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The tack room

Discuss horse riding and ownership on our Horse forum.

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Original poster

Would you mind a stranger giving your horses apples

24 replies

leftangle · 09/09/2011 13:42

There are 2 horses in a field that DD and I go and visit sometimes. I have no idea who the owner is and I know nothing about horses. I'd like to give the occasional carrot or apple but don't want to harm them or anything. If they were horses would you mind?
Thanks

OP posts:

saintmerryweather · 09/09/2011 15:30

Personally I wouldn't feed anyone elses horse.

A lot of people don't like their horses being given titbits because it can encourage the horses to nip. Also, you don't know if the horse is on a special diet or not. I would probably see if you can find out who owns the horses (people in the local area might know) or if not maybe just pick a little bit of grass and give it to them instead.

Original poster

leftangle · 09/09/2011 16:39

Thanks, I'll restrain myself then. Don't think I can find owners without knocking on doors and looking like a loon. It's not that close to me that neighbours would know.

OP posts:

AlpinePony · 09/09/2011 20:51

Pin a note to the gate, explain what you'd like to do, leave name, number, email.

An extra pair of eyes looking out for my horse always welcome! :)

CeeYouNextTuesday · 10/09/2011 00:22

Im sorry, Im sure you are lovely, but I would not be pleased if you were feeding mine! Its nothing personal, it just really winds me up. There are people locally who insist on feeding mine, and get quite annoyed when I tell them not to. I suggested that I go to their house and feed their dog random food over their garden fence!
The point is, those horses might be on a specific diet, or even allergic to what you feed them. Feeding treats to horses, could also make them boulshy and pushy, and prone to nipping. If there is more than one in the field, there is a good chance that you could cause a fight, ending in a horse getting injured.
It is very nice that you have taken the time to post here for advice, its a shame that more people arent like you.

Callisto · 10/09/2011 10:01

I would be very pissed off at anyone feeding my horses without my express permission. Not so long ago one of the local horses had to be put down because some idiot had fed him raw potatoes causing really bad colic from which he didn't recover.

Apart from the obvious health risks, feeding by hand makes horses nippy and nippy horses are most upleasant and can be dangerous in the worst cases. I never feed by hand - if DD's pony needs a treat he has it in a bucket.

Mirage · 10/09/2011 14:05

Yes but you must be a considerate person to ask,so thankyou.Our pony had a vet visit due to colic and we think that someone fed her something she shouldn't have had.I have found apples in her field before now,so someone has been feeding her.She can be nippy too,so I definitely don't encourage it.We are going to post a sign asking people not to feed her.

However a lovely man once stopped his van to let us past,and when I thanked him,asked me if he could give me some carrots and apples for the pony.His job was delivering fruit and veg and he said he saved the imperfect ones for horse and pony owners.What a lovely chap.It did make for an interesting walk home though,as dpony could smell them and kept trying to snatch them from out of my hands.

Loshad · 10/09/2011 23:05

Agree with others, would be very annoyed if I found you feeding my horses. titbiting horses by hand is a bad idea in nearly every case, and I do not wish my animals to have extra food that i have not calculated into their diet (one of them is a laminitic prone pony).

frostyfingers · 11/09/2011 11:54

No, I wouldn't want anyone feeding my beasties - it encourages nipping etc, and they can rush you hoping for food. The horses would love you for it, but the owner would not!

That said, it was good of you to a)think about it, and b) ask. Perhaps if you wander past in the morning you may catch the owner checking the, and could ask them then.

Butkin · 11/09/2011 12:20

Agree with the others - we don't feed our ponies tit bits in the field and would hope nobody else would either. It causes nipping and possible fighting at the gate. We did have some loon feeding them potato peelings over the gate of their Winter field (which is near the lane) and had to put a sign up!

Having said that if the owners are happy for you to give them apples/carrots then that is fine.

CeeYouNextTuesday · 11/09/2011 22:00

My friends yard is on the same property as a campsite. One particular family of campers, who visit every weekend, tip their leftover milky breakfast cereal into DFriends little stallions paddock. They will not listen to requests not to feed him, so she has to fence him away from their van, or move him to another paddock. It is bloody annoying!

maybells · 12/09/2011 11:47

i can see that you mean well and that you are thoughtful in what your are doing. our yard has public footpaths running all around it and the horse are continuously fed by passers by. i don't mind people or kids stroking my horses and as long as the horses don't mind its not a problem. but an all too familiar problem is people "being nice" and feeding my chronic laminitic pony copious amounts of apples which could kill her.
we are very grateful of people keeping an eye on our horses and will chat to them and explain the situation and most people stop feeding after that.
feeding can also cause fighting in the fields amongst the horses leadong to kicks and injuries.
a few years ago a friendly walker emptied their contents of of their lawn mower into the stallions paddock. the said stallion worth a very large amount of money ate the grass cuttings and that night died of colic!

marge2 · 12/09/2011 12:38

What they all said. - especially maybells .... My girl is on a very restricted diet and hardly gets any turnout because of this. Since her diagnosis of metabolic syndrome, which means she can hardly even tolerate the sugar in the grass, she has not even had any apples from ME so if somebody came along and fed her an apple I would be fuming. It could set her right back.. That's why she is turned out in the paddock practically IN the yard and not over the road where walkers have been known to give treats.

Thanks for being responsible!!!

kayb123 · 12/09/2011 13:46

my biggest pet hate!!!.. it wouldn't be so bad but i have a 17.1h colt and dont fancy that running full speed towards me with teeth ready .
but im sure prehaps the odd treats with owners permission would be fine.

deardear · 15/09/2011 13:00

i would mind greatly. one of mine has equine diabetes and as you can imagine is on a strictly controlled diet.

carrots have as much sugar in them as apples.

try and make contact with the owner and strike up a conversation. the people around mine know which ones are ok to give the odd apple or carrot to but as an aside i dont generally give tit bits as it leads to biting and pushing for more and have had a split lip on more than one occasion from a horse pushing its head forward for more treats.

JillySnooper · 15/09/2011 14:07

Agree with everyone else.

Also, you need to cut apples and carrots in such a way that they can't choke.

Pixel · 17/09/2011 16:27

My elderly next-door neighbour had a nasty experience a couple of weeks ago when she and her friend were attacked by a horse as they crossed its field on a public footpath (there were numerous signs "footpath this side of hedge" etc). Her friend was taken to hospital with nasty bites to her head and arms and the horse was even trying to get the backpack off her back (there was no food in it, only phone/map etc). It was obvious that this horse is used to being fed by walkers and has become aggressive, although in their defence it might be that they are intimidated by it and trying to distract it while they get across the field. If it was my horse I'd have had an electric fence up personally to keep it off the path and avoid this sort of thing happening, but the owner in this case tried to say it was being 'playful'! All very well, and I expect the owner does get fed up with having a footpath there but what if my neighbour had been walking with small children? It's just not worth letting horses think that everyone they see is going to give them food.

CeeYouNextTuesday · 17/09/2011 21:42

I know its a bit of an extreme example, but a friend of mine, entered her own paddock, with her Mum, to take some food to six horses that have been dumped on her. Her elderly Mum was thown to the floor, seriously injured her back, was taken to hospital in an ambulance, and is now confined to her bed on morphine.
The point Im tying to make, is that you just never know. If they arent yours, leave them alone.

gondolo · 18/09/2011 12:09

My three live in a field surrounded by busy footpaths in quite a touristy village. People have been feeding them everything for years. None of them bite, none have ever come to any harm from it and I don't mind at all.
The only thing which did worry me a bit was when I was competing at a very high level I worried about banned substances.
In fact, I was sharing a chocolate biscuit with my little mare the other day, and a passer-by told me off saying I shouldn't feed the horse without permission from the owner! I pointed out that I was the owner...
I wouldn't worry about giving them the occasional carrot.

rogersmellyonthetelly · 24/09/2011 08:09

Sorry but you shouldn't feed horses in a field over the fence, even best buddies can turn on each other over an apple. Friends horse was totally ruined for the show ring by a kick on a foreleg from the other horse in the field after someone fed them apples, and being ruined for the show ring was a good outcome, if the other horse had been shod it could have been curtains quite easily.

OldForgeHillFarm · 26/05/2017 15:28

I'm going through a serious issue with people feeding my ponies carrots. Carrots have a high sugar content and for ponies it can develop Cushing disease, which is diabetes. I also had a person feed my stallion an apple core and he almost choked to death! PLEASE do not feed other probes horses treats of any kind without their permission! I'm praying my pony is goiung to come through this. He may have to be put down. :'(

Garnethair · 26/05/2017 20:50

I never allow my horses any food from the hand. I'd be really cross if anyone gave them treats.

lastqueenofscotland · 27/05/2017 07:18

If I caught you I'd read you the riot act tbh.

I have two that live with my MIL one is about the size of a blimp and doesn't need additional food and the other would be in prison if he was a person- and I'd be quite worried he'd take you or your DCs arm off or try and beat up the blimp if he was getting food first.

Then there is the issue of colic, laminitis etc etc etc.

Just dont

namechange20050 · 27/05/2017 07:25

Zombie zombie! Ffs!

Blodplod · 27/05/2017 07:28

Thank you name change!! I was just about to post... phew!

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