Can Horses Eat Raspberries?

While out for a drink the other night with a few friends, I noticed on the menu there was a raspberry daiquiri on the menu.

I love fruity daquiris but I’d never seen a raspberry one before so straight away I knew I had to try it.

As these nights often do with my other horse enthusiast pals, it descended into a discussion about whether horses could eat this, that and the other.

One thing I was wondering about was, you guessed it, raspberries.

We had a long conversation about it but none of us were really sure, so the next day, I decided to look into it.

So, can horses eat raspberries?

Yes, raspberries are totally safe for your horse and make a great, tasty snack that they will almost certainly love. They should definitely be considered a treat and not an integral part of their diet as they are extremely nutrient rich, but in moderation they make a great treat for your horse.

So, raspberries are totally safe for your horse and it will love them.

They are packed with all sorts of nutritional benefits that will both benefit their diet and make them a much tastier treat than something like grain or seeds.

It’s because of that exact reason that the amount you feed must be carefully moderated, but with that in mind let’s look at the potential health benefits.

What are the health benefits of raspberries for horses?

Raspberries provide a lot of essential nutrients and vitamins essential to a lot of very important bodily functions in your horse.

Let’s look at a few of those.

For one thing, they’re very high in fiber, which is really important to your horse’s diet.

In fact, most of their diet will be fiber from grass and hay.

Fiber is essential to the proper functioning of their digestion, and helps everything else move through smoothly.

They’re also very high in vitamin C, which helps protect cells and keeps them healthy.

It also helps maintain healthy skin, blood vessels, bones and cartilage.

Raspberries are also very high in antioxidants, which prevent oxidative stress and help keep the body functioning as it should.

Raspberries also rich in many essential minerals like manganese, magnesium and potassium, all of which are essential to overall health and to fighting diseases.

All that said, you get a good idea of how nutritionally rich raspberries are.

The very fact that they’re so nutrient rich gives you an idea of how much your horses should eat: not very much!

So, let’s look at how many to feed and the potential problems.

Are raspberries safe for horses?

As long as you always feed your horses raspberries in moderation, they will never have a problem.

That said, despite their size, horses can eat far fewer raspberries than you might think. I would always advise swapping out their treats day to day.

Don’t feed them raspberries every day even in small amounts as they may get bored.

When you do feed them raspberries, around a handful in the day will probably be more than enough.

Your horse will get all the health benefits without the potential digestive discomfort of having eaten too many.

Keep this in mind, and raspberries are totally safe for your horse.

Balance and moderation are always key.

But what about raspberry products?

We use them to make so many things, let’s look at whether those products are safe for horses.

Can horses eat raspberry jelly?

Jelly is one of the oldest fruit products, and, again, is totally safe for your horse in general.

Jelly will have a much higher sugar content than the actual fruit, so they really should not eat jelly often.

It’s also important to mention that, with any food product, you are going to be less sure of the ingredients.

Store bought products often contain a lot of processed ingredients that you may not recognize, and this can cause issues for your horse.

Homemade raspberry jelly would be a great option, as you know everything you’re putting in it.

In any case, as I said, jelly should not be a regular thing in their diet.

They should get their raspberries from the fresh fruit, and not the product.

Can horses eat raspberry ice cream?

Ice cream is probably best avoided.

The raspberry flavoring won’t be an issue, but the dairy products and lactose will.

Horses generally lack the enzyme needed to break down lactose (a sugar in all animal milks) and so ice cream is likely to cause them significant digestive discomfort.

Not to mention, your horse probably just isn’t very likely to enjoy ice cream.

It won’t enjoy the texture or the temperature.

So, it’s probably best to avoid feeding ice cream to your horse whatever the flavor is.

I don’t need to tell you that raspberries are delicious, and I’m sure you aren’t that surprised to learn that horses feel the same.

This should always remind you that they need to be fed in moderation, as they’re simply too good to be true.

Too many will quickly cause your horse gastrointestinal distress and discomfort, so just be very careful of that and you will have no problems.