TREATS: More Than Meets the Eye  

Let’s address a big issue right away: this isn’t an opinion article about feeding…or not feeding…treats to your horse. Whether you choose to give your horse treats or not, you are absolutely right. Giving treats is personal business and I’m not going to tell you that you should or shouldn’t. Treats aren’t right for all horses, and some aren’t even motivated by food. They can turn horses into muggers or dangerous animals. Treats aren’t suitable at all for horses that are food aggressive. Horses don’t equate treats with love- that is a human trait. On the other hand, they can aid in training, provide a distraction, and convince your horse to stay in one place and to come when called. If you choose to treat, you should not hand out goodies without reason. The one opinion that I’ll insert is that a horse should earn it, either by doing something or not doing something as the situation demands.

Having said all that, the purpose of this article is to show you that not all treats are equal. They differ in nutrition, size, ease of handling, and…most importantly to your horse…value. By value, I’m not referring to the number of dollar bills that you pull from your wallet. I’m talking about the value that your horse places on them. And believe me, he knows the difference! Any good dog trainer knows the importance of high-value treats, and anyone who rewards horses with treats should know too.

Of course, if you don’t believe in treats, you could stop reading right here. But if you choose to continue, I hope you’ll find the information interesting. It is not intended to change your mind about treating. I’m not trying to convince you to follow one path or the other.

Some parts of this article will touch on training, but I want to emphasize that this isn’t an article about training. To me, treats are a tool. Like other tools, they have different sizes, shapes, and uses. My goal is to get you thinking about the treats that you give and how some may be more beneficial than others in both nutrition and use. If you use treats, I encourage you to do research into how horses perceive rewards and how you can safely give treats without turning your horse into a mugger.

There are natural treats, such as apples, carrots, bananas…all sorts of fruits and veggies that horses like. You might think that these are the healthiest treats but that isn’t always the case. Fruits and veggies contain vitamins and minerals, and they also contain carbohydrates in the forms of sugars, starches, and fiber. If your horse is sensitive to sugars or is prone to laminitis or on a low-carb diet, these may not be the best choices for him. While it’s true that a couple small pieces of apple probably won’t harm him, you should limit the amount that he gets. Remember too that an excessive amount of starch can overload the horse’s hindgut and cause colic and laminitis. Too much time spent under an apple tree can leave you with a vet bill.

There are some vegetables that horses shouldn’t eat in great quantities or should not eat at all. Veggies from the brassica family, which include broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, turnip, and Brussel sprouts, can cause gas and make a horse uncomfortable or lead to colic. Plants in the nightshade family, such as tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and potatoes, are thought to be dangerous to horses because they contain alkaloids, which can cause poisoning. I couldn’t find a lot of information on this in my research, so it’s best to avoid giving these to your horse.

One important point to keep in mind when giving fruits and veggies is that they aren’t manufactured to be a safe size for your horse, and they may be sprayed with pesticides. Give them a good scrubbing and cut them up into small pieces so your horse doesn’t choke.

Human food: yeah, you know what I’m talking about. Potato chips, Cheetos, peppermints, bread, soda…if you like it, your horse probably does too. But human food isn’t meant for him so enjoy it yourself, away from him. Granted, a chip or too likely won’t hurt him, but it doesn’t have anything in it that is good for him either. Horses with sugar sensitivity shouldn’t have candy, and especially not any sugar-free candies. We don’t know what long-term effects the sugar substitute has on people, let alone horses. And please don’t give chocolate to your horse, even if he begs. It contains theobromine, caffeine, and sugar, all of which can be detrimental and even dangerous to your horse. Chocolate can also cause your horse to test positive for certain banned performance-enhancing drugs.

Manufactured horse treats are big business. There are probably hundreds of choices that vary in flavor, size, ingredients, and nutritional content. You may think they are similar, but they are not. The range is wide, from healthy treats to supplements masquerading as treats to flavored sugar. They also vary in how many or how much you should allow your horse to have in a day.

There has been an interesting increase in “healthy” treats over the past several years. Feed companies realize that there is a market for horses with dietary needs or restrictions and that make the owner feel good about treating. But you still need to be an educated consumer and you should read the guaranteed analysis on the back of the bag. I looked at a bag of “healthy” horse treats made by a European company and was surprised to see that it contained 39% sugars and starches! You’ll recall from past articles that this means that 39% of the ingredients in this little bag are sugars. If you have a horse that is laminitic, insulin resistant, has PPID (Cushings) or other sugar sensitivities, this is not the treat for him. Granted, one isn’t likely to do much harm, but if you are giving several treats a day for training purposes, you would do better to find a low-sugar treat (not apples or carrots!) Interestingly, two other flavors made by this company didn’t list the sugar content at all. That doesn’t mean that there is no sugar in the ingredients. It means that they can’t guarantee the amount of sugar in the treats.

There are low sugar treats available, and they are usually marketed with the term “low sugar” somewhere in the name. Be aware, though, there is no established numerical level for low sugar. To me, it means 12% or less. If you can’t find the percentage of sugars and starches in the guaranteed analysis, bypass these treats and find something else.

Other treats include ingredients that have health benefits, such as probiotics, joint supplements, and flax (for omega-3 fats.) Again, read the label carefully. None of these are meant to supply 100% of your horse’s daily need for nutrients. While you are checking the label, look for the recommended feeding rate or feeding directions. Some treats, such as the probiotics, recommend one or two per day. Some recommend one or two per time but don’t say how many times per day. Some are much more ambiguous and say “a few” or don’t give any recommendations at all. The high sugar treat that I mentioned earlier had no recommendations, and its companion treats (the ones that did not list the sugar content) said no more than 50 per day. For these particular treats, that is a half-pound per day! That’s worrisome if you don’t know how much sugar and starch are in the treats.

Some people use timothy or alfalfa cubes or hay extender pellets (the large ones) as treats. These are certainly healthier choices than some of the manufactured treats or candy. Again, be aware of what you are feeding. Alfalfa is higher in protein than grass hay, so remember to offer lots of fresh, clean water so that your horse can clear excess protein through his kidneys. Hay extender pellets aren’t really hay. If you read the bag tag, you’ll see that they are usually manufactured from soybean hulls, wheat middlings and other grains.

There are treats that are meant to be distractions and are typically hung in a horse’s stall to relieve boredom. Some are chopped, compressed forage, or a mix of grains and molasses, or compressed sugar with flavoring. If your horse is on a special diet or has sugar sensitivities, make sure you read the labels. Hanging a block of sugar in the stall of a laminitic pony can lead to a very expensive vet bill.

Whatever you choose for treats, make sure your horse can safely eat them. We mentioned cutting up vegetables earlier, and that is good advice for any large item. If your horse is older or has tooth problems, an alfalfa cube can be very tough to break down. Even some treats can hard to chew. There are others on the market that crumble easily though- and leave lots of crumbs in your pocket. (By the way, no treats can make it through the washing machine if you leave them in your pocket, not even individually wrapped peppermints.)

Let’s talk about the perceived value of treats. This is the importance that your horse places on the treats, not how much costs you, or how many pieces per pound that you are buying. Horses, like humans, seem capable of deciding that some things are worth more effort than others. (Their process of arriving at that conclusion is likely different than ours, but that is a discussion for brain scientists.) Let’s look at a couple of examples. I want to caution you though- these are my personal experiences and I’m not telling you that you should do this with your horses, because you have to find your own personal comfort level and training philosophy. I’m just giving you examples of how high value treats work.

Example 1. My old Morgan could no longer chew hay and was on a senior complete feed. He ate seven pounds per day, spread out over seven meals. I did the math and figured out what he would need to get enough calories, protein, vitamins, and minerals. He loved food and was an “eat it first, then decide if you like it” kind of guy. Obviously, eating only senior feed doesn’t take up as much time during the day as eating forage, so he had a lot of empty time. I put a hanging, compressed forage ball in his stall, thinking that it would give him something to do at night while the others were chomping. He tried it once and that was it. To him, the work of trying to nibble a swinging ball wasn’t worth the little bit of forage that he could get at a time. I thought maybe it was so tightly compressed that his old teeth couldn’t make a dent, so I moved it to the Mustang’s stall. The Mustang eats anything- in fact, he is a dumpster diver if I turn my back. Same result: it wasn’t worth the effort to him. He will, however, walk over plastic bags and drag a tarp for a tiny horse cookie. He places more value on the tasty cookie, even though it requires work, than he does over a hanging forage ball.

Example 2: This same Mustang had concerns about going in a trailer. BIG concerns. I started rewarding with two different high value treats. One is a high fiber forage-and-kibble product that he loves, and I feed it to him in a shallow bowl to encourage him to stay in the trailer for a few moments. When it’s time to leave, he gets a very high value (and expensive) treat if he stands quietly with me for a few moments before exiting. (The trailer is a slant load and he is able to turn around and leave head-first. It’s parked in a closed-in area.) Now we’re working on staying inside the trailer for longer periods. I offer hay on the floor. He will eat the kibble, then start on the hay, but if he feels nervous or hears something outside, he leaves. He doesn’t get a treat if he leaves on his own. When he comes back to the trailer and self-loads, more kibble. If he waits and exits with me, more expensive horse cookie. The hay alone won’t bring him back to the trailer, nor will it induce him to wait for me if he feels the need to leave. All the hay does is to encourage him to feel more comfortable inside the trailer and stay longer. It’s a normal, feel-good activity for him. But it isn’t enough of a reward to get him to self-load or stop him from leaving on his own. The two treats are of high value to him and worth the effort to do something that is extremely unnatural for a formerly wild horse.

Obviously, I’m placing a high value on these treats too. It’s worth it to me to lay out extra cash for these two very expensive products because I want a safe end result: a horse that loads well and stays in the trailer. I know that some of you may think he is “playing” me by leaving the trailer and coming back for more treats. That isn’t the case here. He prefers to be where I am because I’m the leader and protector in our little herd of two. When he leaves the trailer it’s because there is an outside stimulus that he has to investigate. If he was leaving just so that he could come back and get more kibble, we would have constant in-and-out activity, and that isn’t the case. Remember too that the highest value treat is only given if he leaves WITH me.

Now you may be wondering if giving your horse a handful of his regular feed would work. There are two reasons why this might not be a good idea. Of course, you have to find your own comfort level. First, he’s already getting this feed at least twice a day, what makes it special? Would you do 100 sit-ups if someone offered you a couple bites of cereal? I wouldn’t. Secondly, you would have to give him a few ounces or so each time to make it worth his while. A couple pellets aren’t going to do it. Over the course of a training session, that could add up to a significant amount of feed that you haven’t factored into his daily diet.

You probably already have a good idea of what your horse considers a high value treat. What treat will induce him to follow you around the pasture without a lead rope? I’m betting that hay extender pellets won’t win out over the lure of green grass. But that super expensive crunchy horse cookie might do the job! I occasionally give a few treats that are wrapped in plastic, such as soft peppermints, just for the crinkling sound that they make when you open the package. My horse knows that it isn’t an everyday treat when he hears that sound. In fact, they are usually associated with vet and dentist visits and he has learned that standing still for such procedures leads to that wonderful crinkling sound and a special treat.

In conclusion, please don’t assume that all horse treats are similar. Take time to read the information on the bag and decide if it is right for your horse’s diet. Remember that treats are a tool, and your horse should be invested in earning them. And, of course, safety at all times. Feed treats that are an appropriate size and texture for his mouth and teeth, and make sure that you are safe while giving them. If your horse starts to become aggressive, stop treating while you take time to analyze your methods and requests. Ask for help from a training professional and do some research about how horses perceive rewards. Above all, remember that horses don’t equate treats with love. The connection between food and love is a human thing. If you have earned your horse’s trust and respect, he will learn to do what you ask with or without treats. Treats are just a tool to reinforce the behavior that you want.