TidBit:

Gourds are toxic to humans.  When squash/pumpkins cross with gourds, the resulting cross is also toxic to humans.  Whether that translates to horses or not, I don't know, but it might.

I have asked our local barn vet about fruit and he said he knows of no fruit that can harm horses. I give my horse several kinds of melons and grapes regularly with no ill effects.

Statia

That is what I was worried about.  It is more likely that the suspect object I found in my pasture was some type of Halloween/Fall decoration that my neighbors grew in their garden.  There were several types of guords and unusual decorative squash/pumpkins.  Unfortunately it wasn't until days later that I remembered the half eaten object.  For the life of me I cannot figure out her episode of colic...nothing else has changed with the exception of me riding her a bit more.

 Hey,

I give my horses watermelon and cantaloupe and they never have any problems eating them. I don't know what melons are bad for horses but I do know that you should never give a horse peanuts. They can't digest them properly and can get really bad colic. Peanutbutter, by the way, is perfectly fine for them. Also, never ever give an equine any kind of meat because it could be fatal.  

toscabs:

Okay..dumb question...do you also feed the rind of the melon?

I do..  I cut them into pieces and give them a few each when I have them.  

I had a pony once who became ill and would only eat watermelon/rinds and drink water from the hose as it ran until she got well.   

"toscabs"

It does sound like it might have the gourds.

I just remembered something when another poster said they feed their horse watermelon.

One of my neighbor's TWH's developed an ulcer.  She figured it was the stress of moving from FL to TN.  She had recently bought him, so everything was new to him in the last few months before he came here.

Anyway, she had always fed him watermelon without issue.  Now that he's had the ulcer he can't eat watermelon anymore without getting colicky.

He's been completely over the ulcer for over a year.  She tried twice or three times giving him a little piece and he would always get colicky, so now neither horse gets watermelon because she doesn't want him to feel left out.

I wanted to add that in case it might come in handy for someone else.

but I do know that you should never give a horse peanuts. They can't digest them properly and can get really bad colic

I've given peanuts to horses with no illl effects. Of course I don't feed them handfulls.. Just one or 2 occasionally..

Squeaker thanks you for the compliment, Kelly.

She's a QH.  Shock Em, Three Bars and Montana Star bred.  I was especially pleased to find Shock Bar Dandy on her papers, since Shock Em didn't sire that many foals, so they're harder to find than a lot of great bloodlines.  She was on the pudgy side when that was snapped but that's been fixed now.

I don't know paint lines as well, but what's Fudge's breeding?

Fudge has some nice QH bloodlines,  Top Moon (in the QH Hall of Fame) on his sire's side as well as Blue Max and Cinemax which are both Paints on dam side.  He's definitely an easy keeper and stays on the plump side but we're continually working on that.  

About another snack for horses, (and my goats love them too) we sometimes give them generic frosted mini wheats and animal crackers.  Have to be careful because of the sugar in the animal crackers but they're convenient and easy to keep in your pockets.  Plus, we like them as well!!  Everything in moderation though. 

walkinthewalk:

An occasional can of beer is ok for them too.  I have two horses that love beer and will each get a half can or so in the summer whenever hubby is filling the water tubs in the main pasture

When I was a kid we bred a mare to a Raffles line Arabian stallion, one of two stallions in the barn.  The stallion we used got a 6-pack of coke after every breeding and the other stallion in the barn got a 6-pack of beer after every breeding.

When it comes to gas colic you can't just blame foods....  wind sucking horses or even wood chewers can have episodes of gas colic.  I'm not saying that's the case in this particular instance but it's just something to mention.

Walkinthewalk,

Thank you for posting such a comprehensive list.  While I knew about limiting high sugar content veges, I had never considered petals, herbs and teas. 

There are a couple of people in our barn who feed "treats" to other people's horses (like peppermint candies).  We have told them not to give our horses treats, but I think I will print a copy of your list and post it in the barn for other horse owners.

Again, Thanks.

If there is a list of poisonous human foods for horses - can you email it to me so i can post it at my barn?

thanks