Thoughts About Spooking
I'm going to ramble a little bit here so git ready! I've always
thought that the actual movement of a horse during a spook (which also
translates to me as the scary part) is the natural instinct of the horse
jumping away from what we as humans might term, the rational part of
their brains. (Although running or jumping from scary things is
completely rational for a horse!)
When my horse was young, and I'd see him run or jump away
from something that scared him, I could visualize his brain hurrying
after him and finally catching up-then he stops suddenly-as his brain
returns to his body and seems to say-"settle down, it's only a bird that
flew out of the barn!"
And the body responds, "Oh yeah, I knew that!" and it's not so scary after
all.
In the beginning, it seemed that the brain couldn't keep up with the
speed of the body.
The more we worked on things, things that helped my horse to think
(along with just maturing in age) the time it took the brain to catch up
to the body was getting shorter and shorter. The body was as quick as
ever, but the brain was getting pretty darned fast too. It was beginning
to figure things out alot faster.
I've always felt that if I challenge that brain, he's just going to
figure things out alot quicker in regards to spooks. Enter the clicker.
I told about this once before so delete if it's a repeat for you-but
Dan used to be terrified of noises on the roof and sides of our metal barn.
If a branch scraped it or snow fell off the roof, anything, he was out of
there and his brain wouldn't catch up until he was all the way across the
pasture.
I got knocked on my can a number of times and I thought, I've got
to do something to change this!
I got my metal rake and I started scratching it on the barn wall
softly. Dan was out of there like a shot-in a few minutes he'd come back.
I clicked for his return.
Well, just to make a long story short we worked our way up to the
point where Dan wouldn't move for the soft scratching noise-I c/t'd him
all the way. Then I could up the anty-making louder noises (I still had
to start over in regards to his wanting to leave the barn though)
everytime the noise level was raised, we repeated our c/t pattern of
desensitizing him.
This carried over to noises on the trail, chainsaws, fireworks-he
learned that noises could not hurt him. Sometimes he'll still jump, but
he doesn't move-I can practically see his brain running neck and neck
with his body. I see understanding quickly in his eyes.
This training did more too, he trusts me (which is wonderful), and
has learned to control his emotions in many ways not just for noises, but
actions and unfamiliar things too. It's as if he learned the power of
thinking things through, before he acts. Can you imagine what a stress
reliever this must be! I guess I could
ramble on with examples of this-but geez, I got pretty long winded here!
Are ya still with me, or did I put ya to sleep?
I'm not very scientific-I work alot on hunches and what my insides
tell me is true-so take this for what it's worth (or not worth!) Nancy
* * * * *
Several months ago I was riding Dan around the yard. It was a really
windy day and if something wasn't tacked down-it was blowing down the road.
I had a black tarp in our little wood shed that was caught by the
wind and was carried up into the air. As I was sitting on Dan I saw it
sort of hovering in mid air and then WOMP! down it flew and plastered
itself against Dan and I.
I had a momentary flash of "uh-oh, I'm in trouble now" but as it
turned out I didn't
have to worry. Dan didn't budge an inch. I guess that he had gotten so
familiar with tarps that he knew for a fact that they were harmless, no
matter how they came his way.
We've spent alot of time with tarps. We're even to a point where I
can encase him in one and trot around the pasture without causing the
slightest worry in him.
He was not always this way. It just got done little by little.
Spooking in place or getting used to tarps or whatever is just done
a bit at a time-always progressing, always moving forward and always
being aware of a horse's tolerance level. If I know that Dan started to
back away from the tarp when he was two feet away from it, then I'll only
ask him to go within two and a half feet of it until he can begin to
handle getting closer then we make our adjustment, but only when he's ready.
So I
know the line in which his fear starts and I tone it down just a notch.
Size and sound seem to make a tarp scary. I decided to tone down
both of them and before I started working with Dan on this I folded my
tarp into as small a square as I could, tucked it under my arm and got
down to work.
I did alot of my barn work with that tarp tagging along. Dan saw me
working with it and when he was eating I set it down next to him. Little
by little I could start unfolding the tarp. I walked around it and over
it and pretty soon Dan started to too. In a very short time we had the
whole tarp spread out with no problem.
Dan knows how to pick things up (thanks to the clicker) so we worked
on picking the tarp up. He always likes to shake things so pretty soon he
was shaking the tarp. I could grab one end and shake it with him. I could
eventually shake it and make as much noise as I could and Dan
I could throw it over him and we pretended like we were in a tent
and clicked and ate apples. I could use it like a superman cape and run
circles around him. I hooked it over his barn door and he walked forwards
and backwards through it many times. We dragged it with a rope. We
trotted over it and jumped up and down on it. We gave that tarp a pretty
hard time! I started hanging it in different places that it had never
been before, like the gate or hanging from his feeder. Something that
strayed from the usual. As soon as I could put the tarps in new locations
and have him understand that they were harmless, I knew that our training
was complete.
Anyway, little by little we progressed to big things. Everything has
a starting point. As someone else expressed, clicker training causes the
person to think thinks through and figure out what behaviors are made of.
When Judy asked the question-are they just tricks? My answer is no.
Clicker training is a study in our ability to break things down into the
most understandable and tolerable of parts. For example: what is the fear
of a certain object made of? Is it the size? The noise it makes? The
location of it? Is it too close? When does fear set in and how did I react?
Was I able to help my horse out by keeping a casual aire?
It sure is interesting stuff, don't you think? Nancy
* * * * *
My 3 year old Azteca Stallion got an interesting experience on Sunday.
My husband (and his ever changing hobby syndrome) decided he wanted to
launch some hobby size rockets in our backyard. He has done this
before, with no problems with the horses. Well this time the Stallion
was out by himself with no buddies for comfort. The first rocket went
off with a loud wwhhooosshhhh and he came unglued. He darted for the
closest fence and was about to try to go over. He was shaking
uncontrollably and was inconsolable. Wanted nothing to do with me.
Well, what to do....... can't catch him, he's too scared to come to
me. Can't go after him, I'm too scared of getting pinned in a corner
(owwwieeee that hot wire hurts,it hits like a freight train) In comes
the clicker. CLICK Horse looks up! At me even! But, he's still
scared and won't come to me. In the meantime I had yelled bloody murder
(doncha just love that term) at my husband and told him to knock off the
rockets till I got the Stallion in the barn. Of course he's gotta shoot
off just one more......... Can ya tell he's not a horsey person?
Stallion starts trying to jump the fence! CLICK.... OH FOOD???
hummmmmm
Stallion comes to me ever so carefully, in case I was the one
making that awful noise........ Got the halter on, c/t............
Started leading to the barn. He heard the kids yelling and saw them
running around in his yard, and balks. I ask him to step forward
c/t....... I finally got him in the barn and I thought I could relax.
No, he started to try to rear over the stall wall (6ft solid wall)
Well, needless to say, I spent my whole afternoon in the barn next to
his stall playing c/t games. It was the only way to keep his mind
occupied so he wouldn't try to go over the wall. Toward the end of the
marathon rocket launching session he stopped shaking, stopped trying to
go over the wall, and only jumped a little when the whoosh of the
rocket went off. He ignored the kids all together.
All I can say is Thanks for this list and clicker training. I could
have handled the situation the old way, but this made it oh so much
easier. Now the horse is fine, but I needed a drink! :o) Loree
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