Mrs. Pastures
Oat and barley horse cookies, made to a published spec since 1986
🇺🇸 American Manufacturing
Our assessment
Company details
Where Mrs. Pastures products are made
Three of the five lines carry an origin badge on their own product page: the Original Cookie reads “Made in America,” and Ring Ready and Barnyard Besties each read “Made in the USA.” Per-SKU evidence is what a careful buyer should want, and it is what most treat brands never provide. Note that the wording is not uniform between them — we quote each as published rather than smoothing it into one phrase.
These are manufactured to a declared feed specification, not a loose recipe. The Original Cookie publishes “Crude Protein, Min 11.5% / Crude Fat, Min 2.0% / Crude Fiber, Max 5.0% / Moisture, Max 9.0% / Ash, Max 6.0%.” Mindful Minis goes further, declaring “Dietary Starch, max 8.00%” and “Fructans, max 0.75%” for horses on restricted diets — a formulation aimed at a clinical problem.
The company runs four pack sizes with refills for all of them: “We are proud to offer a 2-lb jar, 5-lb bag, 15-lb bucket, and 25-lb bucket, with refill boxes available for all sizes … Our 5-lb. bags are recyclable (where accepted) and can be used to refill our iconic, red-lidded cookie jars.” Running refills alongside first-fill packs is a production decision, not a marketing one.
American Manufacturing, scoped to the badged lines. The per-product badges on the Original Cookie, Ring Ready and Barnyard Besties are good evidence and we rely on them. But Super Cookie and Mindful Minis carry no origin claim of any kind on their own pages, there is no company-wide origin statement anywhere on the site, and the company never names a bakery — its Mendota address is published as a company address, not as a plant. A blanket Made in USA label would claim more than the company does. This profile also makes no claim about ingredient sourcing, which the site does not address.
The story
It was invented for one horse. “Mrs. Pastures Cookies for Horses was the brainchild of Walnut Creek, California horsewoman Patricia Burge, who was determined to make a great-tasting, wholesome treat for her daughter Maggie’s childhood horse.” The recipe was settled at home: “After many test batches were made in Mrs. Burge’s home kitchen, she landed on the original horse cookie as we know it.”
Then it scaled the way small food businesses actually scale. “From there, she graduated to manufacturing from the kitchen of an indoor riding arena viewing area and — as word got out and demand continued to grow — production eventually moved to a larger facility.” Home kitchen, then a kitchen at the barn, then a real plant. The company now claims the category-founder position outright: “The original horse cookie since 1986.”
In the autumn of 2021 it joined Alltech, the Kentucky animal-nutrition company, which said it wanted to “build upon Mrs. Burge’s lasting business legacy” and “help to expand production capabilities.” The portfolio has roughly tripled since: Ring Ready, then Mindful Minis, then Barnyard Besties, described as “our first treat specially crafted for sheep and goats.”
Why they matter
They arguably created the American horse-treat category and still hold the name. A forty-year continuous claim — “the original horse cookie since 1986” — in an aisle now heavily supplied by imports is a genuine Buy American story rather than a retrofit.
The founder’s arc is the one this campaign exists to document, and it is the company’s own account rather than a reconstruction: a horsewoman who could not buy what she wanted, worked out a recipe in her kitchen, moved into a kitchen at the riding arena, and ended up with a plant.
It is also formulation-led manufacturing in a category that often does not bother. Every product page carries a full Guaranteed Analysis and a complete ingredient list; there is a low-starch, low-sugar line for metabolically sensitive horses, and a colourless competition cookie designed not to show on a show horse. That is domestic development and short-run domestic production, not commodity repacking.
Shop Mrs. Pastures products
Horse cookies and treats — the Original Cookie, Super Cookie, Ring Ready, Mindful Minis and Barnyard Besties.
Shop all Mrs. Pastures products →Visit Mrs. Pastures website →
Mrs. Pastures questions
Is Mrs. Pastures made in the USA?
Partly, and the company is specific about which lines. Three of its five product families carry a US-origin claim on their own product pages: the Original Cookie is badged “Made in America,” and Ring Ready and Barnyard Besties are each badged “Made in the USA.” Two lines — Super Cookie and Mindful Minis — carry no origin claim, so we do not treat them as verified. Mrs. Pastures also does not name a production facility publicly and makes no company-wide origin statement, which is why we label it American Manufacturing rather than Made in USA.
Where is Mrs. Pastures based?
Mendota, Illinois. The company publishes its address as “Mrs. Pastures Cookies for Horses, 1609 1st Ave, Mendota, IL 61342.” It began in California — founder Patricia Burge is described as a “Walnut Creek, California horsewoman” — and the company does not publish when or why the operation moved to Illinois. Note that the Mendota address is published as a company address; the company never calls it a bakery, so this profile does not either.
When was Mrs. Pastures founded?
1986. The company describes itself as “Nourishing the Bond Between Humans and Horses Since 1986” and calls its flagship “the original horse cookie since 1986.” It was founded by California horsewoman Patricia Burge, who developed the recipe in her home kitchen as a treat for her daughter Maggie’s horse.
What is actually in a Mrs. Pastures cookie?
The Original has six ingredients: “Oats, Wheat Middlings, Cane Molasses, Rolled Barley, Apples and Water.” Every line is badged preservative-free and every product page publishes a full Guaranteed Analysis. The newer formulas target specific needs: Super Cookie drops molasses for sweet potatoes, turmeric and kelp; Mindful Minis is alfalfa- and flaxseed-based with declared maximums of 8% dietary starch for horses on restricted diets; and Ring Ready uses millet flour with seaweed-derived calcium and is colourless so it will not show on a horse before a class.