You should know how to use treats appropriately
Every horse owner should know how to use treats appropriately...
FULL STOP.
I don't care if your horse mugs you. That's the point. Literally for the first lesson of using treats is to ask your horse not to mug you.
Your horse is so incredibly motivated by treats it will learn all the emotional agility skills it will need under saddle:
How to manage not knowing the answer,
How to deal with frustration,
What to do when they lose interest or focus.
It doesn’t matter if you're scared or uncomfortable. That's the point. Literally the first lesson of using treats is working with protected contact. So both you and your horse are safe and if your horse is getting frustrated or agitated. That's the point. You can calmly work through your emotions together without it escalating to conflict because you're scared of getting hurt.
So many problems with your horse can be resolved just by learning how to use treats. Not because the horse needs to be bribed to learn, but because the horse owner has a lot - like a ridiculous amount!! - to learn when it comes to speaking horse. And horses don't like us practicing how to ask them what to do with whips that escalate to positive punishment when there's a communication breakdown.
So when people ask about why we use treats inside our Holistic Horse Handling Program, it’s not about bribing your horse, or being “soft”.
It’s about helping our students understand and communicate with their horses better.