What treats does the horse eat?
When I was young, it looked a little different with treats for the horses.
Today, bags of horse treats are bought for expensive money.
My mother always put away the dry bread that was left over and was too dry for us to eat. So I got a bag of dry bread to take with me to the horses when I went around to visit them. It was both French bread and rye bread and sometimes it could be some old dry cake as well. The horses ate it with gusto and I never experienced that anyone was hurt by it (but of course you can’t know for sure) I even knew several people who had an agreement with the baker to collect the old bread and fed their horses with it .
However, it is not possible to know how horse treats stored in a plastic bag, made from a lot of sludge products, affect the horse’s intestinal system.
When the bread ran out, sugar cubes were stuffed, which was much appreciated by the horses. However, you shouldn’t take too many, because then you would be scolded, by mother, as sugar was expensive in those days. I often gave that to the horses throughout my youth, as horse treats in plastic bags had not been invented at the time. It was easy to keep in your pocket and I am someone who advocates rewards for the horse. Of course, there were also leftover carrots and apples and pears, when the time came when there was a lot of fruit on the edge of autumn.
Later I was told that you absolutely must not give the horse sugar and you should be very careful with fruit for them as well. Is it something that has been invented or are there really studies on this? I actually wonder if it is the people who invented horse treats in plastic bags who have come up with this to sell more?
Of course you shouldn’t give them quantities, but I have little faith that sugar is not dangerous if you get a little from time to time. Now you’re also not allowed to give bet fodder and many of my horses have eaten bet fodder throughout the ages and have been absolutely fine with it. Same as us humans. We ate sugar as kids but because it was expensive, we didn’t get much. Today you can buy candy for no money and the gods know what it contains
Today I live in Hungary and here there are a lot of fruit trees, naturally out in the pastures. My horses eat quinces, apples, pears, plums, peaches and apricots that fall down a little here and there, and they love it! When they eat the peaches, they actually spit out the core. I let them eat it, I don’t rush into the paddock and take away what is inappropriate, I guess the horse has instincts that tell it what it can and can’t eat, as long as it has a choice.
We also have a lot of walnuts and they don’t touch them.
What do you give your horse as treats?
