SARAH: "What is the healthiest snack for a horse?
And in what quantity can I feed it?"
This is a great question.
Cody's very excited to find out what he
can have unlimited supplies of.
DR LYDIA GRAY: You know, I will start with a story.
I do stories, she does jokes.
Just so we're clear.
My story is, I was speaking at an Equine
Affaire, one of those expos.
And someone came up and they couldn't figure out
why their pony was overweight.
And so we went through the whole, what do you feed,
and turn out, and exercise?
And it turns out, they loved him so much.
They were giving him a bag of peppermints a day.
SARAH: Oh.
Sweet boy.
I bet he deserved them, though.
DR LYDIA GRAY: I'm sure he deserved them,
but while peppermints might be great treats,
that quantity is a little excessive.
Yeah, we did an exercise here.
SARAH: Because they're basically just hard packed sugar.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Well, yeah.
So here, we did an exercise at our last training.
SARAH: Oh, nice.
DR LYDIA GRAY: It was very fun.
These are nine peppermints.
And this is the sugar in nine peppermints, ends up
being 45 grams.
So you're right, it's just sugar with a little--
SARAH: Food coloring?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Probably, and then flavor.
SARAH: Yeah.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Versus--
here's something that people give horses a lot.
You can take that one.
I'm holding 19 grams of apple.
SARAH: And then I'm holding 2.9 grams of carrot.
DR LYDIA GRAY: I think people think that carrots
have more sugar than apple.
And this shows that they have less.
SARAH: You would typically expect a vegetable
to have less than a fruit, though, right?
DR LYDIA GRAY: You would.
But out there on the internet, or the interwebby,
is don't feed your horse carrots if they have a sugar issue.
SARAH: Apples are the healthiest treat.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Right, yeah.
So there it is in white--
as opposed to black and white.
SARAH: Well, there's a little black on the label.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Here's the really interesting thing.
SARAH: Oh, boy.
DR LYDIA GRAY: This is 2 pounds, or about 900 grams of sugar.
And it's from how much hay a horse would eat per day.
So we get a little caught up in--
SARAH: I thought you were going to say like a 20 ounce soda.
DR LYDIA GRAY: I think there's more sugar in a 20 ounce soda.
People get a little caught up in treats and supplements
and that.
But don't forget, this is how much sugar your horse
is getting from its hay.
So I started on the sugar kick--
the sugar high.
But 'healthy treat' is sort of a vague name
because healthy in what respect?
If your horse can't have sugars and starches, then clearly,
you're looking for the lowest sugar option.
But what if that's not a problem?
What if your horse can't have potassium,
say, because he's HYPP.
Then you have to sort out the treats that are low potassium.
What if he has a food sensitivity to something?
Then you have to avoid the treats that have that in it.
So healthy is a term that depends
on what issues your individual horse has.
And also, I put Newman's favorite treats up here--
these Hilton Herballs he gets when I pull his mane.
Those things, they're small.
I think they're very healthy as far as ingredients.
But their form is not for everyone.
Because if you have an older horse with questionable teeth,
they're not going to do so well with those.
They're not going to be able to chew them.
And they're going to swallow them whole then.
And potentially, you could have a choke.
So even the form is important, not just what's in them.
So I know people hate when I answer, but it depends.
So you have to look at what your horse has
that he's dealing with, and then look through the options--
whether it's commercial treats or whether it's human foods--
and choose the best there.
And as far as quantity, they're treats.
So you don't give them a bag of peppermints.
Use them as a treat.
They don't count.
So I think just even the expression
of, "You were a good boy today," is probably sufficient.
Don't go overboard.