Any response re horse treats ?

[Deborah51]

Mumsnetters could you please give me some feed back re horse treats. Thanks.

?

Waste of money. Just give carrots or apples. You can huge bags of wonky carrots from feed merchants really cheap. Share round the yard.

dponies 1 and 2 loved them, dpony 3 won't touch them. DD used to use her pocket money to buy the madly over priced but beautifully packaged "Heavenly Horse Treats" for dponies 1 and 2.

My lovely old TB mare adored Bombay mix

. My pony loves them, but I wouldn't buy them as a handful of grass or a bit of apple or carrot are enough to make his day. Or a marmite sandwich. He'd do anything for marmite.

Don't bother with them - far too expensive to be feeding regularly! Carrots, apples, swedes, parsnips, bananas, and extra-strong mints are all a hit with DHorse; though she did eat through the bottom of her feed bucket last week so I don't think she's fussy .

Perhaps get a bag of grass nuts?

To be fair we have never fed regular treats. They still love us ;)

We don't feed treats as in some ponies it can encourage nipping etc.

When they are turned out they don't get anything except one proper feed a day. When they are stabled, in the Winter, we give them carrots (really cheap by the net) or a cut up apple.

Some people love to feed polos and horses seem to love them..

Dshetland loves her sugar-free polos. I can't resist her when she 'asks' with her hoof - so cute! She has never nipped anyone in her life so that's no problem and carrots etc have too much sugar so we ration those. At her age she deserves a little treat .

Bailey's horse treats (in the tub) are the same as their fibre cubes, but about 3x as expensive. I use fibre cubes as treats/catching bribes

Sugar free polos. Dpony gots mad for them!

Handful of pony nuts in the pocket. Never by treats, they are overpriced and often full of rubbish. I know plenty of people who make their own though which are better.

Also true that they can encourage nipping so anything should be used carefully and ideally fed from the ground not the hand.