How do you teach a horse to drink beer from a can?

Question

I saw a old Burt Renolds movie where a horse picked up a can of beer from a table and bit down on it and lifted it head and drank it. Could this be real? If so how would you do it. I am not looking to make my horse drunk, just add one more trick he can do, like sitting like a dog, laying down ect.

Answer 1

Check this out thry say it's not just about bad habits.

http://www.saferhorseracing.com/gpage17....

Answer 2

No, that was not real. It was a movie. Dogs talk in movies but not in real life. The guy always gets the girl in movies, not always in real life. A flying man will not come in and save the day, either. Nor should you give an animal beer. It's not healthy for the animal, and anyone would would do it does not deserve that animal. If you want to teach him something, teach him to drink water or something from a glass.  I had a horse once that would just about knock a person down to take a glass of Coke from them.

Answer 3

yea. dont do beer.

but pop, or juice, or kool aid is great!

like the show horses at my barn, a couple days before a new show, they flavor their horses water with clear koolaid (so it wont color their teeth) and if the horses dont like the water at the show. they flavor it with koolaid. good idea

Answer 4

Please don't do it with beer, that is fatal if druken.I use a water bottle.But, i don't know.My horse's trainer teached him.

Answer 5

Don't know about a beer can, but my two girls would "steal" my mountain dew!  They liked it, figured it out and would drink it right up, thank goodness it wasn't full, can't image all that sugar and caffeine.  But I ended up as another said Apple Juice, and they loved it.  I gave her some (plastic pop bottle), and set it down a few times and see picked it up like she did the other:)  But I would worry about the metal cutting the gums or tongue.  Be careful, I'm sure you will:)  

Answer 6

I learned about using Guinness beer for anhidrosis on here, and have looked it up since..it seems to be effective as a treatment, but I wouldn't make it a part of my horse's regular diet just for the heck of it.  I wonder with the carbonated drinks if they might contribute to problems in the GI tract, and even introducing excess air into the tract might cause problems.  Unless the horse has a condition such as anhidrosis, I would avoid the beer..I'm very careful about what I feed to my horses, just because of things like ulcers and colic...why risk it?

EDIT...just read Sovereign's link.........never to late to learn something new!

Answer 7

REGARDING BEER:

We have 2 horses that don't sweat, and we give them Guiness beer and One AC every day, as Lisa M said. It does not cause health problems - in fact, it improves their health because it assists them in sweating and helping their bodies function properly. This treatment has never failed for our horses who don't sweat - we've been doing it for years, and our vet approves of it, as does the acupuncturist (also a vet).

As for getting them to drink from a can, I don't know how you would train that. One of the horses likes to drink it out of the bottle as I'm pouring it on his feed, but I don't let him do it by himself (glass bottle and all! :)) It would be a cute trick, and as long as you don't overdo it, it's not going to hurt your horse.

Answer 8

1. That horse wasn't actually drinking beer - the can had water in it.  Beer is not a natural think for horses and can cause digestive problems in some.  I wouldn't suggest actually giving him beer- but filling a can with water.

2.  Any trick you teach a horse must be taught in small steps.  You must map out what steps are required to teach him to pick up the can and tip it up.  Start with the first step, whatever it may be, and train him to get to that step.  For example, maybe start with something that's not a tin can so he can't cut or hurt himself, maybe a pop bottle.  Try putting something on it like Molasses that he'll like and get him to the point where he licks it off the bottle.  That Molasses is his reward, but when he does what you want, praise him and reward him with a rest maybe even scratching his itchy spots for reward (chest, ears ,etc).  then maybe move to put molasses IN the bottle and condition him how to get the molasses OUT of the bottle with praise and reward again.

Later, when he's doing what you wish with that plastic pop bottle move to cans or other things when he's handling them correctly and won't squish or break them causing sharp edges.

Keep in mind, as with any trick you do - you must train the horse to respond to your cues, not think for himself and the cues must be very different from other cues you give.  If you allow him to think for himself and do these tricks without being commanded to, he'll use them against you.  He'll be picking up bottles of all sorts of things and tipping them up.  That paint can you're using near him, a bottle of fly spray or other poison left open could be harmful to him.

when a kid, I thought it would be neat to teach my horse to rear up.  He quickly learned to use that against me when I asked him to do something he didn't want to do.  Waht a lesson to me!

Answer 9

I can't imagine that beer would be very healthy for any animal, a horse included.  That's not to say that I haven't seen some very intelligent horse owners *sarcasm* who gave their horses beer as some type of party trick.  The horse I saw do that figured out how to pick it up all by himself.  

If you want to teach a horse to drink something out of a can, I'd choose something other than beer!  Lots of stuff comes in cans, including juice.  Your horse would probably adore a can of apple juice...

EDIT - Lisa M, relax, I wasn't talking about you or anyone else who feeds beer (a practice I am aware of).  I was in fact referring to a man named Dave who used to board at my barn and who is, indeed, very stupid.  Homemade playboy tattoo on his chest, thinks he is a charro trainer because he's handy with a whip, threw a cat out of a moving car...yeah, he's stupid.  Not you.

Apparently next time I should specify!

Answer 10

http://equisearch.com/advice/expert/hors...

A link to "Equine Research" and a little research on those equines who imbibe.  

The Burt Reynolds movie was, "Hooper", and the beer guzzling horse was, "Dancer".  

Answer 11

I kind of hope you are kidding about using beer...firstly their bodies cannot break down alcohol well and this could cause colic, even in small amounts for certain horses. Second, carbonatin is horrible for their stomach and can cause ulcers. If you want to teach the trick, make sure you are filling a cleaned-out can with water first!

I would put something like peanut butter or molasses on the edge of the can first to maybe get the horse to pick it up/at least l**k it? And go from there!

Answer 12

I used to have a polo pony that would drink cherry coke from a can. Most horses love beer and Guinness. We would add Guinness to the racehorses feed because it is rich in iron and if you have a horse that has stopped sweating, you can mix AC powder with beer/lager and that works really well.

**oh and for the person that posted after me, adding Guinness to a horse's feed is a common practice among both the Irish and steeplechase circles. Doctors in the UK used to recommend pregnant women drink Guinness due to it's high iron content. Regarding the  "intelligence", when they are turning horses out like Cosmic Ray, the practice speaks for itself. As for beer with AC powder, that practice was recommended by several vets in the Texas area and is used by many of the top AQHA trainers and breeders. Just because you are not familiar with the practice, does not mean the rest of us are blindingly stupid.