Feeding, do you handle your horses when they are eating?

No! Not when they are having their feed as part of their normal routine - do you want people touching you (generally, unless in the first throes of love) when you are eating - ditto when you are on the lavatory (ignore my comment about love here - could be seen as a cranky / porno post - argghhh)
If you are trying to tame a wild / feral animal, using food as the lure - a bit different - or trying to use food to as a distraction for an invasive procedure - but that rarely works anyway.....leave them alone and let them eat in peace - my animals make it very clear butt out - it is their time!
 
I'm doing it all wrong again! ;)

I groom, rug up, de-rug, check for cuts, apply wound cream etc... while my lot eat. They don't give two hoots as they are used to it. In fact, I wouldn't have been able to put fly cream on the small cut that the gelding had in the summer, without distracting him with food (he's a huge wimp).
 
As ours are fed in the field, quite often I ditch the buckets where the horses are to get them out if my face, and then move them around so they're a comfortable distance from each other, sometimes get a scowly face while they're following, but they keep their noses in the buckets :D

Lol at faracat, feed is great for the fly repellant averse too I find ;)
 
I more or less carry on as normal when coblet is having his dinner - if feet need doing and rugs need changing I'll just get on with it and just wait till he comes up for air to do the front straps :)

However, if I'm not in a rush to get finished, I'll leave him to it - so I don't fuss over him but will do chores if that makes sense?

I insist on manners at all times and don't see feeding time as any different - I want to know that if I need to pop in, or if someone non-horsey has come up to say hello, then he will be safe, and he seems perfectly happy with the arrangement...the only time he has ever gotten grumpy was snapping a foreleg at one of the yard dogs trying to nick the carrots from his dinner! Told him off but couldn't really blame him :rolleyes:
 
I always leave my boy alone to eat, I think it's unfair to fuss him whilst having his brekkie/dinner. However, if I do have to rug up etc he shows his appreciation by slobbering food all over me :rolleyes:
 
All ours are used tobeing touched and having rugs changed when eating (as Stencilface says). My youngster is not that keen on you walking behind him as he initially gets his food and I would never 'surprise' him by walking behind him whilst eating BUT, I do generally make sure when he's had a few mouthfuls I go have a quick 'chat', pat on the neck, quick walk round and with one hand I will stroke his bottom/hind legs. The reason is just to get him more comfortable with it so his automatic reaction isn't to kick. He is now a lot calmer to be honest. I won't bother him more than that but will have a bit of a chat with him after tea and give him a bit of fussing
 
as I said on the other posts you are referring to, it seems to be easier to handle them when they are not eating! so will no longer be trying to pick feet out while he is eating!
 
I'd expect to be able to handle the horse while it's eating exactly the same as if it wasn't.

I don't feed mine so I have no idea if they would be possessive of food. I hope not. I don't really see why they need peace since any horse I've had which did need fed in the past has been far more interested in its bucket than whatever is going on around them and didn't care what you were doing :). They can graze at peace the rest of the time ;)
 
We had one mare who was very deffensive about any food, including hay. We got her used to the idea that it would remain where it was, by intially standing at the other side of a metal grid, then in the bos with her etc etc. While I don't tend to do much with ours when they are eating bucket feed (two of them get straw chaff as bucket feed), I expect to be able to do anything I would normally do with them, when they are eating.
 
Stencilface said:
As ours are fed in the field, quite often I ditch the buckets where the horses are to get them out if my face, and then move them around so they're a comfortable distance from each other, sometimes get a scowly face while they're following, but they keep their noses in the buckets :D

Lol at faracat, feed is great for the fly repellant averse too I find ;)
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:) :) :)

I also feed mine lose in the field. They are very good and apart from the grey (greedy guts, so has to be given her bowl first as she's right at the gate from the moment that she hears me open the feed room door) they wait patiently for me to take them their bowls.
 
Mine have rugs changed whilst they are eating. If I thought it upset them the I wouldn't do it. Hopefully my new one will be fine about it, if not she'll just have to wait a bit longer for her grub!
 
I have to say that my earlier comment was based on stabled horses - i.e. those that come in at night, or are stabled all the time. Of course when I have had those at grass, then it is often a bit different, and in former times when I have had to do everything in the space of a short visit - then rug changing, quick bits of first aid (mud fever cream etc. ) was part of the whole process.
Horses for courses, and horses / ponies adapting to your own routines, is as always of paramount importance. As is horses / ponies knowing what that routine involves.
However, Government health warning - all my worst injuries of too many years of dealing with horses / ponies in any number of situations, has been when a feed bucket has featured - albeit trying to catch something in, feeding a group of youngsters, using a feed intervention to try and calm something down.......I have learnt not to use food - or at least food in a container as an inducement (as opposed to a discreet pocket) - always inevitably leads to tears and bruises!!
 
I change rugs / pick feet out / do all sorts while mine are eating. None of mine have ever seemed remotely bothered by it, so it never occured to me to do otherwise.
 
Faracat said:
:) :) :)

I also feed mine lose in the field. They are very good and apart from the grey (greedy guts, so has to be given her bowl first as she's right at the gate from the moment that she hears me open the feed room door) they wait patiently for me to take them their bowls.
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same ours come when they see us and know the order in which we feed and they all stand and wait until their bowl is put down. we have to watch them as when they finish they sometimes try to pinch someone elses, we have 4 together
 
I do. She won't have horses near her when she eats but doesn't seem to mind people. In fact, I quite often use it as a chance to do something like tub and poultice her hoof (just got over an abscess) as she's so distracted by the food she will happily rest her hoof on my knee (yep, I did just say that :p) while I bandage and tape it and what have you.
 
I carry on doing whatever I need to do and have never had a problem.

I would agree with leaving them to eat in peace if they weren't eating for 16 hours a day and don't see why bucket feed should be any different :)

Usual routine means they eat last thing when left in the field or stable so I'm not doing anything with them but sometimes I will be doing rugs/brushing off and they are fine with that too.
 
Ours would let you do anything whilst they are eating. They are simply taught not be to that territorial :)

They have around 7 hours turnout a day to eat alone, so they can blooming well keep their teeth and feet to themselves whatever the situation is when I'm around!
 
Like JFTD, I will groom, pick feet, take rugs on or off, or anything else that needs doing while my horse is eating. Or while she isn't eating. Doesn't matter. Doesn't seem to make a difference to her. I don't think the horse has the same understanding of "politeness" that people do. My horse's understanding of "politeness" is simply the behaviour I've trained in her, which can roughly be described as "don't do anything my owner doesn't like."
 
In general I will leave ours to eat but at the same time I expect to be able to handle her safely if needed whilst she's eating. When I first got her I asked my mare to move over while she had her dinner. She put a hole in the breeze brick wall behind her.
I've found the best way to teach good manners when they're eating is that if they do something like that (or in the case of my sister's tb yearling, try to double barrell you) they loose that meal. I'm not talking hay, just the feed, no hitting, yelling etc they simply have the feed removed from the stable. It's never taken more than once for them to get the idea that they must have manners even if they have a feed in. I can now do anything I need to with my mare while she has her feed although I wouldn't trust her with a non-horsey person as she can still be touchy, but she keeps her feet on the ground :-)
 
i dont tend to handle them while they are eating but i expect them to have manners if i do! i quite often chuck their rugs on while they are eating their hard feed in the feed as they stay still but other than that i leave well alone :)
 
mynutmeg said:
In general I will leave ours to eat but at the same time I expect to be able to handle her safely if needed whilst she's eating. When I first got her I asked my mare to move over while she had her dinner. She put a hole in the breeze brick wall behind her.
I've found the best way to teach good manners when they're eating is that if they do something like that (or in the case of my sister's tb yearling, try to double barrell you) they loose that meal. I'm not talking hay, just the feed, no hitting, yelling etc they simply have the feed removed from the stable. It's never taken more than once for them to get the idea that they must have manners even if they have a feed in. I can now do anything I need to with my mare while she has her feed although I wouldn't trust her with a non-horsey person as she can still be touchy, but she keeps her feet on the ground :-)
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Agreed

In the early days, Mac refused to back up and stand nicely for his bucket - so it was taken away, end of! He was headbutting, trying to push his was around you to the bucket - just general bad manners!

Now my co-owners 5yo son can go in with his bucket, and Mac backs himself right up into a corner without even being asked! ;)
 
Got yearling in from field, feed already in, pick her feet out whilst eating so she's ready for Farrier, people round for dinner so yearlin had to get over it get on with it job done & she learnt to adapt & cope. Never had a problem horse that had to have its own space when eating.
 
I know I could still do anything with mine, but I don't disturb them as a rule for any animal when eating.

My thinking, is I wouldn't like being disturbed when I'm having dinner, so leave them be too.
 
Just got a new horse: he LIKES his feed and is quite rude about applying himself to it! So he's got to learn to be polite and move over, etc. when we're in the stable. Perhaps he hasn't had quite enough where he was before, but now there is no question that he'll have all the hay he'll ever want, so I have no qualms in insisting on him moving over/away from the feed when we are in the stable. Just good manners really.
 
Ned doesn't get at all stroppy (with people) about food. I can take it away and he'll get a sad puppy look on his face, no aggression. He doesn't get regular feed (of course he gets food! He gets hay/grass) and I mainly use it to distract him if I really need to, so he's used to it being taken when I'm done and me faffing around him while he's eating it!

There was a mare at the yard, she was the sweetest little thing, but god help you if you touched her when she had her feed!!
 
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