We treat them, but we don’t train with treats.

Whether you’ve hired a trainer to work with, or you have taken on the task of training your own horse you may have already developed a deep understanding that a lot of the things we are teaching the horse is physical, but also phychological. Horse training we often describe as simple as engaging the brain to control the body followed by a reward which is associated with the release of pressure. And to become a horse trainer you train your brain to control your body so that you can now cue the horses mind to control it’s body, and the process continues.

In the past we have had the privilege of working with a number of horses that had been started training at a young age with the use of treats. Now we will admit some horses can handle the reward of receiving treats, but the issue dosn’t arise until you realize that the horse you are working with is one of the horses that can’t handle it. To dig deeper into this topic the study continued into horse and human psychology. Did you know that food is the number one motivation for humans? And that for many horses it can be the number one motivation for them as well?

Horses that are trained with treats can get pushy on the ground, completely forgetting about respecting your space to reach their reward. This behavior can soon escalate into kicking, rearing, or even running you over. At Pearson Equine we often give our horses treats at random, this eliminates a pattern for the horse to automatically think of receiving food. Have you ever heard the term “one track mind”? Once you active the synapse in horses brain towards a focus of food you begin to develop a pattern with the horses thoughts and your horse quickly develops the one track mind.

So what do we do to reward our horse in training? Since horses are naturally lazy animals they receive their rewards with rest, or the complete release of pressure allowing the horse to relax for its efforts. This method allows the horse to develop the understanding of how simple our expectations are for them, and as we continue training we get better with our timing to a point where it becomes very subtle. Utilizing this method also engages the synapse in the horses brain but it changes their expectations to become the relaxed,gentle, loving animals we all enjoy. It draws out a willingness in the horse to want to better understand us as humans allowing us to achieve better mental engagement and keeps them interested in us and our training sessions.

But remember a treat now and then is great for your horses and some like the ones we use are great for the horses digestion and can come in many forms. We encourage you to just be aware of the patterns you are creating and the times in which your horses are receiving treats. Do you want to learn more about how to establish a better relationship with your horse? Be sure to sign up for our horse and rider assessment where we come to you and work one on one with you and your horse.