Do You Feed Your Horses Treats?

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Do you feed Your Horses Treats on a regular basis? The local feed store has just got in the 20kg bags of Equerry treats. Sure this is encouraging over feeding of treats?!?

Mine very rarely get treats. Usually whatever carrots are left in the fridge! And in winter I buy the big nets and chuck them a few on the floor. But rarely do I give them treats of any description!
 
I did, I spoilt my boy totally rotten! I clicker trained him as well though so he learnt not to mug etc, although I admit that in his last couple of years I was a bit more lax in terms of what I'd let him get away with. Sometimes I used mints, other times I'd buy herbal treats, maybe pony nuts, nut-nuts (like brazil nuts) or dried fruit.

By contrast, my friend breeds ponies and never gives hers a treat - they wouldn't know how to take a carrot from your hand. It meant trying to coax them into a trailer with mints once a tad tricky.

I don't know what I'd do if I got another horse. I suspect I'd want to clicker train them, but I'd probably use things like rosehips or hawthorne berries.
 
Yes but usually it’s Baileys fibre nuggets which are a fibre feed and come in a big bag. It’s much cheaper than buying tubs of treats that are essentially the same thing. The Equerry treats sound similar with added mint.
 
Occasionally. I do carrot stretches on some and some I do tricks with. I don’t ever give my big horse any cause one treat turns him into a mugger and at 18 I doubt I’ll change that (and I can’t be bothered to...no treats works fine!)
 
Yes I do - sorry! We use fiber nuggets for clicker training. I have a carrot ball and "treat" balls for stabled horses to play with (although they get a portion of their hard feed in it not treats). If I have to I'll catch with feed in a scoop or a carrot, lure onto transport with feed or distract with handfuls of feed. I carry polos at shows. But all accounted for in their overall ration.

With the possible exception of those terribly sugary things horses don't know what is a "treat" and what is not. As long as they don't become ill mannered or nippy and as long as the "treat" is counted within the overall ration I have no issue with it.
 
I usually have a ziplock bag with Kerbl treats, and the horse gets three or four of them after the hour long lesson. Very occasionally, I use a treat to get the horse to come to me, to slip a on a headcollar, but only if I'm pressed for time getting tacked up before the lesson.

I buy them in 3kg tubs, and they last a long time at the rate I give them out.

I ate one, to find out what they are like; seems to be almost entirely compressed bran fibre with a little bit of apple smell added, it wasn't at all sweet, in fact it had almost no flavour at all.
 
Yes - the fibre herbal treat type.

But they only get them for doing something, so generally when being worked, or when the have behaved on the lorry. They never get them in the stable or field.
 
yes mine gets treats as a reward. They have been vital in getting her to have the bit in easily (she's 16.3hh it was a nightmare when she ran off as a giraffe due to previous mouth ulcers. Now gets excited when she sees the bridle!) also for teaching picking up feet, teaching her whoa on the lunge (she is the type thats inclined to get over excited and p*ss of around me rearing and bucking so it helped her focus and stay calm and she will now come back from canter to halt in just a few metres). I have the big tubs simply because its what I can buy from my local feed store and you can break them smaller easily.
 
No not generally unless i have a problem, for example having trouble getting one to stand still for clipping or for the vet, or in the depths of winter when the grass is rubbish and the forage gets boring. They don't need them especially at this time of year, the grass is more than enough for them. Mine get a good fuss and a scratch for a reward and they seem perfectly happy with this.
 
I use a bit of a carrot or a small handful of horse feed to reward a horse that's difficult to catch. And if I'm pressed for time and he is suspicious I'll use it to catch him.
 
Yes! Mine both get a small handful of treats when I say goodbye for the day. I also use the fibre nugget types, anything too sugary sends the welsh a bit loopy. I also give some treats in the horse box after I finish a dressage test. Mine didn't take long to cotton on that the treats only appear at a very specific time, they can tell when they are there but otherwise don't mug or anything. Maybe with a future horse I wouldn't do it every time I leave, but old habits die hard with my two!
 
Yes. I always have treats in my pocket and my ponies don't try to mug me. I'll go up to them in the field, have a scratch and they might get a treat. I also use them for doing carrot stretches as carrots don't last well this time of year
I buy approx 3kg treats at a time and they last me almost a year for 2 ponies.
 
Yep, guilty! He gets one for the bit, one for standing still to get on, and one after schooling/flatwork. They are rewards for behaviour as he was tricky with both when I first got him. He’s past that now but it’s a routine that I’ve just kept up with.
 
No very rarely and even then it’s only half a carrot. My cob turns nippy very quickly if he’s fed anything by hand. We had a lady that used to come by and give carrots almost daily. I could tell if she’s been as he’d be straight in my pocket when I arrived.
 
yes now that she's grown up i do. I didn't as a youngster - that's inviting trouble.

you can make treats mean something so i make it mean "thank you" or "good effort" after work or good behaviour. if i did it over the door its meaningless.
 
Mine gets a really beady eye sometimes when I go to bring him in from the field. Then I know it's treat time.:D
 
I use Baileys fibre nuggets (cheap and apparently yummy if you like that kind of thing). I mostly use them as a reward for good work or responding correctly to a verbal command. My horse is a total gannet so food rewards work well.
 
Yes, usually more in summer than winter as horse lives out 24/7. In winter he gets a feed but in summer there are no feeds and I tend to give a treat after riding - there’s not much incentive to be caught otherwise and he did used to be a sod to catch!
 
No neither of mine get treats. Bailey is a serial biter and I don't need anything that encourages him to open his mouth and show his teeth and DP turns into a rude, bolshy, nippy little git who thinks it is his god given right to mug anyone who comes near him. Everything that goes in their mouths comes from the ground or a feed bucket.
 
Yes. Mine live out and are both retired - they usually get a couple of treats every time I'm at the field (3-4 times a week as on full grass livery). One is quite hard to catch so giving him a treat is the main way of guaranteeing I get to see him up close! And the other one is just lovely and I like treating her. They don't get any hard feed and are on restricted grazing in the summer, so I don't think the odd treat is going to hurt. They are also well-mannered and have never nipped or mugged me for treats. The worst I'll get is a gentle nudge from the mare, and if I don't give her anything she'll heave a sigh and wander off :p
 
Yes. Each morning when I go into stables. For catching the 3 difficult ones. On a good day it's a 2 treat catch, bad day might be a 5 treat catch.

For getting on the dodgy ones, and always after a ride - They get a thank you 'token.

No nipping or shoving allowed. I dpntt have a problem with it. Use either ginger biscuits or sugar free treats. Although I'm tempted by the equerry bag.
 
My goodness.. 20kg bags.
I still have the Likit treats we got gifted from the yard owner 4 years ago!
I'm very paranoid about sugar, treats and bad behaviour with having ponies! Mine only get carrots etc that are needing used or the odd turnip.
 
I'm not condemning anyone for giving treats btw! Most people seem to give them quite sensibly as a reward.

I'm just wondering if having a 20kg bag of treats at your disposal would make you give more as there is a never ending supply! Treat for the sake of treating.
 
I use treats to bribe Militaire to stand quietly for the farrier. He's obviously had a very traumatic experience in the past and treats less to a quicker, nicer trim for all of us. 20kg would probably get all 4 legs done!!

He's the kind of horse who is always getting treats from people because he's cute. He never mugs or bites just looks longingly at them until they hand over the carrot. The Appy is only ever treated for doing something because she nips.
 
EKW said:
I'm not condemning anyone for giving treats btw! Most people seem to give them quite sensibly as a reward.

I'm just wondering if having a 20kg bag of treats at your disposal would make you give more as there is a never ending supply! Treat for the sake of treating.
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Well I do have a pretty much constant supply of treats, but I don't think I'd want a bag that big - just another big bag hanging around that I have to protect from rodents!
 
I do give my ponies treats. But it’s always after they have done something. Like today, the youngster had behaved like a pro out hacking, stood to be hosed off and she had a treat before she went back in her box. My older one has days when she doesn’t want to be caught and I do confess I tend to go armed with treats. I’d rather she came to me for a treat rather than a half hour game of ‘mummy cant catch me’ 🤦🏻*♀️
 
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