Whole Food Horse Treats
Real Ingredients - Real Tasty
Why bother to make whole food horse treats? It’s amazing how many mystery ingredients get snuck into treats. Most people probably think since their horses aren’t eating tons of treats it’s not a big deal if they’re unhealthy. Artificial junk food is fine in moderation right? Wrong! Horses are very sensitive and are easily thrown off balance, all these fillers just contribute to weakening their entire system.
When was the last time you read the label on a bag of horse treats? Added sugar, by-products, artificial flavorings, artificial colors – what the flip my – horse doesn’t care what color her treats are!
Homemade whole food horse treats sound great, but most of us don’t have a ton of time to make fancy-schmancy gourmet treats. No worries, these treats take less than 10 minutes to make and only use a few ingredients.
I zipped dates, oats, oat flour, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and water through the food processor till they were the consistency of thick cookie dough.
Then just roll the mix into 1 inch balls and coat them in a topping of your choice. Ground almonds or coconut work great. The coating will also keep them from sticking to each other.
They stay soft enough that you can even use them to hide meds or supplements inside. If you have a horse that fights taking pills this can save a lot of headaches and wasted meds.
This recipe makes twenty treats but your can easily double or triple it if you have a whole barn to feed.
No Bake Whole Food Horse Treats
*Recipe has affiliate links for the products that I love and trust to feed to my horses
1/2 cup pitted dates (you can soak them in water if you want more even consistency)
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1/3 cup small pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup oat flour
3/4 cup oat blend
1/4 cup topping for rolling (ground almonds, ground flax, coconut)
Blend dates in the food processor or blender till they make a paste like consistency (if you didn’t soak the dates ahead of time add 3 tablespoons of water. Then add all other ingredients and blend till the mixture is the consistency of thick cookie dough.
Roll the mixture into one inch balls with your hands. If it comes out sticky it’s helpful to flour your hands in-between each one.
Roll the balls into the topping of your choice- ground almonds, coconut, chia seeds, or even ground banana chips work well.
Insightfully,
Becky
I’m looking for a way to turn 1 oz if feed-thru fly control pellets into daily treats for my horses. Think this will work?
Good question Sam, I’m actually coming out with a post next week my the best recipe for “DIY daily supplement treats”. It works with both pelleted and powdered supplements. I’ll post the like here when it’s up.
These look pretty good. I’ll have to try them one day!
Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Thanks for checking out my post, Ashley. I have yet to find a horse that doesn’t love them and they’re super easy to make.
I take it your horse checks your pockets when you show up at the barn ‼️ “Where are my treats?” 🐴
Of course 🙂 They are always ready to work for novel treats and love trying new things.