Most horse owners want to treat their horses. These 6 horse treats to make at home allow you to choose the ingredients and know exactly what you’re giving to your horse.
Wanting to treat your horse for being good, trying hard, or simply being amazing, is almost a given. If your horse needs a special diet, or you want to know exactly what you’re giving your horse, these 6 treat recipes can be easily made at home.
There are a million different treats on the market that you can feed your horse. If you want to make yours at home, without the preservatives and unknown ingredients, read on.
10 DIY Horse Treat Recipes
Most horses love treats, but many owners want to ensure that the treats they give their horses are wholesome and nutritious. If you want to make your own treats at home then these are the easiest recipes to make at home:
1. Oat and apple cookies: Great for EMS horses –
Method: Mix all ingredients together
Roll out on a floured surface
Cut to desired shape/size
Pop into oven @190deg oven for approx. 40 mins
Cool completely before storing between layers of greaseproof paper
These are delicious cookies that your horse will love!
2. Basic Tray Treats: Great for non-metabolic horses (those without insulin issues) –
Method: Grate the carrot and apple and mix all ingredients together
Pour into a lined tray and bake at 200c for 30mins
Leave to cool and cut into desired shape
If you’re trying to put condition on your horse these can help, just be sensible about how many you give as they’re full of oats and molasses which some horses may find quite ‘energising’!
3. Pumpkin & Spice Treats: A treat without molasses
Method: Mix all ingredients together
Shape into treats
Bake at 180c for around 20 minutes or until firm
4. Hanging Horse Treat: Great for hanging in the stable or preventing boredom in the field
Ingredients: 70g wholemeal bread flour
Water
1 Egg white
25g Flax seed
70g total of flavours of your choice – use chaff, oats, grated apple/carrot, mint, or any choice of safe fruits/veg that you have to hand
Method: Mix the flour and water together until it forms a dough.
Add the flax and egg white.
Mix well adding the flavourings until you have a thick batter. Add more flour if the mixture is too thin.
Spoon into a tin, preferably one like a bunt tin that will give your treat a hole in the middle. If you don’t have a tin like this, remove from oven half way through cooking and use the handle of a wooden spoon to make a hole through which you will later thread the rope to hand the treat.
Put the treat into the oven for 20 minutes at 180c until firm (not burnt).
Allow to cool down and remove from tin.
Thread through your hanging rope and let your horse enjoy!
5. Super Easy Summer Treat – The best treat for hot summer months
Ingredients: Any blendable fruits/veg that your horse can eat
Teaspoon of salt
Water
Hanging rope (optional)
Method: Blend together the fruits and vegetables
Add salt and mix well
Add water and stir
Pour into a freezable container
Place rope if using into the centre and place in freezer until solid
Decant from container
Hang using the rope in your horse’s stable/shelter, or put in a small haylage net or even into a feed bowl and let your horse cool down
Fatty always seems to miss out on treat time because there are so many things she can’t eat owing to her EMS. Most of the recipes I’ve found are full of molasses, honey, or extra sugar. I can’t give these to Fatty, and I change the cinnamon out in any recipe for mint as I’ve found that cinnamon actually makes her Mallanders flare up. The recipe below means that I can give her treats like any other horse, and all I do is slightly reduce the chaff she gets each day to compensate for the chaff that’s included in this recipe.
6. Treat For EMS/Insulin Resistant Horses – No molasses, no added sugar
Ingredients: ½ Scoop of your horse’s regular chaff (I use Allen & Page L Mix)
250g Unsweetened Applesauce
1 tablespoon dried mint
Wholemeal flour for dusting
Water
Method: Mix all ingredients together
Leave to sit for 10 minutes
Add enough water (if required) to loosen the mixture to be hand-rolled
Dust your work surface lightly with flour
Roll approx. 1 tablespoon of mixture in flour and flatten into desired shape
Cover baking tray with baking paper/parchment
Cook in oven for 20 minutes at 180c turning half way through
Remove from the oven and leave to cool
Because these recipes only contain natural ingredients with no preservatives they should be stored (except the frozen one!) in an airtight container and used within 5 days.
Knowing what goes into your horse’s diet can be important for your horse’s health. One of the above recipes should allow you to treat your horse without using many of the ingredients that are well known to be difficult for some horses to process; such as molasses.
Conclusion
Making your own horse treats couldn’t be easier. None of the recipes above should take more than an hour and can be an enjoyable thing to do in the winter months when both you and your horse are getting a little fed up with the cold and rain. Most will last only a week at most in an airtight container, but some are able to be batch made and frozen until needed. Not only will making your own save you significant amounts of money (if you’re a regular treat giver), but you’ll know exactly what you’re giving your horse. That can only be beneficial for their health.
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