The Cookie Down is ON!: My horses give the hooves-up or hooves-down on Holiday Horse treats!

As you may have seen earlier this week, I like to make little horse treat baggies for my friends during the holidays.

Luckily, all of my friends know that I’m not too artsy, so they don’t expect much out of my wrapping… As you can see, my bags are kinda basic (stickers and a curly ribbon) but I figure as long as the treats are good and good for the horse, no one really cares about the wrapping. Or, at least they don’t seem to care. (I hope they don’t care…)

OK, I'm not very artsy... but it is the thought that counts and besides, the horses love them!

OK, so last week, I received my order of cookies (SKODES – love them, you should try them – human grade ingredients with equine nutritionists stamps of approval). I either get the huge bag (4 lbs) or several 1 pound bags. The one pound bag has approx 40 cookies but since they are all hand made, you never know the true number of cookies. In any event, I get 3-4 different flavors and mixnmatch them into little gift baggies.

Hey! Where you goin' with those cookies?!...

THIS YEAR

This year I got 4 different flavors: Ginger Snap, Pumpkin Spice, Coconut Macaroons and Minty Rose Brownies (these were soooo fragrant!).

Since I never know what cookie(s) will be the big hits, I wanted to test them on my horses to see which flavors sent the ball outta the park.

(Last year I was such a goof. You see, they smelled so good, I thought I could taste test them myself… Blech. Patooey. I mean, they aren’t nasty, but they aren’t tasty to humans. Kinda like eating fragrant cardboard.) You can read my last year’s post here.

Pretty Pumpkin Spice cookies

So, I rounded up my assorted bags and headed outside…

My stash of cookies. Dex had just walked off with the other bags...

FIRST BAG – COCONUT MACAROONS.

I almost lost my finger.

Sheesh. I fed one to Dodger and he bit the cookie in half (he’s a Shetland). His eyes got all wide and he started snapping like a turtle, trying to find the other half. Unfortunately, my finger was not in a good position and he got me. Ouch!

GIMMME GIMMMMEEEEE! Same with Remi.

This is Remi sniffing the coconut macaroon - shortly before she inhaled it.

Everyone loved the Coconut Macaroons except Slick. He sniffed it and then decided to pass. Unheardof, really. Slick is like a food Hoover. But, I kinda know how he feels since I’m not much of a coconut fan myself.

All 10 of the other horses went bonkers over them, including Sam who took two. Sam is my wild, almost untouchable mustang mare who would not admit that she liked anything unless she really liked it. So, the macaroons must have been a huge hit with her because she actually asked for another.

This is Rojo coming in for a sniff of the macaroon. He is just 6 months out of the wild so he was leery...

As you can see in this photo, my dog Dexter was quite enamored with them as well. Every time I turned around, he was walking off with the bag…

I had to put Dex in the house because he kept stealing the cookie bags... Dogs like them, too!

GINGER SNAP COOKIES

The Ginger Snap cookies went over big with everyone except my youngster, Wrigley. He took a whiff and then looked to his mother:

Wrig: What the?…

Tess: Yeah, you’re right, don’t eat that one… Let Mamma taste it for you.

Wrig: OK, you taste it and let me know.

Tess (munching): Ha! You fell for it!

This is Mama Tess, foaming at the mouth because she has two cookies stuffed in there. Wrigley is wondering what happened to his cookie. You can see Dex in the background, snarfing up cookies from the bag he nabbed.

Actually, to be fair, once Tess stole Wrigley’s cookie, I offered him another and he still wouldn’t take it. (Tess did…) So, I think he just doesn’t like ginger.

I can’t blame him because I cannot handle the taste of ginger myself. It smells like perfume to me. I feel like I’m eating perfume when I smell ginger…

Sensitive Sam cautiously approaching a Ginger Snap cookie. She ate it and wanted another. But, Wrigley wasn't a fan, for some reason. The rest ate them like hotcakes.

PUMPKIN SPICE COOKIES

I think this flavor really surprised the horses. You’d see them sniff it and then gently take it… their eyes would get big, they’d nod their heads up and down while crunching and then once the flavor hit the back of their mouths, they’d chase me down for seconds.

This is BG and Finn with huge eyes and frothy mouths! MMMMMMMm. OMG! They loooved the Pumpkin Spice!

The older horses seemed to love these the best. It was almost how we are… y’know what I mean? For example, you have to learn to like coffee and beer/wine. Usually kids hate the taste of coffee but as we get older we need it.

Wrigley (3) and Rojo (4) didn’t like the Pumpkin Spice that much. They took them but didn’t ask for seconds. All the other horses who are much older, loved the Pumpkin Spice.

To be fair, there are takers for Pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving and then there are those who don’t – usually kids. The youngsters weren’t quite there today.

Shiva was a Pumpkin Spice man. The two younger horses didn't like them but the older horses liked them the best. Acquired taste.

MINTY ROSE BROWNIES

OMG. I almost became a human trample pile when I pulled out the Brownies.

They all went NUTS! Hands down winner. The Brownies slighted out the Macaroons by a slim margin but they were the definite champ.

Gwen would not give me any personal space when I had the Brownies...

From my point of view, they did smell like the best dessert EVER. I was temped to chow down again myself but remembered my last year experience and shuttered instead.

Finn almost took my fingers as well.

Anyway, I went from pasture to pasture and it was as if the fabulous “minty rose brownie news” has been telepathically transmitted to every horse. OMGOMGOMG THE BROWNIES ARE COMING THE BROWNIES ARE COMING! They were clamoring at the fence, pushing each other and pressing against the boards.

I was a bit afraid.

OK, not really… but they were very serious about the Minty Rose Brownies.

Horsey insanity.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, all the cookies are gone and they went with a flourish. So, I have to say that all of the Skode cookies were success stories and I have tried cookies that my horses wouldn’t eat…

As I was passing out cookies, I felt a head-butt. I turned around and it was Slick. "May I have another, please?"

For my horses, the younger ones didn’t go for the zippier flavors (Ginger and Pumpkin) but they loved the brownies and the Macaroons. My older horses loved the zippier flavors and every other flavor. My one lone Shetland didn’t like the coconut. I think the Brownies were the winners although when I look back on it, perhaps the fact that the brownies were Round 4, maybe they were just so whooped up by the cookie extravaganza by that point, they just became unglued. dunno.