DAN: "How many carrots a day is allowed to be given to a horse?
When is the best time to give it?
Is it better to give it right after a ride?
Or should we wait for a specific time
and then feed it to him or her?
Or before riding is the best time?
Which one?
Thanks."
DR LYDIA GRAY: OK.
All I heard was carrots.
DAN: Yes, carrots.
DR LYDIA GRAY: All right.
DAN: So basically, when is the best time to feed carrots?
I think is what we're trying to get at here.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Got it.
Got it.
I heard three questions-ish here.
I heard, are carrots a good treat for horses?
I think we should cover that.
DAN: Yep.
DR LYDIA GRAY: How many should you give?
And then, when is the best time to give them?
Is that accurate?
DAN: Well, technically, we didn't
ask if they were good treats.
Just, how many are they allowed to have a day?
[LAUGHS]
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, but I'm going to answer that anyway.
Because it's controversial.
There are people who think, oh, carrots have too much sugar,
and you shouldn't eat them yourself
or give them to horses.
DAN: Mm-hmm.
DR LYDIA GRAY: I know they can have,
based on what scale you look at, they
can have a high glycemic index.
I've seen a range as low as 39 to 71.
And the glycemic index, it's a human thing,
but it's a value of how quickly or how slowly whatever food
you're eating makes your blood sugar rise.
DAN: Yes.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And so, in some tests,
the carrots make it rise quickly,
and in some tests not so quickly.
And it has to do with what else you
eat at the same time, how quickly you eat,
and how many you eat, and other nutrients that
are in that thing.
So like you said, it's not been validated yet in horses,
so it's not really a good indicator.
My feeling is, everything in moderation.
So they may not be ideal, but if you only give a few,
then it's probably fine.
Even for those horses that have issues with sugar,
like they have equine metabolic syndrome, or Cushing's disease,
or PSSM or something.
DAN: So it sounds like it's one of those things
that people took from the human world and kind of transferred
into the horse world, even though it hasn't necessarily
been proven in horses yet.
There's still more research that's has to be done there.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
And if you think of what else the horse is eating
and how much, I mean, you give a couple carrots
and he's eating three flakes of hay,
it's kind of a drop in the bucket.
DAN: Well, that is question a lot of people have about sugar.
When I was on our Customer Care team,
people used to ask that the entire time.
How much sugar is in this or that?
And really, you have to look at the horse's whole diet, not one
gram of something that they get once a day
or something along those lines.
It's what's the whole impact of it.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Right.
So then that leads right into, how many should they get?
And so, oddly enough-- well, first I
have a story to tell you.
DAN: [LAUGHS]
DR LYDIA GRAY: Years and years ago,
when I was still taking Newman to clinics,
we got done with our lesson, and I had a friend helping me.
She was taking him back to the stall.
And she says, "Oh, can I feed him some treats?"
And I said, yeah, there's a bag of carrots outside his stall.
You can give that whole thing to him.
And she knew me, and she was like, wow!
That must have been a great lesson!
Lydia's letting him have a bag of carrots!
Can I show you the bag of carrots?
Because I recreated it.
DAN: Yes.
Oh!
[LAUGHS]
DR LYDIA GRAY: It's three baby carrots.
She thought, because she'd feed her horse a literal bag
of whole, long carrots.
But they don't need that many.
He knew he did a good job.
Here's a handful of carrots.
They're a high-value treat, if you're into dog training, which
many are.
DAN: Yeah.
DR LYDIA GRAY: It's fine.
The best explanation of this I found
was from Nutrena of all places.
DAN: Oh, really?
DR LYDIA GRAY: The feed company.
Here's what they say when it comes to treats.
Feed only a small amount.
Feeding your horse 15 large carrots at a time
is more of a meal than a treat.
Right?
DAN: Yeah.
DR LYDIA GRAY: For an average-sized horse,
one or two carrots is sufficient.
Feeding too much of any treat can actually
have negative effects.
On a balanced diet it lowers the protein content,
it raises the sugars and starches, dilutes out
your vitamins and minerals.
And too much of a certain treat can actually
lead to digestive upset, and even as much
as colic and laminitis.
So, again, everything in moderation.
DAN: It's like when you have those mini chocolate bars,
and instead of having one, you have 25 of them,
and then you don't feel as good after.
[LAUGHS]
DR LYDIA GRAY: It's a little like that.
So then, the last part is, when is the best time to give?
And I have another story for you.
You know I have a young horse.
DAN: Yes.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And this is the first spring
that I have had him.
And so, it's the first spring that I
have had to lead him out to hand graze for 10 minutes,
and then 20 minutes, and then 30 minutes,
and then bring him back into the dry lot.
DAN: How has that been going?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Well, the first day it went fine.
And then the second day, he went, why
the heck would I come back in?
So the third day, I decided--
when I brought him back in there was
a feed tub with some carrots and apples in it.
And he's like, oh, that's why I come back in!
Because as much as I love the grass,
there's something yummy and delicious
waiting for me when I come back in.
So now he drags me out to the grass and drags me back in.
So I use treats as a reward and for training.
When you give treats willy-nilly,
just any old time for nothing, then horses
they almost get to expect them.
DAN: Because if you gave a carrot before you rode,
the horse, like, well, why am I going to work now?
I already got the treat, the reward.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And on the other hand,
if you give a carrot every time after your ride,
then you can create some bad behavior too.
They can say, well, I want to be done riding now to get
my carrot, or it can cause-- especially if you feed them
by hand--
can cause them to nose your pockets,
and headbutt you, and do all sorts of things,
and just in general be naughty.
So I give treats for certain reasons.
And I don't give a lot, I just give enough.
And I give carrots and apples.
And I give Newman a prune every day now.
But don't tell him, that's because it
has his medicine in it.
DAN: [LAUGHS] He hasn't caught on yet?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Well, I don't think so.
Even though sometimes he eats it and there's
a big crunch in the middle.
He looks at me funny and I'm like, I don't know.
That one's crunchy.
DAN: [LAUGHS]
DR LYDIA GRAY: Anyway, I think carrots are fine in moderation.
DAN: Perfect.
That's good, because I am a big carrot giver after a good ride.
So I'm glad to hear that--
DR LYDIA GRAY: After a good ride.
Perfect.
DAN: A good ride, yes.
Well, awesome.
So go ahead, feel free to give your carrots after a good ride.