Should a horse (or animal) lover love Jello?

Gelatin grosses me out, but not for the reasons you may think.

Maybe there’s not always room for Jello anymore. This long-time comfort food, lauded for generations as a flu remedy, molded salad base, and party shot glass filler, seems to be slipping in popularity. Some of us have always wondered.

Why are folks frowning about gelatin?

Perhaps several dietary reasons may be responsible for gelatin’s apparent fall from favor in recent days. First and foremost may be the fact that sweetened gelatin generally contains plenty of artificial dyes and high fructose corn syrup (or artificial sweeteners).

But that’s not what makes me cringe about gelatin.

Jello (perhaps the most popular gelatin product) is made with just a few primary ingredients: gelatin, sugar (or sweetener), artificial coloring, artificial flavoring, and water.

OK, we knew that. But what is in gelatin?

Gelatin is made from processed collagen, which comes from animal protein. Usually, gelatin comes from ground up pigskin. Sometimes cow or horse skin is used. In some parts, cow, horse, or pig hides and connective tissues may be included as well. The animal matter is ground up, treated chemically, and boiled to dissolve it. Then it makes a gelatinous powder, which is used to produce gelatin.

I’m not a vegan or even a vegetarian – but something doesn’t feel just right about that, even if eating gelatin is supposed to help a person grow healthy fingernails.

Maybe there’s nothing outright harmful about gelatin. But it sure doesn’t feel like dessert anymore.

Now, who still has room for Jello? Or can we just save the pigskin for the football field?

By the way, a whopping list of foods tend to contain gelatin. Some may surprise you. Take a look:

• candy corn
• canned meats (such as chicken, ham, or SPAM)
• canned soups with meat
• chewable vitamins
• chewing gum
• gummy candies
• jams and jellies
• jelly beans
• marshmallows
• prepared cake frostings
• processed cheeses
• sausages
• throat lozenges

Some yogurts, cream cheeses, and even frozen vegetables are made with gelatin too. It pays to read food labels carefully, if you’re concerned about contents. Because when it comes to healthy eating, we’re not horsing around.

Now, who still wants to feed a couple of marshmallows, holiday Peeps, or Rice Krispy Treats to a horse?

 

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Terrific Horse Treats

Do you like to bake your own horse treats for your equine friends? How about whipping up a batch of horse cookies for your favorite four-legged companion for Thanksgiving or Christmas?

(Photo used by permission.)

The holidays may be a particularly appropriate time for sharing treats with our horses.

Horse lovers may enjoy exchanging thoughtful presents with one another too. At our barn, some of us like to hang up stockings on our stalls – just in case Santa might stop by with peppermints, carrots, apples or horse treats. What could be more welcome in a horse's Christmas stocking than a bundle of home-baked horse cookies?

(Photo used by permission.)

My friend Gina, a horse lover and natural horsemanship enthusiast, was kind enough to share her own recipe for delicious horse cookies. Last week, she made these marvelous molasses morsels for her own herd, including her beloved buckskin, Cruiser (pictured here).

“The house smells of bubbling molasses,” Gina recounted, as her own horse cookies baked. “It makes me giggle to see the horses lined up outside looking up at the house with such longing ... like little kids waiting for the Toll House Cookies.”

With Gina’s permission, I’m posting the horse cookie recipe here (with links for purchasing organic ingredients). These treats are organic and even acceptable for human consumption – particularly for cookie dough snitchers.

“Here is the horse cookie recipe,” Gina said. “Please feel free to share it. These treats are amazing and so healthy!”

(Photo used by permission.)

Gina’s Horse Cookies

8 C Rolled Oats
3 C Wheat Bran
1C Flax Seed Meal
1C Flax Seeds
1C Barley (whole grain)
1C Bulgur Wheat
1C Corn Meal
1C TVP (textured vegetable protein)
1C Quinoia Flour
1C Oat Flour
1C Teff Flour
1C Kosher Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl and divide the contents in half. Put half of the mixture into a mixmaster, and add these ingredients:

2.5 C Blackstrap Molasses
¼ C Vegetable Oil
¼ C Hot Water

(Sprinkle in a little more flour, if the mixture is too gooey.)

Mix well. Add remaining dry mixture, and continue mixing until fully blended.

Spray mini muffin tins with vegetable oil spray (such as Pam spray).

Put one tablespoon of the horse cookie batter into each space in the mini muffin tins.

Press mixture into spaces, and bake at 350 for 7-10 minutes.

Allow horse cookies to cool a bit in the pans. Then turn them out onto cooling racks.

Options:

• Add 2 cups of prepared Beet Pulp for those horses that can afford to add a few pounds.

• Add shredded carrots, apples, sunflower seeds or dried fruit, if desired.

• Add a bit more molasses and dark corn syrup to camouflage equine medicine doses, if needed.

• Add a bit of apple muffin mix to make treats that rise and look like little muffins.

Allow horse cookies to cool to a comfortable temperature before feeding them to horses.

Delicious horse treats for delightful horses!

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