02/19/2025
What do you like to feed the horses?
At Chasing Laurels, we are often asked what horses can and cannot eat. This is a helpful chart. But it’s always important to remember horses may have different dietary needs. And, owners may have preferences as well.
Update- For those that would like to know why the chart states horses should not have fruit cores— In short, people and horses are discouraged from eating the cores, out of caution. This is primarily due to the seeds containing amygdalin. Amygdalin releases a small amount of cyanide.
Apples for example, usually contain 5-10 seeds. The ATSDR writes that any amount of cyanide is bad for humans. But, the NIH suggests that it would take 100+ apple seeds for a human to get sick.
Many professionals do allow their horses to eat an occasional whole apple. General information is that it would take 500-1000 seeds to make a horse sick.