The importance of food manners

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Yesterday while working with Ronja, i found a reason food manners are so important to teach. I was going to do carrot stretches, but what happen - The pony wouldn't stretch! Didn't she want my carrot? Of course she did, but she couldn't just reach over and take it! Meanwhile, a horse behind me had free access to the carrots in my other hand, but didn't take them. All this, because I taught them food manners.

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The horses had just been outside for a couple hours and it rained so much we couldn't put out forage. I carried around carrots and müsli, which is very high value food and hadn't filled forage in their stalls yet. This is how hungry they were, so that when I say hungry in this post. They had grass, but still thought they were starving because the amount is limited.

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Examples where food manners are needed

There's many situations where you may need food manners or they just happen to be practical, so i'll mention a few of those

When walking around with treats

If you're walking around with treats on you, or your horse think there's a chance of treats/food, and you don't want the horse to be mugging and begging, you should teach food manners. This will make the horse calmer and easier to work with and be around along with keeping it safe from people punishing the behavior and the mugging getting worse. Due to this, it's a good idea to teach every horse food manners, not just those training with food.

When training with food

This is obvious, but I made the fault not to do it. If you don't teach food manners before working with food, your horse may become frustrated (I've been kicked and bitten due to frustration), confused or straight up annoying to work with because they don't even consider trying other things or they're unhappy (Frustrated horses will do pretty much everything for that treat, but won't enjoy the training at all). It may also be a problem with the good horse that's just getting too close all the time because they're eager to work and haven't learned to keep distance and where to take the food.

When you have a food anxious horse or horse that find it hard to relax (in general and around food)

It's obvious why the food anxious horse need it - They need to be helped to safe behavior and feeling better around food and training food manners will help with this. For the generally anxious horse, it can also help as food manners is all about relaxing and finding a calm, positive mental state around food and learning to relax will be good for them.

This is just a few general examples to show food manners are always a good idea to teach

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I often have a bucket with feed and prefer them not eating from it. Ronja is my best at food manners and know this. She won't eat from it during training, as you see here

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Why are they important

Food manners are about two things - Teaching the horse which behaviors you prefer and helping them find a calm mindset.

Teaching desired behavior

The majority of people prefer a horse that don't beg, get pushy, go in your pockets and other behaviors the normal horse may show around food. When teaching food manners, you are often teaching them to not search you for treats and a "rest position" with their head between their shoulders that you can ask for and reward if they ever start mugging again. They learn to take food away from your body and when they have their food manners in place, will be easy to work with around food as you have replaced any behavior that you don't wish to have in this situation with other behaviors that encourage being calm and waiting for their food.

The mindset

For many horses, this come when you teach the behavior, but some may need ekstra work in order to also have the mindset (fx Ditte (food anxiety) would be a trembling, shaking mess after I taught the behavior. I had to completely redo everything with focus on her mindset instead of behavior)

The mindset you want is calm. Food activate the seeking system which mean the horse start searching for a way to get the food. The standard of this is going directly to the food or places there's usually food (aka human) and trying to take it. This isn't very comfortable for the human and the horse may get frustrated if the food don't come fast enough, which can result in some undesired and even straight up dangerous behavior. This make it incredibly important to teach them to stay calm and not become frustrated if the food don't come fast enough or when they want it.

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Cute begging - We know this pony will always stay gentle and people typically like when he beg. I still teach him food manners so he won't do it.

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Is it also for those that's always gentle?

Definitely! My pony, Fussi, lick people and is the absolute CUTEST when begging and so gentle, no reason to worry. Everyone love it! But if you're trying to train, this isn't very convenient. It very quickly become super frustrating for the human and I gave up on teaching him anything before I get food manners established, he simply won't consider any other thing for getting food.

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Working on food manners with Fussi - Starting with target and feeding where I want him to keep his head. He find it hard to understand without target, so we take it slow.

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How to teach food manners

What I do when teaching food manners is i start with target and clicker training. I hold up a target and when touched, click and reward (c/r). I do this for a session or two, letting the horse learn about the target and clicker. After that, i will stand beside the horse and c/r when it have the head between the shoulders (click in the exact moment, reward in that position) and eventually the horse should learn that this position earn food. For many, just the relaxed position will get the mindset along too and there's now a good base for being around food.

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What if my horse can't learn it?

All horses can learn it, but some find it harder than others. Often, the problem will be in the mindset. If your horse can't calm down about it, there may be some food anxiety or generally finding it hard to be calm. This is where you will need to have focus on the mindset instead of the behavior. It's quite complicated, so if you run into this problem i recommend looking for ressources on food aggression, food anxiety and food manners (The willing equine helped me a lot)

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Ditte have food anxiety, but have learned food is delivered in the crib and therefore head for that. I can barely get near due to how pushy she become, resulting in a disagreement with Fussi. Fussi is just a hangry old man that learned not to take sh*t from Ditte, he's gentle at all other times, promise. I'm proud to say Ditte have gotten so good at handling her food anxiety that I couldn't get a video showing bad food anxiety (shown as aggression), even though i hit a few triggers and she were hungry.

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Dealing with food anxiety

The first thing about dealing with it is understanding it. When a horse have food anxiety, it can't do anything about it, just like humans with anxiety can't help it and will need help. It's your responsibility if you choose to work with a food anxious horse to do your best to understand them and help them cope and handle their feelings along with learning there's no reason to feel this way. The horses body seem to be screaming "Get the food! You're starving! You'll DIE if you don't get that food RIGHT NOW!!"

ing this will help you, the human, stay calm and figure out what can help your horse. With Ditte, i had to work with touching a target and putting food in the crib for a long time. Having an outside thing (target, pressure etc) really helped her and by putting the food in her crib she learned not to charge at hands. I reward not just the right behavior, but also a calm mindset. It have taken years for us, stating everything we have done would take too long, but if you haven't worked with food anxiety before, be ready for a hard journey. It will be worth it though, i promise. Just thinking about where we used to be and where we are now is making me cry with happiness. Litterally. Almost can't see what i'm writing due to tears. I have found the most important thing to is you're helping them overcome anxiety, not changing them or their behavior, you'll accept who they choose to be when food anxiety is controlled, you'll accept and encourage their attempts at handling it and you'll never, ever blame them for their struggle. Be understanding and celebrate the small things.

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Hopefully this post covered a few things, idek, ask if you have questions and i'll answer or find a blog/article/stuff that can help. I've worked and struggled with food manners in 4 very different horses, so I have come to a decent understanding. If this post make no sense it's just because i'm extremely tired.

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