{"id":2431,"date":"2025-12-26T17:02:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T16:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clickertrainingpferde.com\/?p=2431"},"modified":"2025-12-26T17:02:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T16:02:40","slug":"syh-10-feeding-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clickertrainingpferde.com\/de\/syh-10-feeding-position\/","title":{"rendered":"[SYH] 10 – Feeding position"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi,<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In this email, I want to look at two things: Feeding position and turns.

Where you deliver the treat is important.
<\/strong>
Blondie and Malou are both Quarter Horses and they are very low in front. We want to be careful where we feed so that they don\u2019t get even lower.

Graya, a PRE, has a much higher neck, and in her case, I may even decide to stretch her neck out a bit as I feed.

With Blondie<\/strong>, I remember how she initially pushed down on my hand when I offered the treat. I had to maintain a straight posture instead of falling forward following her lead. (Video is your friend).

But over the first year that I worked her consistently, she became a lot higher in the front compared to where we started, only by offering the treat in a \u201cdressage-like\u201d self-carriage position. (Again, video is your friend).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blondie (top row at the start of training, below after one year)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Malou<\/strong> was also quite low. I needed to remember to feed a little higher than where her nose was, so she can experience how it feels to be more balanced over her four feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Malou natural position (yellow) and feeding position green). If she takes her nose down further (red) she will have to take a step forward<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Be careful not to offer the treat too high, though, or your horse may hollow its back. That\u2019s not what we want. A good rule of thumb is to feed approximately at the level the tip of the chest at the start. Then adjust depending on what you observe.

Looking at the front legs from the side, you would ideally see them in a perfect plumb line to the ground. But often the shoulders are shifted a little further to the front and the front legs are not perfectly perpendicular. This means that the horse carries more weight on the front legs. In this case try to offer the treat a little further back. Not as much as cueing the horse to take a step back but only so much that the front legs are vertical.<\/p>\n\n\n

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