From: Robert
Miz Doctor Jessica,
Thank you, again, for the service you provide to horses and their owners. We eagerly read each Horse Sense note. There is so much misinformation out about horses, your wisdom really matters.
Which brings me to the issue. My wife and I purchased a 15-2 hand, 12 year old TB Palomino gelding from a local youth ranch. Socks is a great horse: responsive, affectionate (really - he's a lap horse), intelligent, great ground manners, good mover, and he is well schooled under saddle.
Socks has only one behavior problem and it is the reason the ranch sold him. He is spooky and pulls back sporadically when standing tied. Under saddle, he "spooks in place" rather than spinning, running, or rearing so he seems a good prospect. Initially, he would not move when spooked. We quickly overcame that and now a gentle squeeze gets him moving even if he is on"high alert."
With consistent handling, he has gotten much better during the past 10 months that we have owned him. We have spent a lot of time working with Socks to get him to lower his head and give to the halter. He was very ear shy and now lets us fondle his ears. (We model our training after John Lyons and try to train our 2 horses to "the release.")
Nevertheless, he has suddenly begun to pull back again. Any suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated. There are specific questions below after the history and current status information.
Some history. After years of living in a pasture, we brought Socks to a boarding barn where horses roam the pasture during the day and live in a stall at night. It was the first time in over 6 years that Socks has lived under a roof at night. During the first 2 weeks of quarantine, I spent lots of time with him riding, leading, and getting him to go into and out of a stall. During the quarantine period, the weather was terrible as there were frequent rain and hail storms that pounded on the roof. In actuality, this proved a great benefit as Socks learned to listen to me in spite of the rain running off the roof over his stall gate and that he was not harmed by all the noise. He has calmed a great deal by our calm and deliberate manners. When he was new at the barn, he was a very clever escape artist. When he got out, he cleaned up hay in the barn aisle and was reputed to let other horses out; but did not leave the barn. We have improved the latch on his stall gate and he has not escaped for months. He seems to like the barn and stall's security.
Status after 8 months. Socks calmed down greatly and pulled back only 2 or 3 times during the winter. My wife and I rode him in the evenings in the lighted arena. We were generally the only folks at the stable and the environment was quiet. We thought we had made real progress with Socks.
Current status. As the weather warmed, the excitement around the stable has increased. More people, more horses, more kids, and more people who are quick and boisterous. A few Sundays ago, Socks was tied in the grooming area. My wife was by him. An adolescent visitor with baggy, flapping clothing threw down his bicycle 25 feet from Socks. Socks startled, pulled back, the slip knot on the lead rope gave, and he backed through an insubstantial fence (1"X8" rails). He flipped over backwards on the breaking rails; fortunately, neither he nor people were hurt. I had a polite but firm conversation with the young visitor about how to act around horses; we said he was welcome in the future as long as he moved slowly, spoke lowly, and the bike stayed in the parking lot.
Socks is now jumpy in the grooming area. My wife and I find that he is comforted by our presence so one of us stands by him when he is tied. I have insisted on tying him so he does not learn he can pull back and get away. If he were to pull back and get in trouble, one of us would be in a position to pull the quick release knot loose. We have made a point to take him to the farthest part of the grooming area away from other people and horses. We tie him next to our other horse who is fairly bomb proof and is his trail buddy.
After the "through the fence" incident, when I approach with Sock's saddle, he tenses and may jig a step but usually lets me continue to tack him. A few times he has pulled back. When he does, he recovers quickly with my calm voice and deliberate, slow movements. All the "giving to the halter" work may be paying off, also. I talk to him when approaching and rub him with the saddle blanket before putting it on him. We have a cue ( I touch his elbow firmly with mine) that the saddle is next and he accepts it calmly even if he has just pulled back.
The Questions. At the ranch where Socks previously lived, the procedure was for the nearest wrangler to kick him in the rear when he pulled back and make a disapproving sound. Another stable patron has suggested that we are being too easy and Socks is "training us" to get attention. I do not think such advice is well founded and have avoided kicking him; trying to build trust instead. While I see progress, I'm concerned about his apparent reversion in a higher excitement environment.
Rob
In answer to your specific questions, then:
1. Are we doing the right thing?
Yes.
2. Is his behavior to be expected with more people and activity?
Yes again. Teach him something in the back pasture at home with no other horses or humans around, then bring him into the arena and teach it to him again, and then add a few more people and another horse or two, or some music, or...? and teach it to him again. It will get easier each time, but Doing Something when there are no distractions, and Doing Something in the presence of distractions, are two different things.
3. Should we continue on as we have; calmly building trust?
Yes. You're in this for the long haul -- begin as you mean to go on, and then continue in the same way.
4. Should we become more actively disapproving when he pulls back by kicking him in the rear with a sharp "buzzer" sound?
Not as long as you perceive him to be frightened, which DOES seem to be the case. It will simply frighten him more, which will make him sit back and hit the rope and panic. Your goal is to make him feel LESS threatened, not more threatened, in that situation. It WOULD be a good idea to teach him a signal that means "stand up straight, drop your head, relax" -- it's a great "default" command for a horse, just as "down-stay" is a great "default" command for a dog. You can use it whenever the situation calls for the animal to NOT do what it's doing (or what it's thinking about doing), and it lets you tell the horse (or dog) what you DO want, and then praise it, instead of yelling at it for doing what you DIDN'T want.
5. Seems that he is pulling back as a result of being scared; wouldn't the kick and sound just confirm that he has something to be afraid of?
Bingo. ;-) I would disregard all advice to kick or hit the horse -- I have yet to meet any horse or human that has learned to feel trusting and secure as a result of being hit or kicked. However, the buzzer signal is useful under certain circumstances, and I find it helpful to teach it as a "FREEZE, DON'T MOVE A MUSCLE, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT MOVING" signal. There's nothing quite like it if your horse ever gets caught in wire, for instance!
But I would suggest that you go the opposite route, and teach Socks a signal that means "Yes, good boy, you're doing what I asked". Clicker training might be an excellent choice for Socks, as it's so very clear, and will allow you to register your approval of his behaviour WHILST he is still mid-behaviour. Then you'll be able to reward such behaviours as standing quietly and dropping his head, and by rewarding them, you'll be able to enforce them, and eventually even request and expect them! Alexandra Kurland has written a very good book on the subject; it's called "Clicker Training For Your Horse."
You've done a great job for the amount of time you've had, and for the amount of emotional baggage that Socks is carrying. It's an entirely natural, normal horse reaction to startle and run when suddenly frightened, especially when the horse is tied (that's already a frightening situation for a horse).
Training and re-training always follow a certain style of progress. You introduce a concept at home, set the scene so that everything will go well, with as few distractions as possible, and then you set things up so that the horse can learn what you want him to learn -- or better yet, so that he can teach himself what you want him to learn. ;-) Then, when he's mastered the concept or the skill, you do it again, and again, and again.... and again, and again, and again, over weeks and months. It may take only a few repetitions to help a horse "catch on" to an idea, but it will take many, many repetitions to turn the new behaviour into a HABIT. And a habit is exactly what you want to create!
Step two of training isn't to move on to the next subject, it's to repeat the same material WITH DISTRACTIONS. Add another horse in the arena, or people talking next to the arena, or someone playing basketball against the side of the barn. ;-) Your horse will regress a little, or a lot. THAT'S NORMAL. What he's learned isn't yet part of him -- at least, not to the point at which he can do it on "auto-pilot". But the horse that can walk, trot, canter, stop, turn, and back with no distractions can learn to do all of those things in the presence of a few distractions at home, and then in the presence of more distractions at home, and then away from home with few distractions, and then away from home with more distractions. Take it a little at a time, and EXPECT the regression whenever you change the venue and/or add more distractions. The overall picture (imagine a chart showing progress/growth) will show an upward trend, but if you look closely, you'll see that the line is actually a series of small zig-zags: three steps forward, two steps back (with added distractions), then three steps forward, etc. That's how progress works, it's not strictly uphill and linear.
You're making good progress and doing well. Don't be in a hurry and don't let anyone push you. You're not training Socks for TODAY, you're training him for next month and next year and the year after, and the years after that.
Jessica
Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org
Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.