Mare eats anything

[patty dukes]

I was wanting to know what would make a mare eat anything put in front of her?
My mare has ate everything put in front of her since the day I got her.
It all started I threw the scraps out back over the fence and noticed she was eating them.
She ate everything from pork chops, mac and tomatoes, mashed potatoes, biscuits, bacon, ect...
ANYTHING!!!
At the time she ate that she was on a 2 acre pasture where she had plenty to eat. Then we moved her and she was put in the back yard where she has access to the back porch where she would eat sauage gravy and biscuits that were put out for the dog.
She did have more than just a back yard she had an acre with a barn but it stretched to the back porch.
Now she is over at a different barn and field where I don't put out scraps.
I just don't know what would make her eat those kind of things.
The vet said don't let her eat them. It never did hurt her but I just can't figure out why she would eat it.

[kitcat0601]

The vet is probably right. I dont think sausage gravy and biscuits is the best thing in the world for a horse. She must be a canibal. She is eating her cousins,lol

[patty dukes]

she hasn't eaten scraps in a long time but I couldn't understand why she would............that's cute about the cousins.............lol

[kitcat0601]

Well, my yearling will eat just about anything. I only give him a tiny peice of something like bread or part of a sandwich when Im eating one in the barn. There was ham on it and my husband said he was eating his cousin,lol. I think I saw in a magazine a list of things you can give horses that they can actually eat. Try watermellon. Horses LOVE it. And pepermint candies, in moderation because of the sugar. Ill see if I can find that list. Its very interesting.

[kitcat0601]

How to Safely Feed Treats to Your Horse or Pony
Most of us feed our horses and ponies treats as a reward, or just because we love them. Treats that are close to a horse's natural foods are healthiest but a very small amount of almost any food item is safe to feed as a treat.
Safe horse treats include:

Pitted Dates
Raisins
Sugar cubes
Hay cubes
Apple pieces
Carrot pieces
Sunflower seeds (with or without shells)
Peppermints
You'll find horses have different tastes too. Some may love peppermints or sugar cubes, some prefer carrots or hay cubes.
If you often carry treats in your pockets and feed from your hands you might teach your horse a bad habit. He might decide that all pockets or fingers contain treats and nip at your clothes and fingers. A horse that is pushy about getting treats can be dangerous. The safest way to feed treats is to put them in a bucket or feeder.

Some treats can be a choking hazard. Apples and carrots are best cut into pieces. Only feed a very small amount of any hard foods like mints and hay cubes. A greedy horse may not chew the treat completely and bolt a treat down. The food can then become lodged in the horse's throat, causing choke.

In the book "Arabian Exodus" author Margaret Greely describes the Bedouin custom of feeding horses whole dates. After their meal, the trough would be covered in pits. While swallowing a few date pits might not cause a problem you'll want remove the pit or stone of any fruit you feed if it is large enough to cause a choking hazard.

Some things are not good for treats:

Lawn, hedge or garden clippings.
Cabbage, including broccoli, cauliflower etc….
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Acorns
Chocolate, if you are competing can cause a positive drug test.
Don't feed treats to a strange horse. The horse could have a medical condition that disallows certain types of food. Or some owners don't believe in feeding treats at all. Dispose of all food wrappings out of reach of your horse. A bag smelling of sticky peppermints could be ingested and cause a blockage that could be deadly.
Horses will eat surprisingly weird foods-from roast beef sandwiches to ice cream. Historically horses have been fed some strange things to survive--like fish. But horses are herbivores-animals whose digestive system is geared to digesting grass and soft plant matter. Although some horses can eat these things with no apparent ill effects, it is always better to stick to treats similar to their natural foodstuffs.

[bndranch]

My arabian gelding used to eat apricots all the time. He would even spit out the pit. This was YEARS ago and there was a VERY old apricot tree in his pasture and he would eat them right off the tree.

[ccpainthorses]

I've heard that bananas are ok for them too and our horses like strawberries and oranges, no orange peel though, they must agree with us that it's too bitter.

We have one gelding here that has changed the rules of eating.... he absolutly WILL NOT eat apples, carrots, sugar cubes, NOTHING!! Only Berry Goods (alfalfa and raspberry treat)! His owner (he's a boarder) tried some apple wafer treats and she had to quit feeding him the other treats for almost 2 months before he would eat the apple wafers. He's also very perticular about his grain, it MUST have molasses or he won't eat it, no oats for him....

Just goes to show, different horses... WAY different palats

[wisteriafarms]

Amistad LOVES his peppermints!!

I'm going to try the watermelon. That is one of my favorites, and I would love to be able to share it with him like we share apples

[patty dukes]

the last mare I had did love watermelon and cantelope. I am sure this one will also I don't see why not if she eats everything else.
I seen on here where someone took and cut apples and carrots and put them in a bowl with water, froze it and that was a way to keep the horses cooler. I plan to try that and it is getting HOT here.