14/06/2026
THE SUGAR MYTH.. lets talk about it
One of the biggest myths in the horse world is that all sugar is bad for horses.
The reality is that horses naturally consume sugar every single day.
Fresh pasture contains naturally occurring sugars known as water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC). Depending on pasture type, season, weather conditions, and grazing time, an average 500kg horse can easily consume hundreds of grams to several kilograms of sugar each day while grazing.
So BRACE YOURSELF….
To put that into perspective, an average horse grazing 10kg of pasture dry matter containing 15% sugar (pretty normal) is consuming approximately 1.5kg (1,500 grams) of sugar per day.
Yet many horse owners worry about treats containing just a few grams of sugar.
The key difference isn’t whether sugar is present—it’s how much is being fed and to which horse.
A handful of treats may contribute only a tiny fraction of the sugar your horse consumes naturally from pasture. For most healthy horses, this amount is nutritionally insignificant.
However, as horse owners, where we need to pay closer attention is with:
Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS)
Insulin Dysregulation
Laminitis-prone horses
Some horses with Cushings (PPID)
These horses with the above conditions may need careful management of their total sugar intake from all sources, including pasture.
It’s also important to understand why treats are often viewed differently from full feeds!
A treat is typically fed in small quantities. Even if it contains some sugar, the total amount consumed is usually very low.
A full feed, however, may be fed in kilograms per day. If that feed is high in sugar, the horse may consume a much larger total amount compared to a small treat.
That’s why nutritionists and food scientists focus on total daily intake, not simply whether a product contains sugar.
For the average healthy horse, a few treats containing sugar are rarely the nutritional disaster they’re sometimes made out to be. In fact, your horse is very likely consuming far more sugar from its pasture than from the treats in your pocket.
At Health Horse, all of our products contain some type of sugar one way or another - whether it be the sugar present in starches, molasses, or corn syrup -which is essentially glucose (simple sugar).
But with so much discussion around sugar in horse diets, it’s easy to forget one important fact:
Glucose is absolutely essential for life.
Every horse requires glucose to power vital functions throughout the body, including:
Muscle function and movement
Brain function
Heart function
Immune system support
Cellular function
So as with most things in equine nutrition, context matters far more than fear.
