KBR Horse Net
Training Case Study:

"Sheba"
Part Seven

Today we started working on standing at the tie pole. Sheba didn't offer much resistance and was just getting settled in when I noticed a dust devil working its way across the arena. This was deja vu of the other day when Shiloh was tied for the first time. Fortunately the dust devil headed into the arch barns and scattered the horses there.

My goal was to desensitize Sheba to contact on all parts of her body. I started rubbing her with a short pole, followed by the brush and followed by direct contact with my hands. She was still a little mincy to being touched by hand on her hind legs, but she was definitely better.

Sheba got a turnout with CJ in the arena, then some liberty in the horse course. When approached to be haltered in the horse course, she went to one side of the pit and whichever direction I approached her, she would walk around the pit and stay on the opposite side, but would never run away. After a couple of minutes, I shouted "Stand still!" and she stopped the game, I haltered her and we went back to her paddock.

Sharon followed up with the desensitizing the next day.

Day 18

We decided today was going to be the day Sheba gave us her hind feet without a struggle. She was on the edge of tolerating it. Sharon stood at the head and I repeated the pole rubs then hand rubs. Then I would step back and just walk up and touch her virtually everywhere until she wouldn't flinch at the touch. I could rub her everywhere and all the way down to her coronet bands. Only problem was when she would pick up her hind feet, she would shift her weight and drop her foot back down.

This mare's hind feet weren't so badly out of balance that she couldn't support herself on three feet, so we decided to lift her hinds with the aid of a rope. Executing this maneuver without inciting a struggle required careful application.

We used a length of 1" "Sampson line" which wouldn't cause a burn if she flailed her leg. We first flipped the rope all around her hind legs until she wasn't put off by the contact. Next I took the rope, passed it around her leg and held onto both ends, sawing the "horseshoe" loop until it slipped down to her long pastern. Then we asked her to "Pick up!"

Sheba picked up her leg, flailed it a couple of times, then established her balance with her other three feet. Sharon click rewarded her and I put her foot back down. We repeated this about four more times, moving her leg into a different position each time. I slipped the rope down to her short pastern, lifted her foot and set her foot down in a cocked position on an old saddle jack which was a piece of 4x4 covered by carpeting.

(Right in the middle of this operation a dust devil came spinning through the adjacent pasture and came right over the top of us in a virtual brownout of dust, sand and dried manure bits. I backed away from Sheba expecting her to startle. She remained calm through the whole thing, only flinching afterwards when Sharon spit out some of the debris which covered us.)

Sharon reinforced Sheba's good behavior with clicks and she settled down to having her foot on the jack. I trimmed her overgrowth, then raised her foot to my knee and rested it there to dress her foot off with the rasp. She didn't fuss at all. Her other side went just as well.

For her reward she got turned out for some liberty grazing in the stable and hung around close to Shiloh's and Patience's pasture.

Note: The application of the rope is not intended to force the horse to pick up her foot. It is used to safely maintain contact and guide her foot once she's raised it until she establishes balance and becomes used to having her foot raised.

This series of photos was taken a few minutes after the trims were complete. Notice that the horse is relaxed enough about this procedure so that I could simply tuck the lead rope into my belt while Sharon snapped the photos.

After 2½ weeks this big mare has finally lost most of her reactive inhibitions and we'll probably try seeing how she can handle objects on her back this weekend.