DO YOU GIVE YOUR HORSE TREATS?

I do sometimes but not often, Bella gets a treat if she has been good but maybe only once a week if that, and then gets an apple or swede once every few weeks. She doesn't get nippy but if fed too many treats she goes hyper :)
 
I have a bucket of treats that I keep at the bottom of the stable block. My horse is rewarded with one after he is ridden. He very quickly learnt this and now won't go to bed unless he's had one.

He tries very hard for me and its just a little way of saying I appreciate it (although I'm sure he doesnt understand this!). He doesn't nip and it hasnt caused him any behavioural problems so I can't see that there is anything wrong with it. I've been to professional yards where they have treats in the school straight after work...which is probably a better idea since the horses then relate it to actually working!
 
Never. OH (totally non horsey) started sneaking down to the stables and giving them carrots "to make them like him" a few years ago, and then got lifted off his feet by a horse grabbing his pocket and heaving him up - end of OH feeding treats. Mine are all well fed and loved, just not pampered.
 
Yup :) After a ride, unless he's been very bad :p He's never shown any inclination towards nipping or being pushy though he does know the routine! It's not so much of a routine with any of the others but apart from the yearling colt there's no strict no treats policy.
 
My older two riding horses get a carrot or apple after i've ridden and untacked. My youngsters NEVER get tit-bitted, def makes them nibbly I find. I will take a bucket of feed and a clicker when I'm training e.g. loading for babies, but still don't give it by hand.
 
I do but i try to vary when i give them. Normally he gets them after a ride but during winter he gets an apple or carrot in his feed instead.

Occasionally i give him one when i go to catch him from field but not all time as i dont want him to become 'nippy'!
 
I feed all of mine treats at various times and from hand, I dont have any problems with nipping I can feed them in the field togethor and they all wait and stand togethor no fighting with each other.

Although one of my dads pointers when he is let out of his stable follows you and stares you out until he gets his sweetie before he goes to his field, it is always a very passive demand though quite funny, and he is shocked to the core if you dont give him one and goes with a look of disbelief.
 
Trinity Fox said:
Although one of my dads pointers when he is let out of his stable follows you and stares you out until he gets his sweetie before he goes to his field, it is always a very passive demand though quite funny, and he is shocked to the core if you dont give him one and goes with a look of disbelief.
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Lol - mine will wait at the gate as long as my car is there, just on the off chance he might get something - sometimes I resist his little face, but not v often :D
 
Yes, but only at specific times - one when being caught and two when being turned out. This stops her expecting to be given them ad lib.
 
Yes...she doesnt demand them...but likes a treat at certain times and expects them!
She is 23 years old...she has never been bolshy or nasty about them...they are part and parcel of her routine ie. going out and coming in...
as someone said who knows her...she knows when she should have one and that is that...why dissappoint her at her age!!
 
Mine always get a treat when they are caught in the evening from my hand and again in the morning when I put them out and have taken off their headcollars. None bite or look and it saves them tearing off up the field
 
Ned doesn't have a set time to have one, but he ususally has a polo or two. He's very good and patient! If I take a bit longer to open the packet, he'll wait and won't nip, snatch or bite. He's also learnt the packaging on polos. He won't go for just any old sweet. If I get out chocolate he knows that's not for him, but as soon as the polo packet comes out...the ears go forwards!
 
No never, he becomes really hard work if I do, ears back, nipping won't stand still - a real pain.
No treats, he is a saint, placid, easy to do, no problems.
I feel really mean, but it works well for us.
 
I give Tont treats when he's being well behaved :)

Before I had him, you couldn't catch him or do anything with him. But because I gave him treats, I could get close enough to him to earn his trust. He doesn't nip or barge, so I do give him treats, and therefore I can do anything with him :)
 
Yes, catching, turning out (after having a horse that would whip away as soon as the headcollar was taken off, I now give a polo after the headcollar is taken off so they learn to wait for that!), once they've loaded and as a reward at shows. Ususally polos.
 
Yes everytime we come back from a ride (if well behaved) and when catch in from the field. Only a polo,carrot or horsey treat. Never had any problems with nipping.
 
Mine get an apple each with their tea and carrots at weekends. I don't give them anything from my hands as I think this encourages them to be bolshy, althought Chloe does realise that apples come out the tack room and whinnies at me whenever I go in and out of there!
 
Yes I used to give my late girl treats for good behaviour, sometimes I would just give her treats because she was such a lovely girl anyway
I often hacked alone and would give her a polo for being a good brave girl and for being willing and responsive etc
 
Yeah, treat mine. Treat to catch from field. Treat after work, only if worked well! Treat when he loads onto box. He never nips though, he knows when to expect them, not just all the time. At appropriate times when he does something right :)
 
They get treats after they have been ridden but in a bucket. My eldest daughters horse bites, because when he was young the people who shared our pony were always stuffing treats down them, even though we told them not to. We took the pony off them but the damage to this yougster is proving very hard to undo.
 
In a word, yes. :) Mostly things like carrots and apples as they are good for them, but I do buy those bags of horse treats you can get and they get a couple of those most days usually too. They also get polos sometimes too! :p
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by maggiesmum
Interesting article here, not sure I agree with all of it but its food for thought!
http://hiddenhorses.com/wordpress/20...lick-or-treat/
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that is a good article ............ it does highlight the differences in definitions / principles / actions of the people that do feed treats do that have appeared on this thread ;)




some give treats like veg in the feed /after finished work or hack because horse had "been good"...... and that brings up two things

1. a treat is something unusual or succelent we give to the horse because we know it will like it

2. while the horse certainly likes it :D :D :D it is not likely that the horse that to it doing anything or being good ..... so highly unlikely to affect his desire to "be good" or repeat a behaviour



some feed the treats for a specific behaviour and not at other times or randomly and its done immediately the behaviour happens.

That is when it actually means something to the horse and you will get predictable and desired behaviours.


its people that have "rules" about when treats are given that are more likely to have horses that do not get nippy / bitey ...... the way to get a horse muggy is to give random treats without linking it to a behaviour that the horse understands.



I feed treats ... rather obviously because I CT ;)

Type 1. the herbal treats ( which I have all the time in my pockets ) which they get only when I have asked them to do something ...... they might go days and days without one if we are not working on something, they often get one when they come to a call or come over to get tacked up ;)

Type 2. They dont often get carrots so they are a real treat ...... these can be either in their feed, spread over the field for them to find ... or occasionally fed by hand without "working" for them.



I think that its fine to feed treats by hand as long as both parties stick to "rules" ... if the human can't or won't ..... then dont do it ;)
 
I give mine as many as I want when I want as he is not nippy but he does spend quite a bit of time with his head betwen his legs waiting for a treat :D - mostly as a result of doing carrot stretches.

In fact he does a carrot stretch at any time he thinks he might get a treat and even does it spontaneously when he sees the physio arrive on the yard :D It took me less than 10 minutes to teach him to stand on a pedestal with some polos.
 
All the time sort of.... we get carrots after being turned out - they know they are in my pocket but wait till the head collars are off. They get carrots just before i go home, its the last thing that gets dropped on top of their hay before the lights go off.

My little ex racer gets a polo when he stands still to be mounted - and they both get polo's when they have been very good in the school.

I also give a mint if they get too "anticpatory" in the school ie keep offering canter at some point - this just takes there mind off things and we can go back to a schooling session at my pace.

x
 
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