Hungry farm animal steals food at night in children’s book

TW—Eating Disorder

One of the books my mother read to me as a kid was about a farm animal that liked eating too much.

I believe the animal was a pony or horse or donkey… could have been a goat. Definitely had 4 legs and hooves. I remember the pony/donkey as being blue or green, but I could be wrong about this.

It takes place either on a farm or at a stable. In the story the animal is too enthusiastic about eating. There’s a human character in charge of the animal, making sure it doesn’t eat too much. It breaks free of its pen one night and gets into the feed bag. The animal eats too much and has to lay on its side on the ground with a bloated stomach. The human character finds the animal next to the bag, and I think… makes it walk off the stomach ache?

It was a full color children’s picture book. She started reading it to me I think when I was 3 or older, so sometime around 1992-1996. I remember the book being new when she read it. I can’t recall if it was hard back or soft, etc. and I’m not sure where she would have bought it. I remember the illustrations as fairly modern for the 90’s, kind of that blocky illustration style. We were living in the southern US at the time, and I don’t think the book would have been given to us from someone traveling internationally.

My search hasn’t turned anything up. Books titled “The Hungry (pony, donkey, etc.)” on a quick Google search aren’t the one I’m looking for.

(Reminder, E.D. Trigger)

When my mother would read it to me, she’d say things like “that pony isn’t very happy, is she?” and “look at the pony’s belly, it’s all round. The pony isn’t pretty anymore.” and “that girl must be very mad that her pony didn’t listen to her and made itself sick.”, you get the idea. The book was just one element, but I developed an eating disorder by the time I was 7.

I’d like to find this book again so that it ceases to be this vague, traumatic memory and instead be something that I can point to and conquer.

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps my search. And apologies in advance of you remember this book and had a parent who used it to teach you the same “lesson”.