Horse Rescue Reminds Public To Not Feed Horses Cake

Horses are herbivores that graze all day long on grass and hay. Even though they are large animals, they cannot eat just anything.

Remus Horse Sanctuary, located in Essex, UK, received a call from a concerned person that spotted a horse pasture with piles and piles of cake. A welfare officer from the rescue went to investigate the situation. The rescue posted on Facebook, “Our Welfare Officer has been out on a few visits this week checking up on horses around Essex, one interesting call of concern we had from a member of the public was that there were ponies in a field being fed copious amounts of cake.”

Some people commented that they used to feed their horses bread, but not in this quantity. Also, cake is usually full of sugar and other ingredients that are not good for horses. There was not only plain cake but what appeared to be chocolate cake in the pasture.

“We went to take a look and indeed there where piles and piles of cake in the field, and in a food trough. Whether this was given to them by the owners or a well-meaning member of the public thinking they had no food, cake is not a good food source for horses and ponies, especially in these quantities.”

Thankfully, it appeared that the horses in the pasture had not eaten any of the cake. “The ponies, which were fine clearly agreed as it looked like they had not touched any of it.”

The horses in the pasture seemed to be of a healthy weight, so the rescue is not sure if someone thought they looked skinny, or if a shop was unloading their unsold cakes.

The rescue reassured people that they would keep an eye on the horses to be sure no more cake was dumped in the pasture. “We will keep an eye on them over the coming winter months to make sure they are maintaining a good weight on hopefully a better diet.”