Can Horses Eat Tomatoes?

I recently started growing tomato plants in my garden, and one day I noticed my horses wandering over and sticking their noses through the fence to try and get at them.

I moved them away because, well, those are my tomatoes!

It did get me wondering, though, since they seemed so interested, whether horses are known for liking tomatoes, or if they can even safely eat them.

I love them, but I’d never heard of horses eating tomatoes, so I decided to look into it.

So, can horses eat tomatoes?

The simple answer is no, horses can’t eat tomatoes. Tomatoes contain a number of potential toxins, as do many vegetables in the nightshade family. Though the toxicity level is quite low and your horse would have to eat a lot to do any real harm, the danger is still there.

Tomatoes are everywhere in our own cooking, so it is a bit of a shame that horses should avoid them.

After all, they’re totally harmless to us.

And while one or two might not cause any problems you can actually see, it is still safer to avoid them entirely.

So, let’s break down why exactly tomatoes are dangerous for horses

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Are tomatoes poisonous to horses?

Tomatoes, as I said, are part of the nightshade family of vegetables which are notorious for causing all sorts of problems for many animals.

Horses are no different.

Tomatoes, in particular, contain a number of harmful compounds that can seriously hurt your horse.

In the green parts of the fruit, there are very high concentrations of a compound called atropine.

Atropine slows digestion, which, in large enough quantities, can cause serious gastrointestinal and digestive issues.

It will certainly be painful, even if it’s not enough to cause lasting damage.

Tomatoes also contain a compound called hyoscyamine.

This can inhibit saliva production, which will also have a negative impact on saliva production.

Tomatoes also contain small amounts of solanine, and while the levels of this in the ripened fruit are low, it’s still a cause for concern.

So, eating a tomato won’t kill your horse immediately, but any small amount is enough to cause potential problems, and any more than a small amount could cause serious, long-term issues.

But that’s the fruit.

What about the plant?

Can horses eat tomato plants?

Naturally, tomato plants mostly include tomatoes.

But what if you have your own tomato plants like I do, and you don’t leave any unharvested for your horses to get at?

The plant is not quite as dangerous as the fruit, but it still contains trace amounts of all the compounds mentioned.

While there probably isn’t much immediate danger from eating the stalk or leaves of a tomato plant, it’s still better just to not let your horses eat tomato plants.

If you have tomato plants growing near your horses, you need to make sure they can’t get to it.

While horses will mostly avoid foods that aren’t good for them, they could still easily get carried away and do themselves harm eating a tomato plant.

Not to mention that I’m sure you don’t want your lovely tomato plant to be eaten!

Can horses eat underripe tomatoes?

Underripe tomatoes cause a unique problem for a couple of reasons.

As I mentioned, the ripe fruit does not contain much solanine; the unripe fruit certainly does.

Solanine is the compound that makes all nightshade plants and vegetables potentially deadly.

Though most cases of poisoning are pretty benign, they can become very serious.

Digestive issues are much worse in horses than other animals, and nightshade poisoning could cause nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps and even dizziness.

So, unripe tomatoes are even more dangerous than ripe ones.

They still have all the other compounds which make tomatoes potentially toxic, as well as another, far more toxic compound.

Never feed your horse an unripe tomato, and, again, make sure they can’t find them on your tomato plants.

Can tomatoes kill a horse?

As I said, what I’m advising here is really just the utmost caution.

One or two tomatoes likely wouldn’t be a problem for your horse, and certainly wouldn’t kill it.

However, there’s still no need to feed it something that causes it any level of discomfort.

To kill a horse with tomatoes it would need to eat a great deal, and it simply wouldn’t do this.

Horses don’t like tomatoes and know they aren’t good for them, so even if your horse found a barn full of tomatoes, it wouldn’t cause any major problems.

So, you don’t need to worry about your horse dying from a tomato.

Just know that there are a lot of better treat alternatives.

Tomatoes, as much as you might love them, are not safe for horses.

They contain a number of potentially harmful toxins, and at least will cause digestive discomfort and at most could cause serious long-term conditions.

There are plenty of alternative treats you can feed to your horse in place of tomatoes, like fresh fruit.

Tomatoes are no good for your steed.