| My
mare Zena was on a layoff and we didn’t have much
to do. Suddenly my highly trained equine athlete could
have all of the treats for just standing in her stall
and doing nothing. I felt like a carrot dispenser. So
to make my horse “work for it” and to have
some fun together, I started to train her to smile, before
I give her a carrot. I started to train my horse to eat
carrots!
If you feed your horse carrots, you can teach your horse
how to smile for the carrot in about one month. The best
thing is that it involves tasty carrots that horses love
and you can train your horse a new way to eat carrots!
So get several fresh training carrots and follow these
fun, easy steps! |
| Step 1:
Touch the top of your horse’s nose with a training
carrot and as soon as your horse will lift the upper lip
to reach the training carrot, lift the carrot UP and say
with your funny, high pitched animal voice: “SMILE!”
Do not give your horse your training carrot yet,
you need to continue teasing your horse with the training
carrot to encourage him to lift his upper lip up.
If your horse stops and looks at you in disbelieve and
confusion, hide your carrot behind your back for a second
or two.
|
|
| Step 2:
Again, tap the nose of your horse with a carrot and lift
the training carrot up, encourage your horse to try to
reach the carrot by reaching UP and opening
the upper lip up.
As soon as your horse lifts the upper lip up, repeat
with a rewarding voice “SMILE!”
Your voice should have a familiar energetic and rewarding
intonation, the same as the one you say “good
boy” or “good girl”
with. |
|
| Step 3:
After minimum of three (3) repetitions you can give the
training carrot to your horse and again say what a good
pony he/she is.
|
|
| Step 4:
Do this routine for a month or so. Lift your training
carrot higher and higher as your carrot training progresses.
|
|
| Step 5:
When your horse is willingly starting to curl the upper
lip when he sees a carrot, you can position your training
carrot aligned with your pointy finger. Your pointy finger
and the training carrot should form the same shape.
This is the important transition from smiling for a carrot
to smiling on your command.
|
|
| Step 6:
After some time, with your pointy finger in the carrot
training position, raise just your hand without your training
carrot and say “SMILE!” –
if your horse is ready, your horse will give you a big
energetic smile and will wait to get rewarded with a tasty
training carrot or any other horse treats. |
|
| WARNING:
some very food oriented horses will smile for random humans
in hopes of getting carrots or horse treats even if not
asked to smile. Don’t ask me how I know that…
|
