What vegetables are low in sugar for horses? (2024)

What vegetables are low in sugar for horses?

For a different treat, try bananas or celery, or if your horse is an unadventurous eater try low-sugar veg such as swede, parsnips and turnips. These can also act as boredom busters if you hang them in the stable.

Horses enjoy celery, corn, lettuce, squash, sweet potatoes, and turnips. Vegetables are excellent sources of vitamins, too. For example, carrots are high in Vitamin A and celery is a good source of Vitamin K. Feeding these items in limited quantities is fine and your horse may actually enjoy the variety!

Carrots - as they are fed to the horse, in a fresh state - are NOT high in sugar or NSC (non-structural carbohydrates). Fresh carrots are - by official human food definition - a low sugar food at less than 5% sugar. Carrots are around 80% water, so any sugar in them is diluted i.e. they are mostly water.

Carrots have more sugar than you might expect and aren't approprriate for horses on low-sugar diets. But if your horse is on a sugar-restricted diet, don't despair: There are some treats you can give your equine that won't disrupt his delicate system.

One of the first things you are likely to be told, as the owner of a laminitic or EMS horse, is "no treats, no carrots, no apples..". A grape or prune is sometimes suggested as suitable for hiding pergolide tablets, but owners may be warned not to use a slice of carrot or apple for the same purpose.

Apples and carrots are traditional favorites. You can safely offer your horse raisins, grapes, bananas, strawberries, cantaloupe or other melons, celery, pumpkin, and snow peas. Most horses will chew these treats before swallowing, but horses that gulp large pieces of a fruit or vegetable have a risk of choking.

Cauliflower, Cabbage, Broccoli

If your horse consumes any of these three things in excess, then it can lead to very bad gas and colic problems that could hurt them. Better to avoid these three vegetables!

Feeding one to two carrots per day is recommended by the majority of horse owners. I would not feed more than 2 per day and it is helpful if you feed them at different times. Horses are used to eating small meals throughout the day and breaking up the treats will help maintain their eating schedule.

Because the horse doesn't have metabolic issues, there is probably no harm with feeding this many carrots. The biggest concern would be if the horse was not consuming enough forage with the carrots and coming up a bit short on certain nutrients.

Is Cabbage good for horses?

Cabbage is one of the few vegetables that horses need to avoid. You should not give horses any vegetables within the Brassicaceae or Cruciferae family. These plants are typically called “mustards” and can be dangerous for horses to consume. The plant family also includes vegetables like Brussels sprouts and broccoli.

Can Horses Eat Cucumbers? Yes, horses can eat cucumbers – a welcome answer to those of you with an overabundance of cucumbers growing in your gardens. Cucumbers are a fantastic source of vitamins such as A, K, and C, as well as potassium. What's more, cucumber skin provides horses with a natural dietary fibre.

Unfortunately most commercially made horse treats, as well as apples and carrots, can be high in sugar. This presents a problem with horses that have Cushing's disease, or Insulin Resistance/Metabolic Syndrome, as those horses' sugar and starch intake must be limited.

Correct feeding, in conjunction with reducing acid build-up in the bowel, are the most effective ways to prevent laminitis. The basis of feeding horses with laminitis involves formulating a balanced diet high in fat and fibre whilst avoiding sugars (i.e. grains and carbohydrate-rich pastures).

What causes laminitis continues to be an area of huge research. It has become evident in recent years that although the over consumption of grass or feed high in starch or sugar is still commonly associated with horses developing laminitis, up to 90% of cases have an underlying hormonal cause.

A high fibre, low starch and low sugar diet is essential for laminitics, so avoid feeds that contain cereals or molasses.

Laminitis commonly results from endocrine diseases such as equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) or pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID), but other causes can include weight bearing on supporting limbs due to injury and excessive sugar intake from grain or lush pasture. Laminitis is irreversible.

Laminitis can be caused by an over consumption of high starch and sugar grains, either in one meal or by feeding large grain meals.

Select hay with a low level of soluble carbohydrates for the IR horse. Small grain hays such as oat and ryegrass have much greater sugar content than other grass hays like timothy and orchard grass.

Too much of a good thing can be problematic, though. Apples can cause gastric issues in horses if eaten too much, and they are fairly high in sugar.

Can Laminitic horses have salt licks?

Some toys which do not involve treats or licks – such as jolly balls can help keep horses amused. Non calorific licks – such as salt licks can also keep horses entertained.

Some horses will also enjoy things like celery, lettuce, kale, collard greens, spinach, and chard for their leafy green crunch. These treats are easy to feed since they are similar to the horse's natural diets of greens, leaves, and soft stems.

High starch feeds should be avoided, including treats such as carrots and apples. To manage and prevent laminitis from occurring, choose a low sugar and starch diet. Look for a combined sugar and starch content of less than 10% (NSC).

As members of the nightshade family, potatoes are toxic to horses. Raw potatoes are more dangerous than cooked potatoes, but potato poisoning is possible will all types of this starchy vegetable.

Some fruits – such as apples and apricots – have pits or seeds which contain cyanide compounds, which are toxic in extremely large quantities. Large pits can cause choke, so it's best to remove them before offering your horse fruit such as peaches or nectarines.

Despite being delicious and a cook's favorite ingredient, tomatoes are toxic for horse health. These fruits are of the Solanaceae family or the nightshade members, just like horsenettle, tobacco, chili, bell pepper, eggplants, and potatoes.

Yew Plants

Yew is one of the most toxic plants for horses.

If you feed your horse a lot of apples at one time, it can definitely cause severe stomach distress and possibly lead to a vet visit. To avoid this and to keep your horse happy and healthy, stick with feeding just 1 or 2 apples per day.

Sweet potatoes can be a tasty treat for horses either raw or cooked. Due to their relatively high starch and sugar content, they should be fed in only small amounts. Feeding large amounts carries some risk, especially when given to starch-sensitive horses.

How many baby carrots can a horse have in a day?

Generally, you can give a healthy, average-sized horse about two large carrots per day or two small handfuls of baby carrots.

If you feed carrots the horses fill themselves up and then don't eat their hay (hay or grass is the essential diet of any horse). This is like a child eating sweets and then not wanting their vegetables. Horses eat until they are fibre full, don't fill them up on carrots.

For an average size horse, one or two carrots is sufficient. Feeding too much of any treat can have negative effects on a balanced diet like lowering protein content, raising starch levels and diluting vitamins and minerals.

Horses Can Eat Lettuce

Lettuce is definitely among some of the leafy greens that are delightful for your horses. Unlike some other wild grasses, shrubs, and veggies, lettuce does contain mostly water content. Even though there are some vitamins and minerals, there aren't as many as some other plants.

Feeding potato skins to horses is a BIG no. Though it may seem harmless (or even efficient in terms of waste reduction), you should never allow your horse to eat potato skins. Even more so than the potato flesh itself, the peels present an even greater concentration of toxic solanine.

Like most animals, horses are lactose intolerant, so it's important to keep them away from dairy products like milk and cheese. If you did give your horse dairy? He or she could suffer from diarrhoea.

Horses can eat banana peels, but not all of them will be interested in eating them, owing to their bitter taste. The peels are just as healthy for your horse as the banana itself, also containing potassium and vitamin B.

Can horses eat peanut butter? Unless your horse has underlying health conditions, peanut butter is a safe treat to offer in moderation. In fact, peanut butter is not all empty calories – it has some nutritional benefits that can actually make it a healthy treat for horses if given sparingly.

There is no harm in occasionally feeding bread, but it is not the most nutritious feedstuff when used as the sole concentrate. While bread is chock full of calories, it provides few nutrients. When only bread is fed with hay, the major nutritional problem is an imbalance and/or deficiency of some minerals and vitamins.

Sweets like bananas, apples and carrots have a similar effect. Even natural sugars can have a profoundly toxic effect in the body of an IR horse.

Can you feed oatmeal to horses?

Because of their high fiber content and low energy value, whole oats have traditionally been a relatively safe feed for horses when compared to other cereal grains such as corn. In an effort to improve upon the nutritional qualities of traditional oats, plant breeders created varieties of hull-less or naked oats.

Feed up to 2% of your horses body weight (10 kg/day for a 500 kg horse) per day as low quality, low sugar forage, including mature or stemmy tropical grass hays and/or weather damaged lucerne hay.

In a recent study, Teff hay proved beneficial for laminitic horses because of its low sugar and starch content, making it safe for horses with certain conditions or diet restrictions to consume. Teff hay is usually grown in warm seasons that originate from Ethiopia as a grain.

Does steaming hay reduce sugar content? Not by very much and no where near as much as soaking can. In one study, steaming reduced the WSC content by 3% whereas soaking the same hay reduced WSC by around 30% on average.

An Australian study has shown that light exercise can help to reduce the risk of laminitis for horses and ponies.

Wholesome Blends^™ Senior. A soy-free feed for more than just your aged partner. It's high in fiber and fat, yet low in sugar and starch, which makes it a great choice for horses of all ages.

Horse owners can calculate the NSC rate in a commercial horse feed by adding the percentage of sugar and starches listed in the guaranteed analysis on the feed bag. For horses with metabolic conditions, safe NSC percentages are generally 12% or lower, nutritionists say.

Increased energy requirements can be met by feeding alfalfa (lucerne) hay or chaff, super-fibers such as beet pulp and soy hulls, or a low- to moderate-NSC feed. Feeds that are higher in fat (greater than 6%) are preferred as they are less reliant on carbohydrates for energy.

Can horses with Cushing's eat treats?

So now you know that treats are fine in limited amounts to most equines but can be harmful to those with Cushing's disease (PPID). However, if you would like to give treats to these animals, we recommend sugar-free peppermints or sugar-free oatmeal cookies.

That's why GRO 'N WIN™ or Senior Balancer are the perfect ration balancers to complement your horse's forage. Created to be fed as stand-alone feed or as a top-dress to your horse's daily grain ration, both are formulated with a precise balance of amino acids, vitamins and minerals for ideal nutrient balance.

Therefore, the key to feeding older horses is to use high quality protein from sources like alfalfa, soybean meal and canola meal without oversupplying their requirements.

In broad terms, whilst pigs, poultry and humans can have diets with levels in the order of 60% sugar/starch, horses should never have more than 20%, 10% if they are laminitics. Further recommendations suggest that single meals should contain no more than 1g of sugar/starch per 1kg of bodyweight.

In summary, beet pulp is a good dietary supplement for "hard keepers", as a forage or fiber replacement for poor quality hay, and for older horses with problems chewing or digesting hay. The digestible energy content of beet pulp is greater than hay and less than grain.

The total intake from 7.5kgs dry matter, the minimum amount recommended for a 500kgs horse, would supply around 650grams of sugar. To put this into context, to supply the same total amount of sugar from molasses it would be necessary to feed just over 1kg of pure molasses.

Sugar and fructan

And concentrates are an essential part of a high-performance sport horse's diet. Feed your horse no more than 2 g of sugar and starch per kilogramme of body weight and per ration – don't give your horse more energy than it needs.

Feeds low in soluble carbohydrates (sugar and starch or NSC) are recommended. Feeding recommendations are to provide a total diet with less than 20% NSC for most horses with Cushing's disease. Some horses and ponies may need a dietary NSC level of less than 10% to avoid excessive complications.

The sugar and starch levels should be 10% or less. Hay may need to be analysed to check the sugar and starch content. If it is too high the horse should be changed to a forage with lower levels, or the hay could be soaked. Grazing my also need to be monitored.

Although Cushing's disease cannot always be prevented, there are precautions you can take to lower the risk. “The most important thing is to keep your horse's weight down, providing proper nutrition, which means to feed him only what he really needs,” Langer says. Sugar intake should be minimized.

How do horses get Cushings?

In horses, PPID is attributed to an adenoma (a benign tumor) in the pars intermedia of the pituitary gland. The cells that make up the tumor produce excessive amounts propriomelanocortin (POMC) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH).

Some toys which do not involve treats or licks – such as jolly balls can help keep horses amused. Non calorific licks – such as salt licks can also keep horses entertained.

Remember, pellets are not a substitute for all your horse's forage needs, they can replace alfalfa hay if your animal has other hay or grass, but a horse must consume long-stem forage for proper digestion. Also, note that one pound of alfalfa pellets has the same nutritional value as one pound of hay.