Horse Ice Pops

August in Texas is typically time to be sure your horses are staying good and hydrated, to avoid colic first and foremost, and also just to feel a little better!

Our gang is housed right here outside our windows and if they come up during the heat of the day, I am usually happy to go out and top off their water trough with cool fresh water, even on those 100+ days, offer a shower with the “mist” or “shower” setting on the hose – sometimes they take me up on it, sometimes they’ll take a dip in the pond instead or just prefer to stand there under the trees and snooze and sweat together. One year, we had a couple holes in our barn hose and that totally worked as a personal misting station for Parker!

Last summer, I tried em with horse ice pops. Our two older guys weren’t all that super impressed, but our youngest loved his…He’s a fan of most (horse safe) fruits that I’ve tried with him, long as they’re sweet and not sour, he’s there for it!

I just find a plastic container and fill about halfway with Gatorade (I used fruit punch flavor here, this is the one all three of ours tend to like best) and throw a few small (to avoid choke) pieces of their favorite horse-safe fruits and veggies in there – in this case, its their staple favs – carrots and apple. You could also add some equine electrolyte powder into the Gatorade (and shake up to blend) before pouring the Gatorade into the containers. There’s an endless assortment of equine electrolyte powders and pastes – we keep the powder form in the feeding area to top dress their feed with during stretches of hot humid days, and have a few of the pastes in our supplies cabinet inside, to use in a more urgent situation (like Parker’s recent colic episode). Then just stick the filled containers in the freezer for a few hours. When I walk them down to the barn, they melt just enough to loosen up and I’ll dump them right into their feedbuckets in their stalls – or you could dump them into rubber feedpans on the ground that you can rinse out afterward, if you’re concerned about leaving a sweet residue in their stall feedbuckets that might attract ants.

Other fruits they’ve taste-tested are watermelon and strawberries. All of them LOVE carrots best, then apple, then strawberries. Only our youngest, Six, seems to enjoy watermelon, for whatever horsey reason. If you have any good hydrating/cooling tricks, feel free to share in the comments.


Disclaimer – some horses’ dietary and oral health restrictions don’t allow for extra sugars, or fruits and vegetables. Always use good sense and individual guidelines when feeding your horse.

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