Training Flow
Many people see horses becoming overexcited or frustrated around food, this is because the training flow is off for the horse in front of you today. Our training flow, our rate of reinforcement, needs to match their level of seeking or we'll see fallout. Many people think that if the horse is frustrated by food, they need to use LESS food, when in reality it's the opposite. Let me explain...
When we train, the horse's dopamine goes up, in the SEEKING system, they begin problem solving. Their arousal continues increasing from the moment they know they are supposed to be doing something to earn R+, it steadily grows and grows until eventually reaching frustration. If we don't reinforce the horse's frustration starts to show, starts to turn to problem behaviors, loud over exaggerated versions of the behaviors they think might earn reinforcement. It will get bigger and bigger and more frustrated until eventually the horse says "this just isn't working" and stops trying.
Some trainers do this on purpose, we call this "riding the extinction wave" where the trainer heavily reinforces a behavior a few times, then stops, then the horse gets confused and frustrated and over-exaggerates the behavior to an extreme, then they capture the extreme explosive behavior.
The problem with this is that the emotions the horse feels when you train a behavior is encapsulated in the behavior. If frustration, rage, irritation, and even aggression is present, it becomes part of the behavior. So, any time you cue that behavior, those emotions will be elicited with it. Which can become very dangerous and unpleasant for everyone! Don't ride extinction waves.
We also see that sometimes people will have a good training rate of reinforcement, but the reinforcer is not satisfying, but arousing. Usually this happens with small amounts of higher value foods. While larger amounts of low value food satiate the learner and help them relax. So a large handful of chopped hay, hay pellets, carb safe pellets, or something similar will help the horse relax. While 1 cookie here and there will be very exciting.
This pattern is essentially a stimulus stack of frustration. The horse does a behavior, gets a click and treat, but their arousal doesn't come back down to baseline before it begins spiking again, and again, and again, and even though you're treating fairly often their arousal level continues to increase. Until eventually you have a frustrated, overwhelmed horse who's doing all the things you don't want.
Ideally we want with every click and treat for the horse to return to baseline relaxation, so as they begin seeking again, their arousal level remains safe and comfortable.
Every horse, every day, will have different training flows. Some days they'll come out to play pumped up and ready to GO, they may need you to spend a few minutes to work with a higher rate of reinforcement and focus on relaxation until they reach a baseline of satiation and comfort, before beginning more high energy behaviors. I often joke with the kids, when the horses want to trot, we ask them to walk, when they are softly walking, we ask them to trot Because we have to get relaxation before we ask for energy, so it's safe.