Feeding horses, specifically other people's

[TheTecknician]

First of all, I know this activity is frowned upon and can unfortunately be harmful or even fatal to horses and ponies. It's not something I do but I confess to not fully understanding the harm that can be caused. I know grass clippings are bad news but what about 'traditional' horsey treats like sugar lumps, Polos, apples, pears, carrots and so on. In what way are these not good?

Thankyou.

Would you go up to a random child in a park and give them sweets and crisps? No, you wouldn’t, so please leave our horses be.

Seriously?

Your post and ignorance and entitlement has made me angry so I’m just going to give you a link rather than waste my time educating you.

https://www.countryfile.com/animals/horses/dont-feed-strange-horses

You have no idea whether horses are on particular diets , also hand feeding can cause horses to develop biting habits.
Why do people think it's a good idea to interfere with other people's animals ?

If you'd read my opening post carefully you would be aware that I DO leave horses be. I DON'T feed them. Your blunt tone is quite inappropriate.

How do you think sugar lumps and mint sweets could ever be “good” for a horse? They aren’t even good for humans!

Again, read my opening post and dismount from your high horse.

This is what I'm asking about. Asking leads to knowledge. Failure to do so leads to ignorance.

There's some cross posters here today!

Yes, seriously.

I find horses love Polos. You'd have thought the owners would be grateful that their horse has minty fresh breath but some of them get weirdly angry if they find out. Apparently some of them are on special diets. Sounds like woke nonsense to me.

Yes, they are cross because unfortunately people have had their horses killed by people innocently feeding them. To answer your question though horses as a rule should not be fed sugar laden ' treats' as they can be very harmful to them. Many horses are on specific diets to avoid increasing illness. While I appreciate you do not feed horses yourself, the question does hit a nerve. A bit like me asking on a forum ' While I never do it myself, I notice people get very angry when random strangers give their children sweets in the park, I understand that sugar is bad for kids teeth, but what's the deal with healthy stuff like apples? Is it ok to give a strange child an apple?'

Hand feeding horses tends to make them bitey. They can also start to argue with/barge/kick each other around people, such as their owners, as they think they should be getting treats. This can make it dangerous to be around them especially for kids.

From my point of view, I don’t want randoms feeding my horses stuff like polos, apples, etc -

They're full of sugar - too much sugar leads to laminitis (an excruciatingly painful disease in their hoofs).

Feeding them random crap can lead to colic (painful and often kills them) and choke

Behaviour - fighting each other causing injuries if one thinks the other is getting something she isn’t. Becoming rude, bargy and nippy to me and other members of the public if they associate people hand feeding them.

I do feed my horses treats, sometimes even things that’s not necessarily good for them, but I know what I’ve given them, can take that in to account when giving hard feed, and can keep an eye on their behaviours. One of mine can get a bit nippy when hand fed treats, so if she starts nipping, she gets her treats in her feed bucket.

Much like you wouldn’t go up to random kids in the park and give them sweets or whatever.

Thankyou for the most recent sensible, measured, informative and POLITE replies.

The only treat foods my horse gets are an occasional banana and bit of celery.
She is an extremely good doer and has no need of anything extra which will put weight on. No carrots, apples, nothing.

Horses have different nutritional needs and different digestive issues from humans. Things that humans can eat every day aren’t necessarily the best for other animals. Sugar and sweets are obviously not healthy for anyone really. But for horses (and a lot of other animals) the kinds of fruit and veg that humans can healthily eat every day aren’t always ideal.

Also, if horses (or dogs or other animals) get used to strangers giving them treats, they can start approaching people and pestering them, or get distracted by the presence of people when being ridden. And some people use little treats to reward animals when training them, so it can be confusing for them to receive treats at other times.

Shall I send my 3K vets bill to you because you've fed it something it shouldn't have? This is animal welfare not being "woke".
Fuck off back under your bridge. Horses die due to idiots feeling entitled to feed them

https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/public-footpaths-and-folks-ignoring-the-do-not-feed-signs.735832/

Well that went over your head didn’t it 😂😂😂 people literally can’t take a joke on here

Because to me you joking about feeding my horse something which could kill it isn't funny.
It's shits and giggles to you whereas to me it's the very real possibility of losing one of the most precious things in my life plus the cost of multiple Ks of vets bills and countless hours of lost sleep and stress.

Wow someone got out of the wrong side of bed this morning!

She just asked a simple question.

Many people born and raised in cities don’t know what you might consider basic things about animals because we don’t come in contact with them.

How about if you don't know about it don't do it. Or is that too much like common sense.

Seemingly

Such a good post. The behavioural point is so important, it's not that the treats themselves will hurt them (although some will), it's the teaching them to expect treats from passersby.

Out of necessity (we absolutely wouldn't if there was any alternative) we graze some of our horses on a field with a quite busy public footpath running through it, and the number of times I have to ask members of the public to really, really, please please don't touch / pat the horses, including holding their DC up to pat them, or feed them anything including handfuls of grass you've just picked from the field. I do understand why this doesn't make sense to non horsey people because the horses are friendly and why can't they be hand fed the same grass they're eating in the field? It's because of the risk of an accident happening, they're big strong animals with big strong feet and although none of them have ever kicked or bitten (they wouldn't be in that field if they were) and none of them are on special diets (ditto) that mean a polo or apple or handful of grass will poison them, they're still animals at the end of the day (not particularly bright ones at that) and argey bargey and jealousy around one of them getting some food that the other isn't can happen very quickly, and if you don't know what you're doing around horses (or even if you do) you or your child could very easily get hurt. No-one wants that.

As it is they do sometimes get fed by members of the public (we can't watch them all the time and although we have big signs everywhere some people just ignore), even though it's a small minority, unfortunately the horses get more and more to expect treats the longer they're in that field and some start to get more and more bold about coming up to people, even barging them or nipping at their pockets or bags to 'beg' - then when we see that we have to move those horses out of the field and put some other ones in, then the whole thing starts again. It would just be so much easier if people would just leave them alone. We're actually (relatively) happy to have visitors on the yard, maybe I'm a mug but I'll happily let little kids or anyone really come and pat my horse when I've got a hold of him and it's a controlled environment, I've even let one little SEN girl feed him apples because it brings her so much joy but again I'm in control of when/how/how much...

So there's no automatic default of leaving something alone which doesn't belong to you? Or do city people feel they have a right to wander around the countryside stroking and feeding animals which don't belong to them.

If you had a Ferrari how would you feel about some random stranger opening it and sitting in it? Because they are from the countryside so don't know any better?