Anemone, thanks for posting. I think it’s a good video to help people understand that feeding treats doesn’t necessarily lead to biting. I also think the horse at the end of our May 27 call was seeking attention and to connect and very likely to ask for treats as well. I don’t think it is helpful to think of anything a horse or any animal does as polite or impolite because that is a human concept and judgement that can close us off from gathering helpful information. If we get to the root of the judgment, we could say an impolite horse is doing something that bothers us and a polite horse is not doing anything that bothers us. Now the opportunity comes for the human to examine why a certain behavior bothers them or not.
The question of whether we are feeding treats or not is another topic worthy of deep exploration within our group. Personally, I find it tends to get in the way of more authentic connections but I can’t say that I never feed treats. I wonder what others in this group feel about feeding treats.
I share food with my horses, but I don’t give them treats. If I have pieces of carrots in my pocket and one of them is asking for a bit, I share and then we’re good. They never seem to beg for more, but I admit at some years ago when I wanted to start practice positive reinforcement training I got it all wrong and practically everything became centered around treats. Totally my bad, but not a very long lasting problem. But when I read your answer Stormy my mind wandered off to a discussion I had with my neighbor about gardening the other day. She was frustrated over all the work she had to put in getting rid of weeds. When she pointed out what she considered to be “weed” I told her about the specific plants – some of them where eatable, some do miracles for the heavy clay soil in this area, some are essential for bees this time of year, and so on. So the definition of “weed” is just a plant growing in a place where she would rather have another plant growing – a plant in the “wrong” place. I think I came to think of this as I can relate to the “weed problem” in the same way as we usually talk about “horse behavioral problems” . It’s just a behavior, natural for the horse, sometimes a reaction of certain circumstances that we would rather replace with another behavior. It’s just a behavior in the “wrong” place or time, from the humans narrow point of view. (I realize my thoughts might be little off topic, but I find it interesting!)
Hello! Thanks everybody for your thoughts and for the clip. For both my interacting with free grazing horses and with the two horses that live with me, I never love to use treats, because I always wanted they interact with me for the pleasure and for the curiosity to interact and not because they were looking for something else…I’m going to post a clip in which we can see a free living, not conditioned horse, trying to get in touch with a man. This horse is not accostumed to be touched, but she look for the contact in a very authentic way!
Thank you for all your thoughts I really appreciate it! I never considered being polite and impolite as an “only human” thing, but you’re absolutely right of course it’s a human concept.
Anemone, thanks for posting. I think it’s a good video to help people understand that feeding treats doesn’t necessarily lead to biting. I also think the horse at the end of our May 27 call was seeking attention and to connect and very likely to ask for treats as well. I don’t think it is helpful to think of anything a horse or any animal does as polite or impolite because that is a human concept and judgement that can close us off from gathering helpful information. If we get to the root of the judgment, we could say an impolite horse is doing something that bothers us and a polite horse is not doing anything that bothers us. Now the opportunity comes for the human to examine why a certain behavior bothers them or not.
The question of whether we are feeding treats or not is another topic worthy of deep exploration within our group. Personally, I find it tends to get in the way of more authentic connections but I can’t say that I never feed treats. I wonder what others in this group feel about feeding treats.
I share food with my horses, but I don’t give them treats. If I have pieces of carrots in my pocket and one of them is asking for a bit, I share and then we’re good. They never seem to beg for more, but I admit at some years ago when I wanted to start practice positive reinforcement training I got it all wrong and practically everything became centered around treats. Totally my bad, but not a very long lasting problem. But when I read your answer Stormy my mind wandered off to a discussion I had with my neighbor about gardening the other day. She was frustrated over all the work she had to put in getting rid of weeds. When she pointed out what she considered to be “weed” I told her about the specific plants – some of them where eatable, some do miracles for the heavy clay soil in this area, some are essential for bees this time of year, and so on. So the definition of “weed” is just a plant growing in a place where she would rather have another plant growing – a plant in the “wrong” place. I think I came to think of this as I can relate to the “weed problem” in the same way as we usually talk about “horse behavioral problems” . It’s just a behavior, natural for the horse, sometimes a reaction of certain circumstances that we would rather replace with another behavior. It’s just a behavior in the “wrong” place or time, from the humans narrow point of view. (I realize my thoughts might be little off topic, but I find it interesting!)
And Thank you for sharing! I think it was a very valuable clip!
Hello! Thanks everybody for your thoughts and for the clip. For both my interacting with free grazing horses and with the two horses that live with me, I never love to use treats, because I always wanted they interact with me for the pleasure and for the curiosity to interact and not because they were looking for something else…I’m going to post a clip in which we can see a free living, not conditioned horse, trying to get in touch with a man. This horse is not accostumed to be touched, but she look for the contact in a very authentic way!
Thank you for all your thoughts I really appreciate it! I never considered being polite and impolite as an “only human” thing, but you’re absolutely right of course it’s a human concept.