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Mary Hunter and her horse Apollo


On this site I share stories of my animal training adventures, information about the science of animal training and behavior, and tips and advice to help you improve your training.

Join me as we explore the best training strategies for creating fast learning, effective communication, and enthusiastic, willing animals.

If you’re new to Stale Cheerios, I recommend that you start by visiting this page to learn more about Stale Cheerios and that you visit my Top Posts page.

~Mary Hunter

Recent posts from the StaleCheerios blog

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Chewie’s Diary Week 46: Merry Christmas!

By on December 26, 2025 in Chewie’s Diary

Chewie & Liberty eating some Teff in their enrichment hay balls Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family, friends, and pets! Chewie and Liberty both got some extra Teff hay on Christmas morning in their enrichment hay balls. They were both quite happy! (See my post from last week about their preference […]

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Chewie’s Diary Week 44: Platform training

By on December 11, 2025 in Chewie’s Diary

Recently, Chewie and I have been doing some training with a new platform. I’m hoping we can use this platform as a location for some veterinary training. It also will come in handy for horse agility and groundwork exercises. Chewie is awfully cute when she stands on the platform and looks at me with her ears […]

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Chewie’s Diary Week 43: Taste Tests

By on December 4, 2025 in Chewie’s Diary

Sometimes, I wish I could ask Chewie, “What types of treats and foods do you like best? Do you have a favorite flavor of food?” When we are training, we often use hay pellets, alfalfa pellets, or a low-starch feed called Stabul 1.  However, recently, I’ve been experimenting with several new types of hay pellets […]

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