorghum and wheat form a valuable component of many horse's rations.
Oranges are a safe and healthy treat for most horses, if they are fed in limited quantities and fed in small pieces. Orange peelings, seeds and flesh are all safe for healthy horses to eat as treats.
You can definitely feed your horse apple peeling.
They actually tend to love the peeling and since it is relatively thin, they have no problem crunching it up along with the rest of the apple. The apple peel contains extra fiber that is beneficial to your horse's digestive system.
Vegetables Not Safe for Horses
These vegetables are absolutely NOT safe for your horse to eat: avocados, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, onions, regular potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers. Avoid feeding horses these vegetables at all costs!
How many apples can a horse eat a day? Horses should only have about one, maybe two, apples per day. Remember everything in moderation. Feeding an excess of two apples can cause stomach upset, or even colic.
There are a wide variety of fruits that you can feed your horse in small quantities. Apricots, blackberries, blueberries, mangoes, peaches, pears, plums, strawberries, tangerines, and watermelon (with the rind) are all safe for your horse to eat.