When rewarding a horse, consider the fact that they like many different types of treats, including sugar cubes, apples and carrots. Find out how to place a treat in the hand when feeding it to a horse with help from a horse riding trainer in this free video on rewarding horses.
This is Maggie Connolly with Hawthorne Stables and I want to just take a moment to talk to you about treating, rewarding or showing signs of affection or pleasing to a horse. They like many different types of treats, sugar cubes for example, apples, carrots, some will eat almost anything but you want to make sure when treating a horse that you want to lay your treat in the palm of your hand, you want to make sure that your fingers are together and that your fingers and your hands are flat because a horse is going to use his muzzle in order to take the treat and you want to make sure that you don't get your fingers stuck in the middle of his mouth. They're usually very kind like a dog is and they're not really aggressive. A lot of times they just accept the treat as you can see Aliza does here very willingly and then he allows you to pet his head. Just make sure that if you are ever going to show a sign of affection towards a horse like patting a horse or petting a horse that you make sure that you don't move abruptly or in a quick manner towards the horse. They actually when they look at you straight ahead they can't really see you straight ahead. They actually see from about here backwards so you want to make sure that if you are approaching a horse straight on that you give it time to send you and smell you and be able to see what it is that you're doing and that you are coming to them and approaching them in a very kind and loving manner. Some horses like to be touched and stroked just like a dog in some areas and then there are some areas that they don't. I would strongly suggest that there are certain areas that you could stay away from in almost any horse and that area that I would stay away from happens to do in the hind and in the flank area. A lot of horses are very sensitive in this flank area and you don't want to go touching or probing them in that area. If it so happens when you are brushing and grooming a horse you may want to just as a cautionary, take a fist put it right here in this little hip area here and you can press there and you can jump around and brush around here that way if you feel the horse shifting his weight like he is going to kick out at you you can feel the sensation. Therefore pushing against yourself and the horse, pushing the horse away from you and avoid yourself from getting kicked. I would just recommend that any time when brushing a horse or dealing with a horse in this hind end area that you just keep your hand there as a measure so you can feel when the horse is shifting his weight or moving. Other than that horses are really kind of accepted to any types of affection petting and you'll notice that when you brush a horse or you curry a horse that there will be a response, that they find what you're doing enjoyable. Usually what they'll do is they'll, you can see what he is doing here with his lip, they'll kind of tighten up their lip and kind of point out their lip or even raise their lip when they find something enjoyable or pleasing. Horses by nature are pleasing animals like dogs and they really want to please their owners just like a dog does so showing them signs of affection and pleasing and rubbing is always very well welcome. Even when a horse is performing well you may want to stay away from doing any big huge pats or anything like that. A simple scratch of the withers or a simple pat will be rewarding enough for a horse no matter what it is that he has done for you. This is Maggie Connolly with Hawthorne Stables.
