KBR Horse Net
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The objective
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The next couple of days with River involved "release and catch" (kind of
the fisherman's game in reverse) so we could turn him out in larger areas.
We also worked on getting his front feet trimmed. He was getting pretty good at being
caught and haltered. If in doubt, we could flip a lead rope over his neck
and he would stand politely to be haltered.
Trimming was a different story. He wasn't happy with someone bending down underneath with a shoeing apron on. We had to correct one impulsive behavior which involved his crossing his front legs towards us and bumping us with a shoulder when we would lean over to pick up a foot. We don't know where he learned this trick, but it was a good one for knocking the human off balance. We had to first teach him to move back into proper position when he moved towards us, then check him back into that position with a thumb in the shoulder or ribs so that we could fix the problem without our having to get out of position. Day 5 It was time to increase the stakes. Sharon was making good progress desensitizing River to objects such as the flag in the round pen. River was standing at the tie pole to be brushed and was getting better with people reaching under him. We thought we would see how he did in another controlled stress environment. I presented him with the pony saddle and asked him to click target it a few times. He was curious although wary. After letting him "examine" it, I slid it up onto his back. He flinched and danced for a couple of seconds, then started to pay attention to it and settle down. Quietly I attached and tightened the cinch and he stood quietly, although he was on alert. If a horse is going to explode packing a saddle for the first time, it's usually either when he first walks off and notices things moving on his back or when he trots and he feels it moving around on his back and/or he feels its resistance. River walked out nicely and we circled slightly in both directions so that he could clearly see the saddle with each eye. After a couple minutes of walking, I took the flag and waved it all around (but not at) River so that his attention would be split from the saddle. The idea here is not to get him to move, but rather cause him to have to consider more than one potentially stressful object in a situation where I can easily control the additional stress and reduce or eliminate it if he becomes overanxious. With River handling this process well, we started longeing with the saddle on. Even though we were in a round pen, we kept the lead rope on. River's hind feet were still long and uneven and with the rope we could better control his speed if he became upset and started to storm around. To make a long story short, River would keep some attention on the saddle but moved lightly and kept a nice float in the lead rope. The thing that was most interesting to us was that during this day's work, River's expression and mannerisms were becoming much less scattered and baby-like and more often his expression and responses were like a mature horse. The key points here involved keeping the horse's attention focused, keeping him from getting worked up over the saddle on his back by directing his attention toward other things and asking him to do familiar things while wearing the saddle so that it is not totally a strange event. |
Cinching up quietly
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