Memorial Day weekend generally involves lots of foods. Growing up my horses always enjoyed eating corn husks and watermelon rinds during the summer. I also know horses that love potato chips and if I remember correctly one of the retired racehorses at the Kentucky Horse Park eats buttermilk biscuits! Just yesterday I was talking with someone who said her horse loves to drink Monster energy drinks!
What strange things do your horses enjoy?
Newt tries corn husks…he thought they were OK
Newt turned down the watermelon
If the horses won’t eat the corn husks…try a mini!
The horses wouldn’t eat the watermelon but the mini would!
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My Thoroughbred mare loves Muncho chips and Tostitos. We found out she liked Tostitos one day at a show when we were down to the broken chips and gave her the remnants, you would have thought they were gold!
I knew a gelding when I worked at a kid’s pony party barn, he loved cake! He was nearly pure white (20+ year old few-spot POA) and would get bright colored frosting all over his muzzle! One time he insisted on trying the orange soda too! So someone poured some into her cupped hands and he slurped it up! =P
Our little mini would drink meadow tea out of a cup and eat french fries with ketchup and vinegar it that little guy would eat about anything:-)
My mini mare has been know to enjoy some moonshine cherries.
My horses love watermelon pumpkins and squash! Tootsie rolls and peppermints and most definitely chips! I have also given them bread and they love that too!
My mustang qt horse loves bananas
I give my walker home made gingersnaps! Growing up in NJ my walkers would like watermelon but my horse now does not like them.
Oranges, mandarines, grapefruits, and even lemons!
My Slick LOVES sour patch kids and moutain dew or sprite more than anything. He also loves any candy that I have, the usual peppermint discs, rootbeer barrels, strawberry filled hard candy, war heads, gas station cappuccinos, beer, any kind of pop, energy drinks, etc. He won’t eat salty foods though, chips, etc. He is definitely a sugar junkie. Lol.
My horse loves strawberry flavored twizzlers.
I had a made who would come inside and eat toast. She also drank my coffee if I left it in reach.
Mine at spaghetti once, and cookies from my pocket, sour gum balls once, and other candy.
Also as a disabled veteran who has lost many good people from the war I appreciate your tribute to veterans. It’s nice to see. Thank you!
My old horse Loved good and plenty or any black licorice. My best friends mare used to love Surge (yes I’m dating myself) she would drink it then curl her lip up! Very entertaining.
Chicken food…he knocked the container over and everything inside. Thankfully it was pretty much empty.
My arab loved McDonald’s coffee, small with 3 creams and 3 sugars!
I had a POA that would eat cheeseburgers at horse shows.
I knew one mare who as mad about bread.
And at a stud where I used to ride, they usually had bananas as treats, instead of carrots. When on a trail ride, often someone would stop the horse, stand up on the saddle and take a whole pack (?) of bananas from the tree and share mainly with the riders, while each rider would offer the give the peel to the horse.
Bananas watermelon peanut butter sandwiches
My horse will take you down for some chicken nuggets! But wont eat lettuce. Silly horse.
We have a list of things that are safe, or not safe for horses to eat. I spent a lot of time researching everything so the list is fairly long. We keep a bucket handy for available kitchen scraps so they get a nice fruit and veggie salad every other day. (they like to play with the pineapple tops before devouring them, it’s fun to watch).
Well my Arab mare loves Coke Cola, cookies, bread ( any kind ), my coffee, onion rings, sweet tea, tomato sandwitches. I had a team of mules that love Hot Dogs ( all the way ).
My Grandpa rescued a very emaciated colt years ago, but when he took him home, he refused to eat his grain. It wasn’t until one of the grand kids went out to the barn with a gingersnap that he showed any interest in food. From then on, they crumbled up gingersnaps in his feed to get him to eat. 🙂 We own him now and he loves them to this day!
My gelding likes vanilla pudding and animal crackers. in the summer when he drools from the clover he slobbers even more when he sees a vanilla pudding cup in my hands
My horse likes Twizzlers and french fries. My horse when I was a kid would drink tea with sugar, we would fill a bucket with it and she would guzzle it down. She also liked grape popsicles, she wouldn’t eat any other flavors. One of my friend’s horses likes pickles and black olives.
Brownies and Sunkist Orange Pop. Only Sunkist, if you try another brand he’ll spit it out! He puts the top of the pop bottle in his teeth and raises his head back and drinks like a person!
The brownies he stole an entire pan at a Christmas party we had at the barn. There was a food table outside his stall and he popped his head through the feeding opening and ate the whole pan of brownies.
Our old gelding would drink Pepsi from the can but would not touch any other cola.
My mare is a very picky eater, and only likes watermelon, but does not care for people food. My two geldings will take your arm off in their quest for potato chips and other human snack foods. I love to share my snacks with them, it’s a lovely bonding experience.
This is not one of our horses, but, my husband was hiking on a trail when he met a couple of people on horses. He had a hot dog in his hand that he was snacking on. The lead horse reached out and bit his hot dog off down to his knuckles. The horse owner said without missing a beat ” loves hot dogs”… no big deal!
My yearling appendix loved candy canes! Sadly I had to out him down last month after his stomach ruptured (some foul play involved.)
My boy Matisse loves Cherry Pop Tarts and M&M’s
My horse will steal any drink she can get her lips on! Lol. Same goes for food but plums are her absolute favorite.
My Taffy loves banana’s!!! Peeling and all!!!
Lol…i havn’t found anything yet that mine WONT eat !! Except dill chips..anything else is a go ! His fav tho is white powdered mini donuts !!
My horse eats pretty much anything I offer him…he especially like granola bars:) And my sister’s horse loves bananas:)
What human food is not good for a horse to eat or drink?
After this post that is a great question, lol.
lol-
awesome 🙂
Hi Stacy,
My dad’s QH mare would eat the bite sized frozen Snicker’s bars! She was quite a character though, on the trail rides she would slurp up baked beans from my dad’s paper plate and also managed to get some Mountain Dew!
My geldings love corn husks and that is the typical summertime treat for them.
I have a racehorse that loves donuts and freezepops, well anything you eat he tries at least once.
My horse eats just about anything I have to eat. He has eaten part of my peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. If I stop for a snack on the trail ride, Oreo thinks he gets some too. They love it when we have corn or watermelon.
My boyfriend’s head horse loves dehydrated banana chips and rice krispy bars.
My daughters mare likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. she also likes Gatorade
my little sister’s QH loves popcorn chicken with ketchup. My horse Dash will eat almost anything:)
I have seen the horses and ponies eat pretzels out of my hand.
My 10 year old gelding, Cody, will eat almost anything. One if his favorites are Bits n’ Bites both the original and cheddar flavoured. He also enjoys coffee and iced cappuccinos. He doesn’t enjoy the “rockets” candy though , which I found very shocking!
I had a Tennessee Walker mare as a child and learned about her fondness for watermelon when she came over my shoulder at a saddle club picnic and stole mine out of my hands.
My lads adore oranges and bananas. Watching them is really funny, with juice and skins going everywhere!
I had a mare who loved tuna fish and pickle sandwiches. Also had a stallion who would follow anyone anywhere for a beer!
My 16 year old Arabian gelding’s most very favorite treat is Hall’s cherry menthol cough drops! He goes crazy for them! He pretty much loves anything sweet though, soda, candy, fruit, etc. And my gelding’s sire learned to drink mild shakes through a straw.
I worked for a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer and the stallion in the barn, who we lovingly called Delbert, would eat anything you gave him, bologna sandwiches with mayo and mustard, fried chicken, potato chips, hot dogs, really anything you gave him he would at least try.
The mare I used to barrel race loved beer so much that if you left one anywhere she could get to it, she would steal it.
It is amazing what they will try because of us.
All of my horses also eat 2 tablespoons of garlic powder every day, not by choice, but because it really helps to keep the bugs from biting. My gelding is allergic to the teeny knats, and my mare gets huge welts from mosquito bites. It has made a world of difference for both of them.
Hi Nikki,
Is the garlic powder like just the stuff that you use for cooking or something special for horses?
Rachel
my horse love melon rinds, as well as carrots and apples…I did have a horse try nachos once…. :/