Physio exercises using treats

J

Jen1706

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I have had the physio out to my horse who has given us some stretch / exercises to do using treats, however if you go near my horse with treats he wants to take them for your hand with a very wide open mouth often gets your whole hand in his mouth, he does not bit your hand i think he just gets over excited! when i first had him he did this even if i did not have any treats and he was contently looking for treats, i have not given him any treats and this behaviour has got better. However even with a few times of doing the stretches this behaviour is returning, bulshy pushy constantly looking and wanting treats. I really want to do the stretches but i dont know how to stop this behaviour has anyone got any ideas?
 
Teach him to follow your hand, it does not need to have treats in it if the horse is bright he will learn what you want and his reward is you praising him, I do this and give them a carrot stick once in a while, a pony here will now stretch for his young owner with only the odd treat to prevent tiny fingers being eaten.
 
I've seen carrot stretches done with a chunk of carrot on the end of a whip for a horse that nips, you can ask for a neck stretch from the other side of the horse reaching over its back so it doesn't associate treats with people's hands.
 
How about one if those mini licks from horselyx? I actually found my very food orientated mare calmed down about taking treats after a few attempts at physio stretches. She realised random snatching didn't work and having to do something for the treat calmed down the snatchy behaviour. My older mare does the stretches on cue now, no guiding target hand required. :lol: I say knees and she sticks her head between her knees. It's funny cos I didn't realise I was saying knees out loud when doing her stretches until she started follow the cue!

You could teach the horse to follow a target, use a marker word such as "good" when he completed his stretch then throw his treat into a bucket as his reward.
 
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