KY Performance Products: Can Treats Make Your Horse Fat?

Whether your horse loves apples or peppermints, get the skinny on sugar and calorie content of some popular treats.

Image courtesy Kentucky Performance Products

How many calories are treats adding to your horse’s diet? Probably not many, if you feed them in moderation.

Calorie counts:

An average peppermint candy contains 100 calories (5 grams of sugar).
A medium apple contains 65 calories (13 grams of sugar).
A medium carrot has 53 calories (6 grams of sugar).
A medium banana has 105 calories (14 grams of sugar).

How many calories does a horse need in a day?

A 1,100-lb pasture ornament requires an average of 16,400 calories per day.
A 1,100-lb horse in hard work requires an average of 32,000 calories per day.

To put it all in perspective:

16.5 lbs of alfalfa hay (1.5% of a 1,100 lb horse’s body weight) provides, on average, 19,684 calories.
16.5 lbs of good grass hay (1.5% of a 1,100 lb horse’s body weight) provides, on average, 14,528 calories.

Article written by KPP staff.

Copyright (C) 2016 Kentucky Performance Products, LLC.   All rights reserved.

Article sponsored by Micro-Phase, which provides essential vitamins and trace minerals missing from forages and unfortified diets in an easy-to-digest form.

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