Giving treats to horses
Dec 16th, 2008 by Carolyn Resnick Method
Hi. I find that treats are an enjoyable way to socialize a horse to have a reliable character and willing attitude in his performances. Offering treats to horses may be the surprise answer to creating a magical connection with them!
Most trainers are against offering a horse treats for many good reasons. The most common is that a horse can become rude and spoiled, more interested in the treat than in the connection and the performance.
*** To read the rest of this post, get Carolyn’s Blog Collection Volume 1 ***
Click the image above for more details
No related posts.
Hi Carolyn,
I am a little nervous about using treats with my horse. His previous owners abused the use of them – they used them for everything including leading and he quickly learned that he could be pushy and nippy. I have not used treats with him since I bought him. He is a coming 3 year old Friesian X.
He and I already have a pretty strong bond and he willingly follows me everywhere – in fact my issue is keeping him out of my personal space. He’s 16.3hh and likes to use his size and strength to his advantage.
He is prone to biting and I don’t want to make this habit worse. Would it be unwise to start using treats considering his behavior and past?
He is also sensitive about his back legs and will strike out if I get too close. I have read Naked Liberty and plan on buying your dvd’s. But I was wondering if using treats could perhaps cure him of his kicking behavior?
Thanks
Jess
Thanks again for this article!!! I have had 2 sessions of this with my horse today, and it is working great with him. He is LOVES food and usually doesn’t take the food gently. It does seem like he thought he was taking the food from me before and he would get more dominant when I would use them. Today I got him listening really well and taking the treats nice and gently! I put the treat bucket in the middle of the arena and at the end of the 2nd short session, he would stand there right in front of the treats with me beside him, petting him, without even trying to take a bite!
—I liked your youtube video on treats too
When you are working with your horses and using treats, do you just put the bucket by the fence and take them over there whenever you want to reward them? Do they make the connection between what they did right and the reward when you have to walk over there to get the treat?
Thanks for your answer Carolyn, I fully understand what you mean
. Thanks as well for this quote: “I always look at working with horses like I would like someone to work with me.”
I think it’s definitely a beautiful one to allways remember when training a horse!
Dear Marja,
When you use your voice I have no problem with your training. When using a clicker one can loose sight of building a true conneciton by focusing on the perfromance rather than the connection, bond, politness, social behavior and well being to the spirit. I don’t want someone to use one on me I what them taking the time to form a feeling and share a momnet in inthusasim. With a clicker the person starts the training with my method is more like a spontainous event happens. I never know what I am going to do. I let the horse lead the way. I always look at working with hores like I would like someone to work with me.
I am not against any form of training that creats results and deepens the bond and creates social politness and enthusisam.
What works for me is what the horse and human enjoy between them. We all have diffrent needs and it is my hope to support all systems that bring well being and growth.
Thank you for your letter,
Carolyn
I really liked that article. It makes a lot of sense… I think it would be really helpful for me and my horse. He is pretty dominant, really curious, and veeeerrrrrrryyyyy food oriented. He likes to beg for treats when I use them so I think this would be help a lot with him.
Thanks for posting!!
I love how you break things down step by step. My horse is very polite about treats-she even takes several bites of an apple rather than try to stuff the whole thing in her mouth. I just moved my horse to a new place and the horse there is a real problem- She is in my face and on top of me the moment I arrive to the pasture. Her owner told me she has “terrible ground manners” and that she has charged people in the past. Even with a stick in hand she it is difficult to get her to move away. I had to put her into a stall to be able to get to my horse. I started asking her to move away from me every time I arrived and then gave her a treat. She is not perfect but she is much better.
She seems to have a better attitude towards me all around. Before it was ears pinned back when you stepped towards her, now its ears pricked forward. Yeah!
I think treats are a wonderful way of motivating a horse and I love the way you described it and the exercise as well.
My young Icelandic mare Saegola was rather unmotivated when I started training her. She had a bit of an arrogant attitude and saw no purpose in doing what I asked her to do. I then decided to start clickertraining with her. I know, you say on your DVD that you don’t really like clickertraining, but it works wonders for my horse. However I don’t use a clicker but my own voice, saying ‘Ex!’ (from ‘Excellent’) the instant she shows me the desired response. The advantage of my own voice is that I can use emotion, tone and volume the way I want to, which keeps it a lot more personal than the ‘mechanical’ clicker in my opinion.
Saegola turns out to be a tremendously intelligent horse, and very eager to learn and work with me. Sometimes I can barely keep up with her learning speed! However I too came across some difficulty using treats. As you already mentioned she would ‘take’ the treat rather than wait politely for me to give it to her, sometimes biting my hand in the process. I didn’t stop using the treats, because it works so well for her, but I started to train her politeness WITH the treats. Every time she came to TAKE her treat (after I ‘Ex’ed her) with her lips already miles apart, I immediately closed my hand and turned it around. When she insisted I bumped her nose with the back of my hand. At the same time I told her to back up by touching her chest, thus telling her to wait for me coming to her instead of the other way around. Actually it didn’t take very much time for her to understand, so now I have a polite horse (although sometimes she forgets and I go back to this exercise) and I increased her overall selfcontrol in the process, which is helpful in itself in training her. I’m glad I didn’t stop using treats (which I actually see happening a lot around me when people think their horse is too ‘eager’ with food) because I notice that Saegola has gained a lot more respect for me this way.
I’m going to hand over your exercise to a friend of mine who has some treat problems with her horse as well. Thanks!
Very nice post.
I will give it a try – sound very logic when you write it this way.
Dear Carolyn,
thank you for this helpful Carrot – Gift- Play-Description!
I love your blog. It always reminds & strengthens me, to stay on my way with my horses and offers new insights, touches deeply or is just fun to read. Thank you so much!
Concerning treats, I always wondered, why dog trainers are so relaxed – and successful – with using treats as a trainings aid in their work and horse trainers are so fearful.
herzliche Grüße aus Deutschland,
Ute
Dear Kate,
I agree with you it is not about the treat. An important point you made is as a horse advances in his lessons and perfromance he loses the need of the treats.
Carolyn
how interesting, i never tried this one game, i will try this one and write some feedback
This is wonderful…for me and my gelding, “treat time” is a wonderful daily bonding ritual that feels a bit like “storytime” did when my daughter was little. He also knows that he can feel free to come right up to me in the pasture because I’m not just about getting him to work all the time. He is always polite (if eager) and seems somehow closer and more relaxed after I share some special food with him. I’ve also (finally) gotten him to hold still for mounting by giving him a treat – if he’s very still until I release him from standing – and now he does that with or without the food reward for the behavior. The treat was just the motivation he needed, I think – but it wasn’t just about the food. Or it doesn’t feel like it was, anyway.
This is great Carolyne! Thank you for this step by step info, I will put it in work ASAP.
Best,
Helene