Training Tip: Respect Before Treats

Despite what most people think, we do give our horses treats at the ranch. In fact, you’ll find me carrying a treat in my pocket on most days. Here’s the thing–treats themselves aren’t bad or good; it’s how you use them that determines whether you get positive or negative results.

We don’t give any treats to a horse until we’ve gained his respect in general. So it would be pretty rare for us to give treats to a horse that was still working through the Fundamentals level of the Method. A lot of people give their horse treats because they want the horse to like them. That’s completely backwards from the way it actually works. You have to gain the horse’s respect before you can get him to like you. Horses are the complete opposite of dogs. The more you pat on a dog and talk to him and love on him, the more he loves you. But the more you brush and love on a horse, give him treats, and (here’s the key) don’t move his feet, the more pushy and disrespectful he becomes toward you. In reality, here’s the deal: You can feed your horse five buckets of treats every day, as long as you balance it with the equivalent of five buckets of moving his feet.