Horse milk for breakfast? After you, I insist

A Somerset farmer has started selling horse milk, but would you drink it, asks Rupert Hawksley

A Kyrgyz woman milks a mare on the Suu-Samyr plateau – but will horse’s milk catch on in the UK? (Getty)

I’m not a fussy eater. Aubergines, offal, Brussels sprouts – all delicious. If it isn’t past its sell by date, it’s fine by me. And even then, as my father liked to say when I was growing up, “a bit of mould never hurt anyone”. He would say that, though, when there’s a jar of jam in the cupboard from 1997.

But I must admit my stomach turned a degree or two when I read about Frank Shellard, a Somerset farmer who has started selling horse milk. Sorry, I hope you’ve finished your corn flakes.

The 62-year-old has 14 Trait du Nord mares, each of which can produce up to 14 litres of milk a day. Shellard drinks at least one of those litres in the morning and is convinced of the health benefits. “Your gut flora is very much said to be your second brain,” he told The Sun. “Look after your digestive system and it’ll take care of you.” He certainly looks very good on it.  

The milk, which will cost you £6.50 for a 250ml bottle, is high in vitamin C and iron, can help ease eczema and, according to a report inThe Times, has “levels of lactose and casein that are closer to human breast milk than to that from a cow”. Is that a good or a bad thing? Who knows – but I felt obliged to pass the information on. 

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Shellard’s operation is small – he is thought to be the only farmer in the UK offering horse milk commercially – and there is an appealing environmental aspect to the project. It is all a far cry from the industrial farming of dairy cows. “It’s milking them little and often because they have only got a small udder,” Shellard explained. “They haven’t been selectively bred like the modern cow to have huge udders.”

But the real question – the only one that counts – is whether or not we would drink it. There is, of course, no reason not to. And yet something about horse milk makes me feel a bit squeamish. Do you know what I mean? I suspect this is all down to how we perceive horses in the UK. We’re not used to thinking of them as farmed animals, and they don’t really look like milk machines, though our neighbours across the Channel would no doubt disagree. And goat’s cheese is wonderful, after all.

If it tastes good enough, I’m sure any reservations would soon pass. Time to find out. So then... after you. No, no I insist, you go first.

Yours,

Rupert Hawksley

Voices senior commissioning editor