Favorite Treat rewards

What are your favorite treats to use? Which brand/size works best for you, or do you make your own?

I've always fed the manna pro horse nuggets, but I heard someone say they were too large to use for clicker training. I'm gentling my first feral mustang & I wanted to use clicker training with her, so I was going to buy a big bag but I don't want to buy the "wrong" ones so to speak.

Would love any recommendations (or recipes!)

in ClickertrainedHorsesby Woof-Wolfy

81%

1.4y

HeadTown2616

1.4y

For myself I use a variety of food for reinforcement and in varying amounts. I find that this keeps my horses very motivated during our training sessions because they never know what or how much they are getting so they try hard every time. I found what my horses preferred through trial and error and made sure I have something that is a high value reward for them if I really want to reinforce a good decision/behaviour. For example, my gelding would do anything for a mint so I keep some in my side bucket to reward with if he does the behaviour I’m asking for with flying colours OR if we are just starting out training something and he finally gets what I am asking of him. Also, I have Clydes, so this limits me a bit as they can’t have anything too high in sugar. I would keep in mind any dietary things for your horse if need be. Long story short ,I use alfalfa pellets (my gelding loves these), Timothy cubes (my mare prefers these), small mints, apple flavoured hay cubes, carrots etc. mixed in my side bucket. For me, I use a lot in my training sessions because I do a jackpot at the end of each session to let them know the session is done and they did great work so it can become an extra added cost, just keep that in mind. To combat this if I’m doing a training session I just use half their portion for their feed for one meal of the day. For example my Clydes get two servings of 6 pounds of soaked hay pellets with their fat a day, on training days I will take three pounds out of their meal and allot that to the training session. All that being said, I would suggest starting with some sort of chaff, pelleted or cubed hay and see how that goes because both options are pretty easy on the wallet and from my experience are enjoyed by most horses. Hope this helps! I also wish you and your horse the best on your journey, I know that you both will find clicker training very rewarding!

black-thoroughbred

1.4y

The absolute lowest value food I can get away with. My mare has issues with food anxiety which leads to over-excitement and frustration/aggression. The only thing that works to keep her under threshold is chopped grass hay. I've tried all sorts of chaff(Lucerne, oaten, wheaten) and she finds them all too tasty. I wish I got a little more engagement with the hay but we are good for now and I might add a little bit of chaff to it to make it a tad more interesting if I need to.

My old gelding has very worn teeth so the only option for him is soaked feed. I usually use fibressential which is a forage replacement and part of his regular feed. Sometimes use soaked Lucerne chaff.

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1.4y

Woof-Wolfy

1.4y

I do have a bag of alfalfa pellets, thanks for the advice! I figured she would be iffy on most "treats" at first, we had a horse that grew up domestic but on the range outside of human hands, and he was so weird about trying new foods for his whole life 😂 I got a tip to use two feed buckets on opposite sides of her pen, and just drop a handful of feed in one bucket, and walk to the other one, wait for her to eat the treat then rinse & repeat until she starts trying to follow me around. That's the first thing we're going to try to hopefully let her have her space while she learns that humans = tasty treats :)

neverchangingwhoiam

1.4y

Buckeye treats! They're about the size of a quarter and don't have any sugar, so they're absolutely perfect for clicker training.

Woof-Wolfy

1.4y

Ooo that's a great suggestion! Thank you. I already have a bag of buckeye joint cookies from my senior boy that passed away, not even opened.

Apprehensive-Bar9152

1.4y

I mostly use teff pellets and sliced carrots. However I started training for voluntary deworming per Ken Ramirez’s video with Apple sauce in a syringe and my mare is crazy about it so I use it for a high value reinforcement . Her eyes light up when she sees that syringe.

ForeverEvergreen88

1.0y

I use German muffins crumbled up with Timothy pellets. I just mix them together. If I don't have that I just use hay I chopped up