Teach your horse to shake hands

Teaching your horse to 'shake hands' can be an easy-taught trick that garners your horse a lot of positive attention. No one can resist a friendly and polite horse!

The horse in this picture, named Beau, already knew how to pick up his feet on command. It was decided to train him to shake hands from the pedestal for two reasons -

1. It is easier for the person to reach his foot when he's on the pedestal
2. Trick trained horses often spontaneously offer you tricks. Because he is a big and powerful horse we didn't want him offering to shake hands wherever. He will associate shake hands with the pedestal and only offer the behavior when on the pedestal.

Since Beau already knew how to lift his feet on command, the training consisted of teaching him a cue. In this case the cue is walking rapidly towards him with the right arm extended saying "It's nice to meet you". We practiced over and over until he understood to only offer the right foot. Training went quickly using a clicker and treats. He learned this in one session and is refining it in subsequent training sessions.

Your horse may not have the same solid base as Beau but do not despair. On page 46 of Trickonometry, Carole Fletcher explains another way to teach shake hands using a rope around the horse's fetlock, and a tap of the whip on the horse's leg as a cue.

But there are yet even more ways to train a horse to shake hands. Review the following links and find a training method that suits you and your horse. If you try one and it doesn't seem to be working, try a different one.

This method uses a clicker and treats:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2087607_teach-horse-shake-hands.html

This method uses treats, but no clicker and no rope around the foot:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2087607_teach-horse-shake-hands.html

Other horse tricks:

Pick up feet on command

Stand on a mat

Pick up a handkerchief

Smile

In this video of Percheron Toby, you see him learning how to shake hands.