Horses can safely eat a wide variety of different foods that humans regularly consume, although the biggest difference is (obviously) that horses are strictly vegetarian and shouldn’t be fed meat or animal byproducts.
Yes, we’ve all heard the funny stories of peculiar horses who like to eat a cheeseburger or chicken nuggets now and then, but it’s not something you should try with your horse. The “strange horse diet” stories are exceptions to the rule.
SaddleBox includes yummy homemade equine treats in every one of our monthly boxes, and we’ve compiled a list on our horse treat recipes page of what kinds of ingredients you can add to treats that are safe for horses to eat.
We wanted to add to that list, though, some things that you definitely should not feed a horse, because they can be unsafe, unhealthy, dangerous or even poisonous to them.
Remember, though: individual horses, like humans, can sometimes have unique allergies. Even if a food is on this list marked as “safe for horses,” you should test it on your horse in very small amounts first and see how they react if they’ve never tried it before.
A List of Foods That Horses Can Safely Eat
Flour (White and Whole Wheat)
Molasses
Cinnamon (in SMALL amounts)
Peanut Butter
Eggs
Applesauce
Oatmeal (rolled oats, steel cut oats, Irish oats, quick oats)
Honey
Sugar, brown sugar & powdered sugar
Peppermint and most hard candies (NOT chocolate)
Soft peppermint puffs (these don’t melt in the oven, like hard peppermint)
Food coloring
Raisins
Grated apples and carrots
Bran
Banannas
Dried fruit
Pumpkin
Cereal (like Fruit Loops, Rice Krispies, Cheerios)
Cookie Icing, Frosting & Sprinkles
Salt
Corn oil and corn syrup
Beer (yes, beer! If you cook the treats, it removes the alcohol.)
Pretzels
Graham Crackers
Ginger snaps and gingerbread
Ice cream cones (sugar cones and cake cones)
Pancakes and waffles
Butterscotch
Marshmallow
Peanuts
Almonds
Cashews
Sunflower seeds
Sesame seeds
Chia seeds
Some Foods That Horses SHOULD NOT Eat
Note: this list is NOT 100% of every food that a horse should not eat! Please do your research before feeding a horse anything that isn’t on this list.
Cattle feed
Alsike clover
Dusty, moldy or very old hay
Cruciferous vegetables like kale, brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli or other things in the cabbage family
Meat of any kind
Chocolate
Lawn clippings and clippings from your garden
Large amounts of fruit (some apple or other fruit is fine, just don’t feed large amounts at one time)