My mare Zena was on a layoff and we didn’t have much to do. Suddenly my highly trained equine athlete could have all of the treats for just standing in her stall and doing nothing. I felt like a carrot dispenser. So to make my horse “work for it” and to have some fun together, I started to train her to smile, before I give her a carrot. I started to train my horse to eat carrots!

If you feed your horse carrots, you can teach your horse how to smile for the carrot in about one month. The best thing is that it involves tasty carrots that horses love and you can train your horse a new way to eat carrots! So get several fresh training carrots and follow these fun, easy steps!

Step 1:

Touch the top of your horse’s nose with a training carrot and as soon as your horse will lift the upper lip to reach the training carrot, lift the carrot UP and say with your funny, high pitched animal voice: “SMILE!” Do not give your horse your training carrot yet, you need to continue teasing your horse with the training carrot to encourage him to lift his upper lip up.

If your horse stops and looks at you in disbelief and confusion, hide your carrot behind your back for a second or two.

Step 2:

Again, tap the nose of your horse with a carrot and lift the training carrot up, encourage your horse to try to reach the carrot by reaching UP and opening the upper lip up.

As soon as your horse lifts the upper lip up, repeat with a rewarding voice “SMILE!” Your voice should have a familiar energetic and rewarding intonation, the same as the one you say “good boy” or “good girl” with.

Step 3:

After minimum of three (3) repetitions you can give the training carrot to your horse and again say what a good pony he/she is.

Step 4:

Do this routine for a month or so. Lift your training carrot higher and higher as your carrot training progresses.

Step 5:

When your horse is willingly starting to curl the upper lip when he sees a carrot, you can position your training carrot aligned with your pointy finger. Your pointy finger and the training carrot should form the same shape.

This is the important transition from smiling for a carrot to smiling on your command.

Step 6:

After some time, with your pointy finger in the carrot training position, raise just your hand without your training carrot and say “SMILE!” – if your horse is ready, your horse will give you a big energetic smile and will wait to get rewarded with a tasty training carrot or any other horse treats.

WARNING: some very food oriented horses will smile for random humans in hopes of getting carrots or horse treats even if not asked to smile. Don’t ask me how I know that…