Training Horses with Food Rewards

Have you ever questioned whether a treat reward is beneficial to training your horse? Perhaps you have even given a treat reward only to find that now your horse is pushy and obnoxious about gaining another goody. Training horses with food rewards can be effective in some situations without creating a cookie monster horse.

First assess whether the treat is a viable reward for the training task at hand. If you are riding your horse over jumps, giving a tidbit after a jumping effort is not very conducive to riding a full course later on. Training horses with food rewards is more beneficial for static motions and behaviors. It is also important to recognize that treats usually excite a horse or present a distraction. This can be a perfectly valid reason to use it. For example, a horse that is nervous in the wash stall may find that a food reward takes its mind off the perceived fear of the oncoming bath. Should you continue to desensitize the horse to the stimuli it is most bothered by in the wash stall? Certainly, however, fears can be so deeply imbedded particularly in older horses that while you are gaining their trust with the hose, a cookie or tidbit can make them temporarily forget the fear which can create some "realizations" for the horse.

Secondly, it is important to decide whether or not the horse needs the motivation a food reward provides. For an excitable horse that gets worked up or antsy in learning something new the anticipation of a treat may only result in more tension and excitability. Gaining a calming effect could be all but lost in the treat moment. As an example, I have a young horse who tries very hard to please. During in hand training while teaching piaffe, I typically give goodies. However, this horse gets frantic and tends to do too much trotting in place without enough softness. Offering him a treat afterwards makes him get so excited he forgets how calm he just was. On the other hand, I have plenty of lower key horses that need incentive to get lively enough to piaffe without it looking like a burden. With such horses, the anticipation of a cookie or sugar cube develops the sensitivity that I need. Training a horse with a food reward in that instance is perfect.

Choosing the right treats for horse training:

If you are going to be competing and using the treat reward at a show or event, pay attention to what you use. There are some inexpensive nutritious treats that are a perfect size to carry around, however, they are pink. When the horse eats them, the slobber they develop has a pink tinge to it which could easily be mistaken to appear like the mouth is bloody. At events then it is advised to stick with plain sugar cubes. However, these are just as un-nutritious for the horse as they are for humans. Tooth decay does happen in horses! Another option for competitions is to cut up small slices of green apple. They can be kept in a plastic baggie with the groom ready to be given. But, be careful as they can spoil particularly on a hot summer day. Using ice cubes in a second outer bag can keep them fresh longer, but will complicate the process.

When not at an event, choose treats that are small in size or easily broken into smaller pieces. It's not the size of the treat that is important. Some horses will even get excited over plain old alfalfa pellets. Several companies make treats in small sizes that are also more nutritious than a sugar cube. The most important factor is that your horse likes them.

Giving horses food rewards without creating bad behavior:

Training horses with food rewards requires disciplined use of methods to minimize bad habits. Like all things with animal and horse training, consistency is the key to success. A few lapses in your commitment to good behavior and you'll be staring at a problem no matter how sweet your horse usually is. If the horse in question is a biter, or mouthy in general, address this issue first. For suggestions on dealing with biting behaviors, see the article "Teaching Your Horse Not to Bite". With such horses, unless you plan to be extremely diligent, treat rewards may simply not be an option.

Once you have decided that training the horse with a food reward will be a good compliment to your training strategy, consider how you will deliver the reward to the horse. One method is to place the reward in a tub or bucket. The horse will associate the receipt of the treat with the appearance of the other object. This can lessen the chance the horse will associate the treat with your hand and grab for fingers. However, this can be addressed and will be explained below. Further, this method relies on having a bucket or tub handy which makes it impossible to use immediately during a ridden or in-hand training session. This method is more appropriate to giving a food reward to a nervous horse in the wash stall, or trailer.

To give a treat from your hand without the risk of teaching the horse to begin nipping in anticipation, start by specifically training the horse how to take a treat politely. With the horse standing in front of you, extend your hand with a treat or cookie in it, held with a closed fist. Keep your fist turned with the palm down as you extend it towards the horse's muzzle. If the horse is nippy, or overly anxious to grab the treat from you, correct him by simply giving a slight jerk with your hand that does not hit the horse. The surprise will make the horse pause and back off in a submissive fashion. As soon as the horse is submissive and waiting, turn your hand and open it up flat as you normally would to safely hand a treat. Diligence and patience will teach your horse that the hand will not open for him to get the treat until he is polite about it. Also, lowering and extending your hand below the horse's chin towards the chest will cause the horse to step back before he can take the treat. This is a significantly more submissive action which has the benefit of setting the horse up to assume to back away from you when anticipating a treat rather than crowding you or stepping aggressively into your space.

Over the years, these methods have been hugely successful in allowing treat rewards to be used even with fairly dominant horses as a means to solidify the training. Training horses with food rewards does not solve all training issues; however, it can be that extra incentive to make a scared horse try harder to trust an unfamiliar situation, to create a sense of well-being once they have overcome a fear, and as a motivating factor to create more excitement for a horse to have fun performing a task.