If you have ever purchased horse treats, you might have wondered how hard it is to make some on your own. It is actually quite easy to make your own homemade horse treats! Check out this version that we made this week for our horses. Just 3 ingredients and topped with some crushed peppermint sticks, follow the directions below!
Horse treats are a wonderful way to thank your horse for a great ride, or just brighten up his day a little. There are so many different horse treats available! We have bought many different brands of treats over the years and our horses have really enjoyed just about all of them.
Making Horse Treats
When I suggested to the kids that we should try to make our own treats, they thought it sounded like a great thing to try!
We scoured the interwebs and looked at a bunch of different horse treat recipes. I didn’t mind if we made treats that required baking (though no bake options are always great too). Ultimately I went with a simple homemade horse treat recipe that used just 3 ingredients. The original version added icing and sugar sprinkles. I scrapped that part and used crushed peppermint sticks instead for the toppings.
Homemade Horse Treats Ingredients and Supplies
To make these treats, you will need:
- 3 Cups flour
- 1 Cup and 1/2 TBSP molasses
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- peppermint sticks, crushed (candy canes will work great for this)
- cookie cutters (optional)
- rolling pin
- cookie sheet
- non-stick cooking spray
I ended up making two different versions of these cookies, using the same exact batch of dough.
See both below – one is a cookie cutter version and the other is a drop cookie version.
Homemade Horse Treat Dough
1. Mix flour and cinnamon together in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add 1 cup of the molasses.
3. Optional: add some of the crushed peppermint pieces to the bowl.
4. Mix ingredients together. The dough will start to form small pieces.
5. Now it’s time to get your hands dirty! Spread some flour on your work surface and knead the dough until it forms a ball. My dough was pretty dry and crumbly so I added the 1/2 tablespoon of reserved molasses to the dough.
Cookie Cutter Horse Treats
Roll out the dough to 1/4″ thick and use the cookie cutter(s) of your choosing. Lay cookies on a greased baking sheet and top with peppermint pieces. Bake at 325 F for 10 minutes.
Drop Cookies
This is a much quicker prep method, though they do take longer to cook! Break 1-inch balls off of the dough and flatten it by hand into a circle. Lay cookies on a greased baking sheet and top with peppermint pieces. Bake at 325 F for 15-20 minutes. These cookies took longer to bake than the cookie cutter version because they are considerably thicker.
Let the cookies cool off on a cooling rack.
You can feed them to your horses when they have cooled, or store them in an airtight container for up to one week.
Were they a hit?
Why yes, yes they were. A HUGE HIT! So fun!
If you decide to give this homemade horse treat recipe a try, please let us know how they turn out for you and what your horses thought of them!
They loved them!!! Only problem is they expect them every time I come out!!!!!
Awwww!! I’m so happy to hear that they were enjoyed!! 🙂
Do they taste good for human consumption?
They are safe for human consumption – whether or not they taste good is up to individual preference! 🙂