Make your own horse treats and cakes

It's Christmas time and here at Tic Tac Equestrian, we know that horse owners aren't the only ones who enjoy indulging in a bit of festive indulgence. Earlier, we gave you recipes for basic Christmas cakes for Horses. This time, we've scoured the web for a handful of great little treats and cookies to help you horses get into the spirit and reward them for being great companions over the past year!

Oat 'n' Apple Chewies

Treat your horse or pony to these simple squares made of wholesome ingredients. Keep them fresh in the fridge. Remember not to feed too many of any treat too often.

INGREDIENTS:

1 ½ cups unsweetened apple sauce
1 cup oat bran cereal or ground oatmeal/porridge oats
½ cup all purpose flour (approx.)

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 180C/350F
Oil a 9inch x 9inch square cake pan
Spread the batter evenly in the cake pan and bake for 20-30 minutes. The batter will start to shrink away from the sides and it will be firm to the touch.

Slice into squares while still warm. Keep chewies in the refrigerator in an air-tight container or bag.


Molasses Cookies Horse Treats

Your horse will love the sweet crunchiness of these cookies. They keep well in an air-tight container. Never feed too many treats too often.

INGREDIENTS:

1 ½ cup all purpose flour
1 cup bran
1 cup molasses
1 cup grated carrot or apple

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 190C/375F
Oil two cookie sheets
Put aside a small bowl of white sugar and a drinking glass with a flat bottom.
In a large bowl mix all the ingredients thoroughly. The mixture shouldn’t be too wet, and should stick together.


Add more flour to make the mixture firmer and hold together if necessary. Drop by teaspoonfuls, about 1 ½ inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Grease the bottom of the glass, dip it in the sugar, and stamp the cookies to flatten them slightly. Bake for about 10 minutes. This makes about 25 cookies, depending on the size. Store in an air-tight container or bag.



Baked Carrot Crispies

2 carrots,shredded
1 apple,shredded
1/3 cup molasses
3/4 cup flower
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup bran
3/4 cup porridge oats/oatmeal

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat over to 200C/400F. Generously grease a muffin tin. Mix carrots and apples into a bowl with molasses.,bran,brown sugar,water,flour and oatmeal. Mixture should have a thick and doughy consistency. Add more bran if needed. Scoop dough into a muffin tin,sprinkle each muffin with brown sugar and bake in the over for 30-50 minutes until well cooked

Christmas Day Treats for Horses!

Here's hoping for horsey white christmas!

We're getting ready for the holidays here at Tic Tac Equestrian! Now,  Christmas day is what you make it, but for us it’s a time to get fat and enjoy yourself - but don’t forget about your horses! They deserve a treat too and we’ve searched far and wide among horse lovers to get some great ideas for special ways to treat your four-legged friends at this wonderful time of the year.

Christmas Cake for Horses

Who doesn’t love Christmas cake? Exactly – no one! And that goes for our equine neighbours too. There are lots of different ways to spruce up their Christmas feed, so let’s start off with a simple but irresistible festive and wonderfully horsey Christmas cake.

Ingredients

Dark brown sugar - 500 g

1 Mug of bran

2 Mugs of chaff

1 apple

1 big carrot grated

1 small tin of black treacle

(You can add a mug of mix if you feed it)

Instructions

Heat up the sugar and treacle until melted, then stir in the rest of the ingredients -you may need to add little more chaff or bran so it is very thick.

Put into a medium-sized container and leave to set.

This recipe is very rich and sugary so be sure to feed with care to horses with sugar intolerance or if you like, you can reduce the amount of sugar you put in and replace with fruit - but it’s safe to say most healthy horses love this!

Other treats

You can also use many of the same ingredients to make different variations of fun, delicious horses treats, including these similar, candy-style treats.

To make, simply mix 1 can of black treacle, 500g of dark brown sugar, melt in a pan and pour into little lickit containers to make fun tongue twisters – lots of brown sticky noses but they adore them.

Big Horse Treats

For bigger horses looking for a heartier wee feed, slices of apple and long strips of carrot dipped into slices of toffee are also a great Christmas day treat. You can also mix in chaff and leave to set in balls - very messy to make but worth it.

Ingredients for the Toffee

200g sugar

55ml of water

15 g of butter

1 tablespoon of Golden Syrup

TO MAKE

Heat the sugar and water together until fully melted, add butter and syrup and boil until 290 on jam thermometer or till it reaches the soft crack stage.

Dip your carrot and apple or other fruit/veg of choice into this and put on baking parchment until hard – and yes, the apple treats can be nice for humans too, so don’t be afraid to give them a taste test!

Christmas Pudding

For an alternative Christmas Pudding recipe, here’s a quick and easy way to keep your horses happy this winter:

Ingredients

Round bread roll

Golden syrup or molasses (optional)

Carrots

Apples

Pears (optional)

Polos

To Make

1. First cut a hole in your roll as if you are cutting the stem out of the strawberry.

2. Keep the top part of the bread safe! You will need it later!

3. Cut your carrots, apples and pears into thin sticks.

4. Arrange your sticks in the roll with at least three pointing up, out of the bowl.

5. Place a polo on each stick pointing up.

6. Pour golden syrup in to help it stay together. (optional)

7. Place the "lid" of bread on top.

8. Put a splodge of golden syrup on top. (optional)

9. In the splodge put some pear and polos in the shape of mistletoe on top. (optional)

10. Either put in feed or feed by hand!

REMEMBER: Only feed these treats a little at a time as they are very rich and full of sugar. But even a tiny taste will be a nice touch to help your horses and ponies enjoy this holiday season! Also, if you’re feeling extra merry, a nice big splash of Guinness in their Christmas dinner always goes down a treat too!

You can make fun variations of these recipes, or if you like, please feel free to send us any of your own ideas and recipes, we’d love to hear from you!

Hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Horsey New Year!!