food aggression towards humans not other horses

Question
Hello there,
I have a 10 year old quarter horse with unknown background that will pin ears and "talk" if he has hay or grain either outside or when stalled(especially)He makes the meanest faces and he is so pretty that I would love to correct this...Any ideas??
THANKS

Answer
Hi Jennifer!

Hmmm....well, there is really nothing you can do to "correct" this because technically, he is not doing anything wrong.

It is very common for horses to become over-excited at meal times and the best thing to do about it is to ignore it.  Little issues like this are best left alone.  Human interference in natural horse behavior often just makes everything worse.

Feed him at regular times on a consistent schedule and just act like you do not even see him.  Yelling at him or the complete opposite, trying to calm him with soothing words are both going to not help.

Treat him like a pesky little brother....."I can't see you or hear you, therefore what you are doing has no impact on me!"  He may do this for the rest of his life and if you have no other complaints about him, consider yourself lucky!  :-)

Good luck and remember to always wear an ASTM/SEI approved helmet!

Solange