Giving treats to your horse has many benefits. | Photo: Photos.com

A: There are many good reasons to use carrots and other treats with horses. It can strengthen your relationship with the horse, and training with a food reward is an effective way to shape new behaviors and condition relaxed emotional responses.¹ Most animal training organizations endorse the use of positive reinforcement, which typically uses a food reward, as the “first line of teaching, training, and behavior change” in animals, and “associated with the lowest incidence of aggression, attention-seeking, and avoidance/fear in learners.”²

Positive methods using food is the standard approach for training most animals, but pressure-release (negative reinforcement) continues to prevail in equine training. The use of food- and hand-feeding in particular raises concerns among many horse trainers, who warn that it can promote disrespectful behavior and interfere with training

In fact, when given indiscriminately, treats can create problem behaviors, including mugging, mouthing, biting, excitement, and distraction. This concern isn’t unique to horses but might be a particular problem because of their size and strength