Christmas is here! It is time to drink, eat, and celebrate with our close loved ones. Whilst we enjoy our turkey dinner, pigs in blankets, and mince pies, let’s not forget our beloved four-legged friends, who also deserve some delicious festive treats this Christmas.
Here we have some delicious and nutritional treats your horses will love. If not on Christmas, when is a better time to spoil them?
1. Horses generally enjoy eating their fruits and vegetables.
Pick out some seasonal ones like carrots, parsnips, apples, and pears. Your horses will love them! You can also cover some of them with treacle for extra sweetness. Make sure to thoroughly wash them to remove chemicals and cut them into small strips so that they do not become stuck in their throat.
2. Horses love pumpkins. Anything from pumpkin flesh, pumpkin seeds, and even canned pumpkins makes a delicious and healthy treat. You can even make some horse-safe cookies and muffins by mixing up oats, molasses, sugar, and pumpkins.
Make sure that the pumpkins are safe to eat; for instance, avoid mouldy and rotten pumpkins and do not use any decorated pumpkins. Also, feed them in small quantities to avoid the risk of upsetting their digestion.
3. Make delicious yet straightforward apple oat treats. These are easy to make and will only require 3 or 4 ingredients. All you need is unsweetened applesauce, oatmeal, and some all-purpose flours. Mix them up, bake it until appropriately cooked, and cut them up into small pieces while they are still warm. If you have any leftovers, they can be safely stored away in your refrigerator.
4. Treat them to the ultimate Christmas cake.
For this, you will require a list of ingredients, and it includes:
– Chopped apple
– Raisins
– Molasses
– Eggs
– Diced carrots
– Sugar and sweet feed
Mix them up and bake them in a preheated oven until cooked well. Let it cool down, and decorate it with sugar cubes and fruits like grapes and apples.
5. You can make a Christmas-flavoured soaked feed by adding a hint of peppermint oil and applesauce with cinnamon. Often during colder temperatures, you will find your horses drinking less water. Flavoured-soaked feed does not only work as a treat but also provides an additional source of moisture to help them stay hydrated during winter.
6. Lastly, why not buy them some peppermint and apple-flavoured treats? There are plenty of brands out there that sell a variety of Christmas-flavoured treats, such as Spillers and Uncle Jimmy’s.
Apart from giving your horses all these amazing treats, you can also make things fun by decorating their stables. Hang some of the treats around the stable or stockings filled with a variety of vegetables and fruits for your horses to enjoy whenever.
We hope these treats go down a storm with your horses! Remember to keep the quantities of these treats small so that it does not affect your horse’s health in any way.
From everyone here at Jon William Stables, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
