Stretches and Hand Feeding

I've been doing "carrot stretches" with Cherry for a few months now, and I think it's helping her loosen her back and re-align herself a bit. She also loves it. I mean, it involves one of her favorite things in the whole wide world, FOOD and EATING. She's more than willing to reach around to her flank (and beyond!) for a cookie or bow for a carrot. If nothing else, it makes her happy, and I enjoy hearing her back and neck pop.

The one reservation I have with this exercise is the whole hand feeding issue. Especially in the bow, where I have a treat between her front legs, her teeth come perilously close to my fingers. One time she almost bit me. I know she wasn't trying to bite, she was just after the treat, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't have a hurt a whole lot.

This brings me to consider the whole hand feeding conundrum and how I'm such a raging hypocrite about it. I honestly believe that hand feeding treats to our horses can cause a lot of problems, but I do it myself. It's sad, I know. I do think that it can make them pushy, nippy, greedy bastards who will happily maul you for a cookie.

But Cherry doesn't do any of the above to me, so I think it's okay for me to hand feed her. Just me, nobody else. Because I'm special. And my horse is special. Oh dear.

I don't know how to reconcile this. I cringe when I hear or see others reap the negative consequences of hand feeding treats. Even Cherry got pushy about it after being at the riding school for two years and having her face constantly stuffed with carrots, apples, cookies, and whatever else the kids would bring. We had to have a "discussion" about it when we moved. As in, if she was a pushy brat, I would beat her sorry little butt. End of discussion.

Now she just resorts to looking cute and hoping to be fed. I'm ashamed to say that it occasionally works on me. I should know better by now.

But I'm still on the fence about hand feeding. I've seen hand feeding treats turn a horse into a monster. But I've also seen my own horse be perfectly sane about it. I don't hand feed other people's horses, and I don't encourage them to feed mine. But somehow I feel that I know my own horse so well, and I've been feeding her treats for such a long time, that it isn't a big deal.

I don't know. Cherry is such a mystery sometimes. Am I really that awesome or is my horse the amazing one who isn't a complete fuckup despite my idiocy? I'm leaning towards the latter, but I might be biased. Not something that's going to be resolved in the near future, that's for damn sure.