Health

When you are looking for treats to give to your horse, you will want to make sure that they are nutritious and aren't loaded full of calories. A horse’s snacks act the same way a snack does with a person. If you snack on unhealthy treats, you will ultimately be unhealthy. If you snack on healthy treats, you will be healthier. If they are loaded with calories, you can end up causing the animal to gain weight which will work against its long-term health. Therefore, one of the first things that you are going to want to do is look at the ingredients label to see what is used in the treat.

Some people also have concerns about artificial ingredients and GMOs. Artificial ingredients are ingredients that are used in place of natural ingredients. Maple syrup is a common example because what most people consider to be maple syrup is, in fact, corn syrup that has been flavored to taste like maple syrup. The same principle holds true with animal treats as well. Sometimes a treat is apple flavored but instead of using apples to produce the flavor, they use sugar, can contain artificial coloring, and other sweeteners to make it taste like apples. Artificial ingredients can be higher in calories plus they may not always be safe.

GMO stands for a genetically modified organism. These are plants and animals that have been altered at the DNA level. For example, many GMO plants grow longer roots to reach water or they are resistant to certain herbicides. There are plenty of people who do not want to consume food made of these products because the health consequences are still largely unknown. If you are concerned about using GMO or artificial ingredients, then you should try and look for snacks that use all natural ingredients. This will help give you piece of mind that you are giving healthy snacks to your horse.

Type of Treat

When it comes to snacks, you will typically see nugget, biscuits, wafers, and muffins. Naturally, the animal is going to let you know what kind of snack it prefers but there may be reasons to introduce it to one snack over another kind. It may require a little bit of trial and error in order to figure which snack type your horse is actually going to want to eat so don't be afraid to experiment. You may even find that the animal likes several different kinds of treats, and could be used in progression with training sessions based on which one the animal likes more.

The nugget is a small snack that isn't shaped in any particular way. Since they are small, they make great choices for training since you can keep them in your pocket and give out one or two as needed. Nuggets are also easy for the animal to chew but they don't work well for hiding medicine. Biscuits and wafers are circle shaped snacks that tend to be flat. You will notice that they vary in their size so sometimes you will need to break them apart in order to hand out the proper potion.

Muffins are larger snacks that are shaped like the type of muffin that people eat. These are great for training but they are also perfect for giving the animal medication. The reason is that they are large enough to stuff a pill into them which keeps the animal from noticing that there is medicine in the treat. Many of these muffins can be broken apart for training purposes as well. If you aren't sure what kind of treat to get, then you may want to start with the muffin because they can be used for training and medication purposes.

Shelf Live

The shelf live refers to how long the snack will last when it has been stored properly. There are two different considerations when it comes to the shelf life that you are going to want to think about when you are purchasing snacks for the horse. On the one hand, a longer shelf life will mean that there is less chance of the snacks spoiling prior to you giving them to the horse. This will result in less waste and it will give you more value for the money.

However, there is a downside to a longer shelf life that you also going to need to be aware of as well. In order to keep food from spoiling, the manufacturer has to reduce the water content and increase the sodium in the food. It also needs to be more acidic as well and you may have to store the snacks at a specific temperature. In other words, the more protected the snacks are from spoiling, the higher chance that they will not be as healthy either.

You are going to need to find the proper balance between the two concerns. If you give your animal snacks that are spoiled, then there is a good chance that it will get sick from food poisoning. This certainly isn't the outcome that you are going to want to experience when you are trying to reward your horse. On the other hand, well-preserved snacks are likely to contain more sodium and they will be drier than snacks that have a short shelf life. This can cause a loss of flavor and make them less healthy than snacks that have a shorter shelf life.

Flavor

It isn't going to matter how nutritious the snack is or what shape it is made in if the animal doesn't like how it tastes. The flavor is going to be a deciding factor for the animal and if your horse doesn't like the flavor of the snack then good luck trying to get it to eat it. Chances are that horse will likely refuse the eat the snack or it might just spit it out. For this reason, you are going to need to figure out what sort of flavors your horse likes in order to get treats that it will actually want to eat.

This is going to take some trial and error because all horses are different and have different personalities. For example, some animals really love the taste of apples but can't stand peppermint. If this is the case, then you are going to want to look for apple flavored treats and avoid the peppermint ones. It is also likely that some horses will prefer the texture of dry and crunchy treats while other ones would rather each treats that are soft and chewy.

As the horse's owner or trainer, it is up to you to figure out which kind of snacks the horse will eat. The good news is that many brands of snacks come in multiple flavors or textures. This will help you try out different combinations of flavors and textures to see what the horse will actually want to eat. It is also possible for horses to get bored with a particular snack as well so you will need to find out some backup treats when this happens. The better job you do at this the happier the animal will be.

Packaging

The packaging directly relates to the storage of the treats. It matters because you are going to need a way to keep the treats fresh and tasting good but also protect them from insects, rodents, and worms. It's not going to be a good use of your hard spent money if you enter your barn and find that all of the treats were eaten by a wild animal such as a raccoon. When you are looking at snacks for your animals, you should pay attention to the packaging to see if it is sufficient to keep unwanted pests away from the snacks.

Sometimes the snacks come in a sealed plastic bucket that has a snapping lid. This is the best kind of packaging for a few different reasons. One reason is that the plastic keeps moisture from humidity from entering into the snacks which will help them last longer. This will keep them from developing mold and going bad. Additionally, it is hard for animals like the horse or even rodents to get into the bucket and steal the treats. Most of the time the plastic is too thick for them to chew through.
Many treats are sold in paper or plastic bags. If you get treats that are packaged in this fashion, then you are going to need to take steps to protect them. Animals can easily chew through such packaging or even claw it open and shred it. It is a good idea to store them in a locking metal cabinet or some other secure area to keep this from happing. This will help to protect your inventory of snacks so that the horses get them rather than critters.