KBR Horse Net Training Case Study: "Magnificent Max" Part Seven   MANE DETANGLING & MORE WITH FEET

The following day was kind of a bomb. I got held over at the fire department most of the day so we didn't have much time to spend with Max. We did a few foot lifts, tapping him with the nippers and even taking a couple of small nips, but most of the effort involved detangling his huge mane. What we had was 6 years of natural shag and mats. Max was already desensitized to us handling his mane but we needed to use some detangling solution and lots of it. Sharon targeted him on a spray bottle of Canter Silk and after getting used to the sound of the spray while shooting it away from him, Max let her spray it on him.

No more tangles!

Every training effort has hills and valleys and the next day had it's valley. It started out started out well enough. Max was leading well inside the pen so I opened the gate and we quietly and deliberately ventured out into the stable. Max proceeded carefully, stopping occasionally to sample the grass. But exploring wasn't the primary issue today. We needed to get those long feet addressed.

Man, there's a lot to see out here!

We took Max back inside his pen. Although he had picked up his feet without any problem in the previous session, Max refused to lift his left front foot. I could literally bear hug his leg so he wasn't spooky about being touched, but with every lift he would flail his foot about as if he couldn't get his balance.

People often comment that they don't want to use clicker training because they don't want to have to click and give treats all the time. What y'all have to understand is that it is simply a behavioral conditioning and behavior shaping tool. After doing Max' feet, Sharon got the camera and I asked Max to "pose" on the stand off lead, with me rasping his hoof and with no clicks or treats. That photo which appears above was taken the day of this wild horse's first trim, the first time he had ever seen the stand and with only about 10 minutes exposure to the stand while I was working on his feet. Because we presented this potentially scary object in a positive context, putting his foot on it is as natural to Max as having his halter put on.

This day's work illustrated a number of important lessons.

1. Sometimes the horse is going to backslide. When that happens you have to go back to what works, get anchored again, and then proceed as the horse lets you.

2. Even a struggle has its benefits if you don't get impatient and turn it into a fight. Max didn't want to lift his foot. His determination allowed me some pretty significant and continuous close contact which ultimately was paramount to his remaining calm when I was under him trimming his feet (and a couple of times accidentally poking him in the belly with the nipper handles!)

3. Let the horse tell you if it's OK to proceed further. We originally planned to settle on his doing correctly what he had done the day before and not pushing things farther; just lifting each leg a couple of times. He then told us that he had gotten over whatever it was that was bugging him so we were able to move on.

4. Go with what the horse gives you. When Max appeared totally OK with having his right foot worked on and since he was not all hot and bothered, we opted to go with what he gave us. Oftentimes training horses is like surfing. If the horse gives you the wave, you position yourself to ride it all the way to shore. That's what we did with the trims.

5. Always reinforce your work. Since we had a bad time followed by a good time, we got back in with Max after a decent break and did a little more lifting and trimming. There is never anything wrong with refining your work so long as the horse stays mentally and physically fresh. In Max' case he was neither sweaty or frustrated so we cemented the behavior with follow-up work.

6. Behavior shaping is always easier than attempting a new behavior. Having struggled with domestic horses that weren't used to the shoeing stand, I can appreciate the ability to shape two behaviors and merge them into one with this wild horse. We took two behaviors, lifting his foot and targeting strange objects, and shaped them into having Max place his hoof on the shoeing stand and hold it there while I dressed off his sharp edges with a rasp. It was a natural and effortless progression of the behaviors with which we were already involved and as anyone can see from the "no lead line" photo, he held his foot on the stand as well if not better than a lot of dead broke domestic horses would.

7. Finally, don't confuse strategies with objectives. Our objective was to trim this horse's feet. Our strategy was to go as far as the horse would be comfortable letting us. By letting the horse participate and set the pace, and by our not losing our cool during our one rough spot, we did things to a wild horse in a kind and virtually non-stressful manner that a lot of folks would have difficulty doing to an infrequently handled domestic horse. Conversely if Max had not been ready, we would have postponed completing our objective until the next day.