KBR Horse Net
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Day 4 was foggy and cold but we got some good work in. Pancho would get to points where he would relax to human contact for a couple of minutes at a time. This allowed me to quietly remove his halter. Now he was working at liberty, had to make his own decisions and had to be responsible for them. Pancho particularly seemed to enjoy having his poll rubbed as well as the base of his ears. He also tolerated having his ears handled. We concentrated mainly on approaching him at a normal brisk pace without spooking him. |
"Look, Ma, no halter!
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Rebecca came down and got to spend some time working her horse. At first Pancho was a little put off by another person in the pen directing him around, but he soon warmed up to Rebecca as the leader. This gave Rebecca an opportunity to practice some skills on a wary horse. The first drill was for Pancho to face up and approach Rebecca. Rebecca would rustle the flag if he turned away or his attention left her. She would relax and give a little space when he faced up. Eventually he would come in for a nose touch as reassurance for a job well done. The next drill was to make contact with the bamboo pole. This allowed Rebecca to rub various points on Pancho without him leaving. She had to work out her body position in relation to his shoulder in order to passively discourage Pancho from walking off when touched with the pole. The logic here is to create a situation where instead of responding to a "flight" instinct (in this case walking away,) Pancho would instead consider the situation and be able to recognize that standing still was really a pretty good thing. In a few minutes Rebecca could rub Pancho with the pole in one hand while rubbing his face with her other hand, and Pancho actually started to relax with all this going on. |
Approaching for that first touch
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We had determined that Pancho had an aversion to ropes. While we could "helicopter"
a rope over his head, he didn't like them touching his body. Rebecca started out
by dangling a small rope from the pole and "casting" it across his body.
Again, Pancho's first response was to leave from what he perceived was pressure from the pole and rope. Rebecca had to find that spot where she could cast the pole yet appear neutral in her body position and energy. Before too long she had the rope over Pancho and he was handling the situation quietly. From there we tied a sliding neck loop and Rebecca led him around as well as rubbed on his face for a while. Pancho's attention span still would decline after about 20 minutes so short sessions were the most productive. Later in the day I could walk up to him, rub his face and neck, even on his "forbidden" side, without any restraint. His "alarm center" was still active during this contact, but he was much more capably holding his emotions in check. |
Approaching with the pole and rope
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