How to Teach a Horse to Pick Up a Hat

Teaching a horse to pick up a hat is easy, as horses are naturally mouthy and tend to pick things up with their mouths. Teach a horse the "hat" command with helpful advice in this video on training horses.

Hi. I'm Rick Gore with the Travis Equestrian Center. Today, we're going to talk about how to get your horse to pick up your hat. A horse that's mouthy and normally likes to mouth things, they'll usually pick up their food bucket when it's empty, they'll pick up paper, they'll pick up things that are curious. So, horses are naturally mouthy and if you don't beat that out of them or make them stop that, they'll want to pick up everything. So, teaching a horse to pick up a hat is pretty easy. I taught him by basically, when he'd pick up, when his grain bucket's empty, he'd pick it up, swing it around, saying, "Hey give me some more grain". So, after a while, when he picked up his grain bucket, I would say, "hat", every time he picked it up and then I'd give him a treat. So, now I replace a hat with a grain bucket and I drop my hat down. I say, "hat". So, he picks it up. As soon as he picks it up and gives it to me, I give him a little treat. And then that's, over time, he learns that anything I say "hat" to, he picks it up. And I like to have him do that because when I'm riding, if my hat falls off, I want him to pick it up so I'm too lazy to get off my horse and pick it up. So, after I do it a few times, I throw it, different action makes it more interesting for him, say "hat". He knows as soon as the hat hits the ground, if he looks at me and brings it over...Now don't you drop it...I have to make sure that he hands it to me in my hand. Then he gets his treat. So if you don't mind going through a few hats, it's a pretty simple thing to teach. Again, whatever a horse picks up, whether they pick up a rake, their food bucket, a hat, you give them a treat when you take it from them. Pretty soon, they'll start bringing you things and then you can just relate it and every time you drop your hat, you can say, "hat", and your horse will pick up your hat for you. And that's how you teach your horse to pick up your hat.