Why I Will (Almost) Always Feed My Horses During Procedures and You Should Too

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard well-known equine bodyworkers preach about how important it is not to feed your horse during bodywork sessions. And for a long time, I believed them.

I could rationalize their reasoning. They often say that the horse needs to be fully present during bodywork, without the potential interference of food, so the practitioner can get a true read on the horse's responses. I also understand that, from a behavioral perspective, this type of work is not really about operant conditioning. Vet care, farrier visits, and bodywork rely more on classical conditioning and the emotional associations the horse forms while the work is happening. Because of this, I figured positive reinforcement was not the star of the show and that it made sense to leave food out of the equation.

But at the same time, that never fully aligned with my own experience. I have been feeding hay during grooming, farrier visits, and vet procedures for a long while now. I fed Annie through almost all of her unsedated vet procedures associated with her pelvic fracture, including ultrasounds and shockwave therapy. I have also been using a bucket of soaked forage for Annie and Bird at chest level during weekly trims in between farrier visits. This lets me trim both horses at liberty, while still observing and feeling their responses to what I am doing. Not only could I see that my horses were more cooperative, but I could also still see how they felt based on how they were eating. So why would bodywork be any different?

One of my best friends has a very food-anxious horse, and she and I started talking about this after she had a questionable experience with a bodyworker last spring. The topic kept coming up. There were so many respected voices insisting that food has no place in bodywork, yet our horses were consistently showing us something completely different.

In Bird's very first structural integration bodywork session with our friend Saxon of Actuality Equine, I asked if I could offer him a hay net. Bird had a history of dissociating or offering displacement behaviors when I had attempted to offer him bodywork in the past. Saxon did not hesitate for a second, and immediately, I saw how Bird was able to stay present with the work while also eating throughout the session. Saxon also has a strong grasp of equine behavior and could easily read the changes in how Bird was eating as they worked.

Over the course of the next few sessions, we both saw how much Bird had changed. His eating patterns shifted as he became more comfortable. He almost completely stopped snatching at the hay. His body and eyes softened sooner. Saxon and I discussed our shared observation that the strongest objections to using food during bodywork often came from people who either had a negative relationship with using food in training or lacked confidence in reading subtle changes in how horses eat during sensitive work.

All in all, a few things have become crystal clear to me when it comes to using food outside of traditional training settings, especially with bodywork.

→ Choose practitioners who align with your values, even if you do not agree on every detail.

→ Advocate for your horse in every situation.

→ You can absolutely use food during bodywork.

A couple of caveats I want to point out before we keep going:

• When I talk about food in these situations, I'm basically always talking about providing forage, not treats. This is also a reflection of how I approach choosing my food reinforcers for R+ work, however, during these types of visits, I am providing unlimited access to forage throughout the duration of the session/procedure (unless there is a valid reason not to such as sedation or involvement of the mouth) because I am not trying to modify the horse's behavior.
  

• When using food, the horse should not go into a session/procedure on an empty stomach. Even though their usual forage is the lowest-value food reinforcer we have for horses, it still can have the potential to overshadow the horse's honest responses if it has been withheld for whatever reason before working with them. Again, this is also a reflection of how we should approach using food as a reinforcer in R+ work.

Why These Visits Rely More on Classical Conditioning Than Operant Conditioning

When people think about positive reinforcement, they are thinking about operant conditioning: Your horse offers a behavior, you add something your horse likes (i.e. food), and the horse becomes more likely to offer that behavior in the future.

We can, and should, absolutely train helpful skills that support vet care, farrier work, and bodywork sessions. Skills like standing on a mat, offering a hoof, targeting the shoulder to the vet, lowering the head, or standing calmly during handling are all trained behaviors.

But the actual procedure is different. During the procedure, the horse is not performing a behavior that leads to reinforcement. The horse is experiencing an event that involves pressure, sensation, and vulnerability. This is where classical conditioning comes into play.

The horse is experiencing sensations, not completing tasks.

Classical conditioning shapes how a horse feels about a situation. During farrier work, vet procedures, or bodywork, the horse is processing sensations and emotional information. They are not choosing or completing a specific behavior that creates a reward loop. They are simply experiencing something and forming an emotional association with it.

This is why the emotional atmosphere becomes the most important factor in the session.

We are not reinforcing correct behaviors. We are shaping the emotional state.

Feeding during procedures is not a reward for doing something right. It is a way to influence how the horse feels about what is happening. Offering forage during these moments creates a sense of safety and comfort. It supports a calm nervous system. It helps the horse pair potentially uncomfortable or vulnerable sensations with a grounded and neutral internal state.

This is classical conditioning working behind the scenes...

→ Bodywork happens while your horse is eating and feeling safe

→ Hoof handling happens while your horse stays relaxed

→ Your vet walks up to your horse, and they remain calm instead of bracing

These associations are what shape your horse's overall experience.

You can train the skills with operant conditioning, but the procedure relies on classical conditioning.

Your horse might know how to offer a foot, lower their head, or stand politely. Those trained skills definitely help! But the moment the procedure begins, there is a shift towards the horse's emotional experience. Rasping, palpation, flexions, injections, stretching, and pressure are not behaviors. They are sensations.

Since there is no behavior loop, operant conditioning is no longer the main tool. Your horse's internal state becomes the focus, and that experience is shaped through classical conditioning.

Feeding during procedures is about emotional support, not training.

Using forage during these moments is not bribery, and it sure as heck is not spoiling. If I haven't made it clear by now, it is not intended to reinforce a behavior in these examples. It is intended to help our horses stay relaxed and regulated, while remaining receptive. This creates the space for bodywork or care to proceed without fear or tension and without masking your horse's communication.

When our horses associate care with safety rather than stress, everything becomes easier.

A regulated nervous system keeps everyone safe.

Good classical conditioning creates safer experiences for horses and humans. Horses learn to stand with less tension, react appropriately, and recover more quickly. Vets and farriers can work more efficiently and with less risk. The horse's emotional memory of the event becomes neutral or even positive rather than stressful.

A calm nervous system is the foundation for cooperation. Operant conditioning training builds on top of that foundation, but it cannot replace it.

Avoiding Overshadowing with Forage in Bodywork Sessions

One really important nuance with feeding during bodywork, specifically, is what we feed. A lot of people might jump straight to high-value rewards, like commercial treats, but in a classical conditioning-heavy context like bodywork, vet care, or farrier visits, that can actually work against what we’re trying to observe.

High-value food can create overshadowing.

When food is too exciting, your horse may focus mostly on the food itself. That makes it harder to see how your horse is actually feeling about what’s happening to their body.

High-value foods can mask your horse's true perception of the experience, meaning that they stay because the value of the food overrides whatever they may be feeling.

Forage allows you to read your horse.

Hay, chopped forage, and soaked forage cubes/pellets (in that order) are generally low-arousal, species-appropriate foods that help keep our horses in a parasympathetic state. Their eating stays honest, and the information they share through it is priceless during bodywork.

You can observe:

• changes in chew rhythm

• tightening or softening of the muzzle, nostrils, and eyes

• head lifts

• pauses or micro-freezes

• what their ears (and attention) are on while eating

• licking and resuming

• whether they leave the food (huge information!)

Forage supports classical conditioning without hijacking the session.

With forage, you still get the benefit of pairing bodywork with something your horse likes and feels safe around. You’re building a classical association of “hands on my body = good things happen.” But you’re not flooding your horse with dopamine spikes from food so exciting that the conditioning becomes muddied.

Forage helps your horse stay with you, not just with the hay bag or bucket.

Feeding hay often doesn’t create an unbreakable magnetic pull that keeps them in place, no matter what, because it's not (or shouldn't be) novel to your horse and should be available in most situations. It can support cooperation without forcing stillness or masking discomfort. If the horse chooses to step away from the hay, that communicates something real, and something you and your bodyworker can (and might need to) adjust your session around.

It’s also more appropriate for supporting your horse’s nervous system.

Chewing forage is a naturally regulating behavior for our horses. It’s rhythmic, calming, predictable, and deeply tied to the horse’s sense of safety. High-value foods often create arousal, whereas forage has the power to restore your horse's baseline.

Something to Chew On

Our horses tell us the truth when we create conditions that allow them to feel safe enough to voice their opinions. I will die on the hill that forage during bodywork, farrier care, and vet visits does not need to be a distraction. It can be a support system that encourages honest communication, relaxation, and cooperation.

If we want horses who participate willingly in their own care, then we need to tend to the needs of their nervous systems. Providing forage is one of the simplest and most powerful tools we have for doing that.

Honor your horse's (and your own) basic need for safety. Choose providers who respect that need. And trust your own observations, because I can almost guarantee that if you are here reading this, then your horse is already showing you what helps them feel seen and secure.