VENT: Please don't feed my horse!

[ksetrider]

So yesterday I went to the barn as usual. And as usual gave my boy a little peppermint upon greeting. He gobbles it up and then suddenly starts grinding and twisting his jaw and making this awful crunching sound. I watch in horror and dumbfounded not knowing what to do. Next thing you know he spits something back up. My first reaction is oh god he cracked a tooth. I pick up these "pieces" (2 of them) and examine them. Hmmm funny looking teeth pieces. So I try to manipulate his mouth and do the best I can feeling his molars. Nada. All is well. So I look at this foreign object again, a little closer. You know, it looks like a peach pit. I give it sniff. Yups its kinda sweet smelling. Look a little closer. It is DEF a peach pit! Well pieces of one. He's still grinding and crunching so I reach back into his mouth and clean out the rest of the particles that are actually lodged in his gum walls and his teeth. Poor guy. I knew right away who would give a horse a peach. (Actually, my first reaction was it something in his hay?). She happened to walk into the barn shortly after that.
Me: This may sound crazy but do you give your horses peaches?
Her: Yup they love them!
Me: Aren't you worried about the pit?
Her: Nope they spit it right back out.
Me: Did you happen to give one to my guy?
Her: Oh no I wouldn't do that
Me: Oh ok cause he was just spitting up peach pit particles

The overly cautious mom I am, I am going to have the Dentist come and take a look at him. We are at the 6 month point anyway. Tonight he will have a lovely sign on his stall door:

"As much as I may beg, please don't feed me any treats except apple oaties."

[trubandloki]

You should probably end the note with ....any treats. Forget the part where you give permission to give something.

It will only lead to other issues.

[easyrider]

This drives me crazy, too. At least it used to before I had horses at home. I remember going to the barn one day and seeing someone who worked there feeding my horse half of her sandwich. I said, "What are you feeding my horse?!" and she said, "He likes it!" I already had a sign on my stall door that said NO HANDFEEDING.

[asb_own_me]

Why do people think it's okay to give other people's horses treats? Do I feed their kid some crap without asking?

[Pookah]

I had a horse with laminitis this spring, and I left a note "from him" on his door--something along the lines of, "I have laminitis. Please do not feed me any treats. If I look uncomfortable, please call my mommy right away." Cheesy, but people responded to it very well. We don't have a barn culture where people feed each others' horses to begin with, so it wasn't a huge problem, but we do have lots of kids and I wanted to err on the side of safety. People took it very well, and actually asked a lot of questions about laminitis and how he was doing, etc. I know it's hard, and I would want to kill them, too, but I think people really have the best intentions, and just don't know any bettter. And I don't know about your horse, but if mine see someone else getting treats, they can do a credible imitation of a starved and neglected horse, and garner some real cuteness and sympathy points :).

[BridgetC78]

I had this happen at my barn... with my horse. I dont mind, NORMAL treats, carrots, peppermints, etc. But DO NOT feed my horse CORN HUSKS, BREAD or SANDWICHES!!! I would find all sorts of corn husks, and bread parts everywhere. I left a huge note and made it apparent that my horse NOT get any of those things.

Another time we have this people that live next door to our barn and they think its a petting zoo. They came over with the entire family and had a BABY (like BABY that couldnt even stand on his own) feeding one of the lesson horses a sandwich, ham and cheese i think. I immediately went up to them and said "DO NOT FEED THE HORSES" and then went on to say that some horses cant have this and that, so its easier to just not feed any of them anything. Seriously people, its not your horse, or your family's horse, so dont feed them.

[ksetrider]

Thanks for everyone's replies. I know giving them an option of a specific treat might open a can of worms, but we keep a huge bin of apple oaties at the barn. All the horses get 1 when they get turned out, 1 when are brought in and we have 1 lady who gives the whole barn 1 when she arrives (there are only 10 horses). I'd rather someone comfortably give him an apple oatie than "sneak" him a peach. Many, many ignore signs. How many of us have "rolled" a stop sign before? LOL.

Pookah- you are so right about a strategic sign. I think it would garner more respect.

[skyy]

We have a new leaser in the barn who is leasing a pony with less than wonderful ground manners and he is mouthy to boot so we try to discourage hand feeding. The leaser's mom is not horsey at all and really has no idea that horses are not big dogs. She came to the barn the other day with a rolled up napkin and asked if she could feed the pony some steak. Well, at least she asked first :)

[Ride2Dreams]

In regards to peaches... As much of a doll as your horse may be.. Are her horses next to yours in the barn where she might of left a peach out and he grabbed it?

Case in point.. I had to sheepishly go to a fellow boarder and let her horse know he ate a tuna fish sandwich, half an avacado (including the skin & balsamic dressing) and possibly has a small tupperware container in his stall because (me) left my lunch on MY tack trunk to put the saddle in the tack room... Little did I know her horse was GUMBY and a thief. After both of us scouring his stall (didn't want to go in there without her) Finally found the chewed up (but intact) tupperware container that held the Avacado. Not /all/ feedings are intentional.

[Mimi La Rue]

In regards to peaches... As much of a doll as your horse may be.. Are her horses next to yours in the barn where she might of left a peach out and he grabbed it?

Case in point.. I had to sheepishly go to a fellow boarder and let her horse know he ate a tuna fish sandwich, half an avacado (including the skin & balsamic dressing) and possibly has a small tupperware container in his stall because (me) left my lunch on MY tack trunk to put the saddle in the tack room... Little did I know her horse was GUMBY and a thief. After both of us scouring his stall (didn't want to go in there without her) Finally found the chewed up (but intact) tupperware container that held the Avacado. Not /all/ feedings are intentional.

Or I was thinking maybe one of her horses spit out the pit and the OP's horse found it. Could that maybe be the case?


LOL at the gumby comment! :lol:

[shalomypony]

I can't tell you how pissed that makes me.Who in the H#*# do people think they are!!!!!!!!!I have a 37 yr old and an 8 yr old at home.The front of my pasture is fronted by a very quiet country road.It seems that my boys are the attraction-entertainment of the neighbourhood.I don't want anyone to feed my horses ANYTHING!!!!!!!!My 37yr old has all his teeth but one,but can't eat anything hard as per dentists advice.So I have this one neighbour who argued with me that she only fed him little carrots.......ugh,she actually argued with me!!!How about if I give her nut allergic kid just one "little" peanut.Ugh..........people!!!!!!!!!!:mad:

[BarbB]

My horse would get pushy when fed treats.
I put a sign on his stall that read "Please do not feed fingers to the horse"
The treats stopped.

[lindasp62]

I am dealing with this at the barn where I have my two horses, and have put up a sign that says "Please do not feed "Geronimo" treats. I am not sure if the younger kids can actually read it or not, but I am planning to actually TELL them as well.

Also, some of the fields back up to neighborhoods and kids are forever on the fence trying to pet (and feed?) the horses. I am constantly yelling at them to get off the fence. Last night, I called some kids over and we had a "lesson" on why it is not appropriate to 1) climb on the fence 2) even pat the horses and 3) why NEVER to feed the horses. I was actually THANKED by one of the kids (about 10 years old) for giving them information!

Tonight, I saw an adult feeding one of the horses and was not as patient, but told her to NOT feed the horses...as some of the horses are on special diets, if they are fed wrong things they could actually GET SICK AND DIE!!! "It was just grass" she said...but, it told her it is not good to feed them anything at all!!!!!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

As far as signs on the stall door....maybe they should say..."BACK OFF! HORSE BITES!!" I used to do tsomething similar with my bottles of water/juice/etc in the barn refrigerator so others wouldn't continue to drink it..my label on the bottle said "POISON-DO NOT DRINK!" It worked.

[deltawave]

I'm with the posters who speculate whether the horse could've nabbed a dropped peach, or peach pit, that another horse had missed. My Shetland HOVERS at ground level when the other slobs are getting treats, because the leftover particles that are slobbered or dropped are HERS. :lol:

[lovemyoldguy]

In regards to peaches... As much of a doll as your horse may be.. Are her horses next to yours in the barn where she might of left a peach out and he grabbed it?

Case in point.. I had to sheepishly go to a fellow boarder and let her horse know he ate a tuna fish sandwich, half an avacado (including the skin & balsamic dressing) and possibly has a small tupperware container in his stall because (me) left my lunch on MY tack trunk to put the saddle in the tack room... Little did I know her horse was GUMBY and a thief. After both of us scouring his stall (didn't want to go in there without her) Finally found the chewed up (but intact) tupperware container that held the Avacado. Not /all/ feedings are intentional.

This totally made me laugh out loud! :lol: I can just see you saying, "Uh, I don't mind missing out on lunch, but, um, we should probably get the tupperware back." :lol:

[Ride2Dreams]

This totally made me laugh out loud! :lol: I can just see you saying, "Uh, I don't mind missing out on lunch, but, um, we should probably get the tupperware back." :lol:

I think that was possibly my most embaressing time at that barn. Once we FOUND the tupperware both myself and the other border finally breathed and giggled over the whole affair but all I could think at the time was "My god she must think I'm an idiot"

But, whole point of that was just... She might not of MEANT to feed him the peach. I don't know what type of person she is

[Sneekers]

My mare is IR and can't have treats. Period. I give her sugar-free mints and I'm the only one who gives them to her. My BM is sooooo on board with Ms. Mare's dietary restrictions that she's usually says something like "if you give her candy or treats she'll die". Harsh, but very effective. Since the kids all love Ms. Mare, they don't give her treats!

[amastrike]

As far as signs on the stall door....maybe they should say..."BACK OFF! HORSE BITES!!" I used to do tsomething similar with my bottles of water/juice/etc in the barn refrigerator so others wouldn't continue to drink it..my label on the bottle said "POISON-DO NOT DRINK!" It worked.

I put a spray bottle of Sore No More on my horse's door, and labeled it "TOXIC! DANGEROUS! DO NOT USE!" and drew skulls and crossbones all over it. No one touched it. But I did tell his owner what it was so she wouldn't worry about what I was doing to her horse :lol:.

[HoofHeartSoul]

peach pits,cherry pits etc. have toxic properties to them. so yeah also warn the lady about that because that is scary.

[Dune]

People are idiots@! :mad: