HOT TOPIC: Should Horses Eat Chocolate?

Should Horses Eat Chocolate?

With Easter a few days away, I imagine this is a question on many people's minds, as they contemplate sharing the results of the Easter Egg overload with their horse or pony!

The short answer is NO, horses should not eat chocolate!

Why? Well, even though a small amount of chocolate won't cause your horse any immediate harm, there are two good reasons for keeping them choc-free:

1. Horses cannot metabolise theobromine (one of the feel-good compounds of chocolate). This means that if you keep giving chocolates to the horse, the theobromine levels will increase until they may reach a level high enough to give the horse a fatal heart attack.
   
2. Both theobromine and caffeine, which is also sometimes found in chocolate, are performance enhancing substances and could result in your competition horse or racehorse returning a positive drug test if found in significant quantities!
   

Chocolate isn't good for your dog or cat either, so you'll just have to deal with it yourself.

Go easy and have a Happy Easter!