[SnicklefritzG]

If I'm going to give my horse a snack or a treat, it's usually either apples, carrots, a sugar cube or horse cookies that you get at the feedstore or tack shop. I generally don't give my horse "human" food, except I know she likes pretzels.

From time to time I see other folks at the barn giving my horse stuff because they think she's friendly and cute. I don't really think it's cool to feed a horse something without permission, but if it's harmless and it only happens once in a while I'm not going to make a stink about it.

That got me to wondering if there are things analogous to chocolate in dogs that are bad for horses.

[Wholehearted]

I'm one of those people who feeds her horse snacks. So far, I've fed him/tried to feed him:
Apples
Peppermints
Marketed horse cookies/treats
Watermelon (which he loooooves)
Apple juice
Gatorade
Pepsi
Root beer
Apple-flavored licorice
Jelly beans
Mash with Cheerios, molasses, oatmeal

And supposedly he ate a piece of Slim Jim which I think is just gross. Mostly I stick to things I know aren't meat, but I have no problem feeding him little pieces of things mainly to see if he'll eat it.

[AliCat518]

My horse lovessss baked lays potato chips, coffee, watermelon and normal horsey treats. I sure hope they're not bad for him, although he doesn't get themregularly and the coffee was accidental!

[Hippolyta]

Horse from when I was a kid loved Necco wafers, leased horse liked conversation hearts (same stuff).

I always talk nostalgically about old horse loving the Neccos. When my friend came to meet my current horse, she brought some, based on these ramblings. Current horse spit them out in disgust. I was embarrassed, almost like mother of a rude child

[Hippolyta]

Horse from when I was a kid loved Necco wafers, leased horse liked conversation hearts (same stuff).

I always talk nostalgically about old horse loving the Neccos. When my friend came to meet my current horse, she brought some, based on these ramblings. Current horse spit them out in disgust. I was embarrassed, almost like mother of a rude child

[kookicat]

Can horses have maple syrup? I was eating a maple granola bar and Fen was very interested in it.

[Shannon.Ryan18]

One show I do in particular every year has a little food booth. To reward my guy for a job well done he always gets an order of french fries...with some ketchup. Absolutely loves them. He pretty much eats anything though...sandwiches, coffee, real horsey treats, veggies, fruit, soup, cupcakes, etc. He hates mustard, that's all I've really found. One time I was waiting to go in a ring to show and he found a plastic water bottle cap on the ground and inhaled it before I could dismount and get it out of his mouth. He's probably pushing 24 and has never had any food-related issues...or any issues really

[dani0303]

Things I give my horse occasionally:
Pretzels
Twizzlers
All kinds of peppermints
Goldfish

Things he's stolen and LOVED:
Chick Fil A nuggets
Egg McMuffin
Slushies (Coke and Cherry)

[PonyPeep]

Once, a 5 month old foal drank half of my starbucks chai latte... right out of the cup

[laskiblue]

Since my budget is a touch tight at present, my mare is getting plain oatmeal and molasses cookies from the 99 cent store in addition to apples and carrots rather than her Manna Pro nuggets. She adores the cookies and I can snack on them, too. :-)

[skippy60]

i never purposely give them human snacks but they always manage to steal them from me

[myguyom]

My old boy loved mints, apples, carrots, all the "regular" horsey treats...his absolute favourite though was double chocolate Tim Bits (for you not familiar with Tim Bits, or Tim Horton's, they are doughnut holes). He also loved to drink tea or coffee with sugar, root beer, and regular beer...I've known him to swipe ice cream from unsuspecting children (on one particular instance, we ended up doing pony rides for nearly an hour because he stole a small child's ice cream bar 0.o!)

[hundredacres]

I once caught someone feeding our pony an entire loaf of French bread - he was enthusiastic, I was not.

I give the horses cereal - if a box doesn't get finished and goes stale I take it to the barn and give them handfuls as treats. Same with crackers (BTW they all love Rye Krisp crackers and grahams!), marshmallows, cookies....any baked goods, really. They don't get it often, just when we've had enough or the box was left open, etc. I wouldn't do chocolate, just because of the dog thing...it makes me leery.

[bits619]

I've been shocked at the things horses have eaten- and enjoyed- with no ill effects. That said i think i've read somewhere that if using peanut butter (like in a cookie recipe for horses) it'd better to use smooth pb rather than crunchy, so the peanut chunks don't hurt their digestive system. Not sure how many peanuts they'd have to eat for that to be a concern, however.

I think they can get away with eating small amounts of weird foods better than dogs can- much larger creatures than us, not to mention their size compared to dogs!

I also read in a recent Equus article about picky eaters (common feeding problems was the title, i think), that horses do go for the typical additive flavors we think of- peppermint, molasses, apple, carrot, etc. But they also really like other herb flavors. Don't remember what was mentioned, but it was stuff like rosemary, etc.
I know the horse i ride had to be kicked out of his solo pasture which doubled as the BO's garden because he kept eating her mint leaves and the ripened figs! He and the chicken were under her fig tree gorging themselves one day, chicken happily cackling with every bite.

[luvmytbs]

I recently took out the unused iceberg lettuce leaves from dinner and to my surprise my horses did enjoy eating them.

One of my former OTTB's snatched part of a DQ burger (that fire spicy one) out of my hand and gulped it down. Hope it didn't burn his you know what, when coming back out the other end.

That horse also looooved nacho chips. Wonder if his groom at the track came from south of the border, LOL.

Edited to add: He was a cribber and Rap Last didn't keep him from latching on to the stall door.

His registered name was in fact something mexican, come to think of it.

[Rallycairn]

Oh, at a lesson barn when I was a kid we had a coke machine that dispensed bottles. Pretty much all the horses liked to drink soda out of the bottle -- with the bottle inserted at the side of mouth where the bit goes and a little tilt, pretty much all the horses took to it immediately.

[Jax]

My horse eats everything I've ever put in front of him (though I avoid anything with meat). His favourite treat is chips and salsa. He's got the healthiest gut noises I've ever heard from a horse, so hopefully nothing is having ill affects (plus I never give him too much of anything at once).

[SanJacMonument]

I'm glad to see French fries are not on the 'do not feed' list.

[PonyPenny]

Wheat Thins, Red Vines, Skittles, peppermints, Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies, Granola Bars, Rice Krispy Treats, were all treats my horses loved to eat.

[SanJacMonument]

Rice Crispy Treats - now that would make nice Xmas gifts for the barn pals!