# Is flour safe for horses?



## Dustbunny (Oct 22, 2012)

Most off the shelf flour is wheat ( I believe anyway) unless you buy a specialty flour.
I'd probably not use molasses and sugar. Probably just molasses.
Did you get a recipe or are you winging it? Did you taste them? : )
One could also add grated carrots and unsweetened applesauce for moisture. And oatmeal. Lots of possibilities. Let us know how your horse likes them.


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## Anonhorse (Dec 2, 2018)

Dustbunny said:


> Most off the shelf flour is wheat ( I believe anyway) unless you buy a specialty flour.
> I'd probably not use molasses and sugar. Probably just molasses.
> Did you get a recipe or are you winging it? Did you taste them? : )
> One could also add grated carrots and unsweetened applesauce for moisture. And oatmeal. Lots of possibilities. Let us know how your horse likes them.



Why can't i use molasses with sugar?


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

No one is saying you can’t but they are both sugar, so don’t need the sugar really.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

I would not feed that to my horses, except as tiny, tiny, occasional treats. Not just the flour, but the extra sugar too. Mine are all fat though, and 2 at least are IR. They sound like real 'lollies' for horses, with flour(high starch/sugar) and molasses(sugar) and icing sugar. 

I rather give my horses low sugar treats, as I use them for training, so more than the odd occasional... I use lucerne/alfalfa cubes, no sugar/grain pellets, small slices of carrot, pumpkin, fruit tree leaves, rosehips, milk thistle, the odd slice of apple...


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

The local mill here does Golden Age cubes, for feeding to seniors. You get a huge great feed bag of tasty nutritional cubes, for not much more than little bag of treats.


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## Dustbunny (Oct 22, 2012)

Personally I wouldn't bother baking cookies for the horses when I can buy a 20# bag of treats for $16 formulated for senior horses and that bag lasts quite a while. I doubt I could make that quantity for the same cost, not to even consider the time.
I'm not even fond of making cookies for people!


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## rambo99 (Nov 29, 2016)

Easier to buy horse treats or use alfalfa pellets, alfalfa cubes. Even grain fed in small handfuls works just fine, also use the feed i'm feeding for a treat. A small cup in a feed pan works great horse's think they got something special.


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

It's cheaper to make them. My mom has been making my horses treats forever. I don't use them as daily treats except for my oldest horse who believes he NEEDS them. They are magical super treats that my horses go crazy over.

She started making them for me because I was buying the sticky buns for my oldest horse (he is missing teeth) and she thought it would be cheaper to make them herself. I don't have time to bake stuff. Between work, baseball, boosters, ect. I am not doing the betty homemaker thing but she does and my horses love her for it.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

^Yeah I guess, if you're otherwise going to buy sticky buns... or some of the vastly exxy 'horse treats' I've seen. But if you're going to use healthy 'treats' like lucerne cubes, it is vastly cheaper to buy a big bag than make anything. And carrots... I buy a big bag and slice & dehydrate them too, so you can have a 'bumbag' full of them without the shlops.


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

that is a large dose of sugar. I would not add the sugar with the molasses.


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## pennywise (Feb 1, 2016)

A little bit of flour is okay, it's only in there to act as a binder so that the cookies don't fall apart. You can use a lot of other things. I use ground flaxseed, it's pretty much like a powder, and it does the same thing. The last cookies I made I didn't use any binder and I made sure to just press them really well and they came out solid almost like a Honey Bunches of Oats bar consistency. Molasses has a ton of sugar and I wouldnt add more. You can also sub in honey for molassas; molassas makes them kind of soft after baking (unless you bake them for a long time) and honey makes them crispy. 

I second adding carrot shredding. You can add in some rolled or whole oats, even hay. Applesauce can be put in there too to make the mixture damp enough to mold, and you get the added benefit of apples + "natural" sugar vs honey or molasses. I like to give lots of treats but I feel bad if they're sugar bombs. 

I only make my treats to actually be "treats". If you're feeding every day you might as well just buy a bag of them. Its cheaper.


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