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Mouthy Horses and Hand Feeding
Your horse may start mugging your hands as soon as he realizes that food is involved. Keep yourself safe, but let your horse explore. This is the reason why we start with the horse in a stall. We want him to be free to experiment: to discover what works and what doesn’t. If your horse gets too pushy, just step back out of range. He’s going to discover that nudging your pockets never earns him treats, but bumping the target does. That’s his first step towards becoming a clicker-wise horse.
When you feed your horse, be certain to control the food delivery. Do not offer him the treat in close to you body. That will only encourage more mugging. Instead keep your hand closed over the treat until you’ve extended your arm out away from your body.
- A good rule of thumb is to keep your hand closed over the food until your hand is where you want his head to be.
- If your horse has his chest pressed up against the stall guard keep your hand closed over the treat. Don’t give it to him right where he’s reaching for it.
- Instead move your hand towards his chest. He’ll have to take a step back to get his treat. You aren’t teasing him with the food, or keeping him from it. You are simply delivering it where you want him to be.
- Click and treat! This is a little detail, but it makes a huge difference. Control the food delivery, and you control the pace of the lesson.
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If your horse is already mouthy, you may be worried that all this hand feeding will only make him worse. That’s what many of us have been taught. We’ve been warned over and over again never to hand feed our horses. Hand feeding, we’ve been told, turns horses into biters.
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The clicker is a gate keeper. It creates rules around the food so we can use treats in training. Take your time to establish these rules well. That’s what turns a pushy, in-your-face horse into a polite student.
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The clicker negates this concern. It tells the horse when he can expect food, and when he can’t. If you click, that means a treat is coming. In the absence of a click, the horse can nuzzle your pockets all he wants, but you aren’t going to feed him. If he wants the treat, he’s going to have to learn polite manners. Rather than making horses more mouthy, the clicker can actually eliminate this behavior. Reinforce what you want, and that’s what you’ll get more of.
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Part One: Getting Started with the Clicker
A Step-By-Step Guide
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