Should you feed your horse treats? That’s a question with passionate arguments on both sides.


While HorseVitamins.org wouldn’t presume to try to change anyone’s mind about whether or not to feed horse treats from a training perspective, it can at least offer advice on the health aspects of horse treats.

Feeding sugar cubes to your horse is no better than eating sugar cubes yourself. Yes, horses love them– so do people, after all!– but processed sugar is bad for everyone… even your horse. Apples and carrots make great horse treats, and most horses really like them, but anyone who’s ever had a hand covered in apple juice and horse slobber or a bag full of limp carrots at the end of a hot summer trail ride knows that they’re often messy, and don’t keep well in extremely hot or extremely cold weather.

Processed feed store treats are much more convenient. They come in different flavors– apple, peppermint… but exactly what’s in those hard little lumps? The answer is a big, long list of ingredients, half of which have so many syllables that you can’t even pronounce them without a doctorate in organic chemistry. Who wants to feed their horse something that they can’t pronounce? If it was made in a laboratory, it probably doesn’t belong inside your horse!

The best horse treat option that HorseVitamins.org has found is Mrs Pastures Horse Cookies. They contain all-natural ingredients with no preservatives: just oats, wheat bran, molasses, barley, apples, water, “and a lot of love.” You can purchase Mrs Pastures Horse Cookies at the following link:

Mrs Pastures Horse Cookies