Can Horses Eat Green Apples?

Can horses eat green apples? Yes your horse won’t care if the apple is ripe or green, he will want to eat it however it is, and the more apples he can eat the happier he will be. With all fruit, the horse seems to love the sweet juicy flavor, and when you give it as a treat you are meant to cut it into pieces, but if you hold the apple out he will eat it in two bites. I have often wondered why we are meant to cut it up, and we will find out?

All apples are good for horses, as they are packed with antioxidants and vitamins. As with all treats limit the apples to three a day, and the fiber contained in the apple will help to keep the digestive tract running smoothly. Never tie your horse up under an apple tree, as he will just help himself. The experts say two apples a day is enough for the horse, but if they are small apples he can have three.

What is Contained in Apples

The seeds of the apple do contain cyanide which is poisonous, but the seeds are small and amounts of toxicity low so it is safe for the horse to eat the whole fruit. The horse will get vitamins A and C from the apples as well as potassium. Sometimes a horse will become stubborn, he may not want to go for a walk or a trot, so put some apples in your pocket to give him the incentive to move forward. The horse is programmed to eat small amounts of food quite often. If you are out for a ride he will often see a nice patch of grass on the roadside to eat If you are hand-feeding an apple to the horse be careful, sometimes they will bite you and not always accidentally.

The Country Horse

If you live in the country, there are plenty of fresh fruit treats to feed to your horse, but the apple is always a favorite, closely followed by carrots.

The horse has a complex digestive system and should be fed an appropriate equine diet, including hay/alfalfa and grains in the right balance, as without it their systems can’t digest their foods. Never give whole fruits with pits like plums, nectarines, and peaches to a horse, cut them up as the pits contain concentrated amounts of cyanide poisonous to a horse. The horse is constantly eating because they are animals that graze, and as they are herbivores it takes a lot of grass to keep them going.

The City Horse

The city horse is mostly housed in stables, and either belongs to a riding school or a racing stable. They are kept fit and healthy, normally given the best of everything if you go to visit you need to ask, can horses eat green apples? When you visit the racing stables, some treats are banned, an example is no more sugar lumps as it rots their teeth. Usually, a piece of apple is acceptable, they look forward to having visitors in the stables, as they are nearly always working. Down in the stables they give the horse medications hidden in baby apple or apple sauce the latter is nice and sweet and appeals to the horse. Calcium is also contained in an apple, and an average apple contains good calcium to phosphorous ratio. Calcium is good for bone growth and important to coagulation. Phosphorous helps the racehorse to metabolize energy.

Feeding Your Horse

The horse must be able to adjust to new foods and feed. Too much of one thing especially fruit like apples can give the horse colic. It is actually better not to feed the horse a whole apple, as a large apple can cause a choking hazard, and the horse will try to bolt it down fast and it may get stuck. So this is why we should cut the apples into slices, when asking can horses eat green apples, yes they love them.

Conclusion

So, not too many treats for your horse, we don’t want to kill him with kindness, always cut the apple up into slices when feeding him.