At night, I go throw one extra flake of hay at about 10 pm. This winter, I had a bag of horse cookies out in the barn too, and I would diligently give a cookie to everyone and say goodnight after I turned off the lights.
Over several weeks, this has turned into - I throw hay, everyone eats, when I switch off the light - every horse in the barn walks away from their food, to the front of their stall and expectantly waits for their cookie. 
Whoops.
Slight treat tangent.
There was one winter in Florida when I had a box of dog biscuits stashed in the grooming stall so I could give treats to the various dogs on the property.
One day I turned my back for a minute, and the horse on the crossties got into the box of dog treats and ate almost all of them. That was funny. I relocated the dog treats after that day.
Yes but itās so cute when there is a head over every stall front, ears pricked, looking the same direction for their treat! Great photo op, too! 
Reminds me of the time my horse was wearing a Big White Sympathy Bandage over part of a rear leg, where he had a nasty cut.
He was remanded to stall rest for a few days. Small barn, everyone knew everyone and their horse. There was a steady stream of sympathy givers offering affection and treats, āso he wonāt be so bored and lonelyā. He loved as much human attention as he could get.
Smart horse quickly caught on that being a bit shy to put one foot on the ground reaped more sympathy and treats. Probably that happened two or three times, and he got it right away. It was easy to teach him something that you didnāt intend him to learn.
His leg quickly got a bit better and the BO/M allowed him to roam the small casual stable for periods for another couple of days before he was back on turnout.
Horse shamelessly approached people for sympathy and treats, like a friendly labrador. The closer he got to people, the more he limped. The rest of the time he was no longer limping.
I offered a bit of coaching: āHey horse! Itās the leg with the bandage that should limp.ā
Although there was abundant evidence that this horse understood every word of English, which leg he limped on didnāt seem to make a difference to being treated like a spoiled lap dog. So he just limped on whichever leg seemed like a good idea at the time.
Guess thatās not a surprise considering that the horse had the same attitude concerning canter leads. Any will do. I genuinely donāt think that horse ever figured out the difference between one side and the other.
There are 5 other geldings who share my current horseās pasture ā¦ Iām not sure if I taught them, or they taught me ā¦
Long ago I used treats to teach my horse to come to the gate when I called him in. And now use treats to keep reinforcing that behavior. I was careful with treats generally, as treats can be like loaded weapons of war, if the other horses become jealous of the treat-getting horse.
But when Iām outside of the pasture fence, if a horse-not-mine comes to the fence and keeps a respectful attitude and distance from other horses, a cookie might find them. It rewards them for not crowding my horse.
They started doing this on their own. Somehow the horses in the pasture taught themselves that, when Iām outside of the fence, to space apart with their heads over the fence, at least a horseās length from the next horse (just beyond grab length), to each get cookies. This happens only on returning my horse to the pasture, so heās one of the line. (When fetching him from pasture we walk away immediately.)
They or I taught me to say āline up!ā and they all get in their places and I go quickly up and down, passing out one cookie per horse on each pass. Itās so cute. Tall plain-ish bay geldings, with one chestnut and one dark brown, all in a line, crunching away at their cookie, with ears pointing sharply toward their next cookie ā but very polite about their reach for it.
They all get the same number of cookies each. When the cookies are gone I quickly leave so they know it is over. And nowadays I am pre-counting cookies to be sure that I bring the correct number.
So long as I keep moving and handing out cookies, they will hold their place, confident that their turn is coming quickly. As soon as I turn away without looking back, they disperse.
Iām not sure which of us figured out the cookie game.
I got my mare as a completely feral 6 year old.
We did a lot of treat based training when I first started her because she would do almost anything for a carrot. One concept she struggled with was standing still for mounting and dismounting so I trained specific cues for these things and rewarded her heavily.
Fast forward 18 years to a mare who is so steady you could put grandma on there and send her out on the trails by herselfā¦ but she still gets treats every single time you get on or off her because if you donāt you will get the OMG youāre an idiot! mare stare and a thorough pocket frisking (to be fair she deserves all the treats in the world lol)
I also have a cat who insists he cannot possibly walk up the basement stairs, he must, in fact, be carried. He likes to run in front of me and trip me esp on stairs, so I made the mistake of just picking him up and carrying him. Now every time I start towards the basement stairs, he comes running and if I donāt pick him up, will lay on my feet
See my post upthread 
For me, it means my 3 bays come in from the dark so I can put eyes on them before going back to the house.
Even in the frigid weather weāve had this week, theyāre out when I do nightcheck & it saves me trekking out to pasture trying to see them.
Small price to pay for peace of mind 
@OverandOnward In warm weather, after feeding, picking stalls, Iāll sit on the bench in my drylot & my Herd Oā 3 will stroll over for a morning treat before finishing their hay.
After getting their allowed 4 apiece, Iāll tell them No Mas!
Horse & pony know what this means & go back to stalls, mini needs to frisk me before he gives up.
One of our school horses has taught me a trick. It goes like this: he looks at me, and I feed him.
This started several years ago. He was often cross-tied by my horseās stall. I do carrot stretches with my horse, and Saint Schoolie would watch, quietly and politely, while my horse got treats just for moving his body around. I thought it was very unfair that my horse was getting snacks for very little effort and Saint Schoolie had nothing to fortify him for the job of teaching children how to post the trot. So I started bringing treats for him, too.
Of course I got permission to feed someone elseās horse and Saint Schoolieās manners are impeccable. As a result of the manners remaining impeccable, all he has to do is make eye contact with me, and I will find him something.
Congratulations on teaching a cat to do anything, whether or not it was intended! Lol.
I boarded for a bit at a barn with two resident barn dogs. They had impeccable manners, and after a while, so did I. I must say that I responded very well to training, and soon understood that when I arrived, I would be met in the parking lot by the dogs. They would sit nicely, and I would respond to this cue by immediately producing a carrot piece for each.
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