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Getting a horse less afraid of things…
My husband took in a horse for training and we filmed a little of what we did with him. Since there has been a few people here that has talked about their horses being shy I thought you might want to see what he did with him and how he progressed.
Some background for the horse:
He came to Norway from Holland and apparently was kept in a barn with an indoor arena attached to it, the horse was simply hardly ever outside!
I participated in a television series about animals, where I shoved different training solutions, and through that TV-series I met him.
The problem with him was that he had been spooked when I rider took of her jacket while on his back. He got startled, bucked, and scared again when she landed on his hind-end; he bucked again and the rider flew off (and got stepped on etc… making it very dramatic, but all ended well for the rider).
After this incident he got scared of anything happening over him and he had to be held by several people when mounting him.
So, in the show I started by teaching him the chair game, and it went very well.
Hubert, a 5 year (I think) old Fresian gelding, was a great learner with a super temperament, he caught on really easily.
The owner got her homework and a week after filming the first session we went back to show the results so far. He did great, but then we decided to take him outside to film him there since the weather was so great. That's when we discovered that his problems were a bit bigger than we thought.
A little bird landed in the sand… OH MY GOD!! he said.
A car passed on the road a quarter mile away… OH MY GOD!!!! he said.
A dear moved in the field so far away that it was hard to see what it was… OH MY… well you get the idea… !
We filmed the chair game (that did work well enough for the series), but talked to the owner about the dangers of riding out with this horse the way he reacted to every thing. Shortly after my husband happened to be at a weeks course not far from his stable so he started visiting the horse to see if he could help them a little. When he returned home he brought the horse with him for training. He stayed here for three-four months (about - can't remember exactly) and here are some of the clips from the training.
There are several little clips and I will post them in separate posts so that you can comment and ask questions about them if you want to. If you don't have any comments I will just let the clips speak for themselves :)
Some background for the horse:
He came to Norway from Holland and apparently was kept in a barn with an indoor arena attached to it, the horse was simply hardly ever outside!
I participated in a television series about animals, where I shoved different training solutions, and through that TV-series I met him.
The problem with him was that he had been spooked when I rider took of her jacket while on his back. He got startled, bucked, and scared again when she landed on his hind-end; he bucked again and the rider flew off (and got stepped on etc… making it very dramatic, but all ended well for the rider).
After this incident he got scared of anything happening over him and he had to be held by several people when mounting him.
So, in the show I started by teaching him the chair game, and it went very well.
Hubert, a 5 year (I think) old Fresian gelding, was a great learner with a super temperament, he caught on really easily.
The owner got her homework and a week after filming the first session we went back to show the results so far. He did great, but then we decided to take him outside to film him there since the weather was so great. That's when we discovered that his problems were a bit bigger than we thought.
A little bird landed in the sand… OH MY GOD!! he said.
A car passed on the road a quarter mile away… OH MY GOD!!!! he said.
A dear moved in the field so far away that it was hard to see what it was… OH MY… well you get the idea… !
We filmed the chair game (that did work well enough for the series), but talked to the owner about the dangers of riding out with this horse the way he reacted to every thing. Shortly after my husband happened to be at a weeks course not far from his stable so he started visiting the horse to see if he could help them a little. When he returned home he brought the horse with him for training. He stayed here for three-four months (about - can't remember exactly) and here are some of the clips from the training.
There are several little clips and I will post them in separate posts so that you can comment and ask questions about them if you want to. If you don't have any comments I will just let the clips speak for themselves :)
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ellen Ofstad on
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Lamm on
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well he sure doesn't look scared now... what lovely horses. my horse would bite that thing.... and try and scare it.
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Prove it :)
Just kidding, but at the same time I am suggesting that you train your horse like this a little. You mentioned in another discussion that your trainer told you not to use a flag when training because he spooked at "white things" on the trail. Instead of not using a flag I think you should train him not to be afraid of things that move in bushes...
This training is to make the horse more safe for trails and things that can upset them (the wind being our ally for once…) -
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Hi Ellen.... I took the bag and the stick and started asking Oliver to follow it when my trainer said I made him scared of it and he started following it and then I rubbed it all over him and then he tried to chew it... he is not scared of the flag..... my trainer finally believed me when I explained to him that what startles him is the large white herron that flies around.... birds.... that might be his achilles heel but it's hard to tell. ..... the first time I took a tarp out to him when he was the size of a small colt..... and it was blowing in the wind..... he let it go over the top of him and then when it landed on the ground he tried to eat it...... and tried to step on it... he is not a flight.... he is a fighter horse.. I do not know what his deal is.... he goes right up to things.. the one thing I did see him spook at in five years besides the bird was a bicycle..... so that is good advice about the bike... I am going to try that..... :) I will totally prove how Oliver is somehow someday... he is so wierd..... even once when he was terrified of peacocks that landed in a tree he tried to bust out of the gate to go beat them up. He raised himself up to about 3 feet taller than normal, puffed out his chest and snorted at them.... .... and then the next day he went to the tree they were in the night before when they scared him when we were on the trail and he bit the leaves of the tree..... like there you stupid tree...... he is a fighter I swear..... the fresian reminded me of him when he followed gunner until he ran off..... I've never seen Oliver run off from anything.. he will plant his feet and refuse, but he does not run off... he will avoid things, like a puddle..... but he will not run off..... so far..... anyway.. if that makes sense.... but you never know.. he's young still.. hasn't seen the whole world yet, LOL.... but my experience with him is that he enjoys making YOU run off..... and he is very challenging.... he will soften but only if he knows you.
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Permalink Reply by Shirley on
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Hey Jen, just read ur thoughts about fight/flight. When we took Cash to horse shows when he was three, he was totally okay with all of that. Very calm...hoo hum. But he'd gone into this environment since he was a babe. When we left the barn and went to a friends to visit, he was like a totally different horse then the one I put on the trailer. So much new stuff at once. I think it will just take some time and once he's got many new experiences behind him, he will get more hoo-hum in general with new things cause all new things will have been good experiences. Or so that's my plan. Next week I am taking him to a different barn for a week or so, so we can get more experience away from his home. There is a little play-ground here and short intwertwined trails at the back of this farm property so we can do lots of fun new things.
This week-end I'm going to a clinic put on by a Parelli 4 star instructor and I will just audit but I think the two new things will be inspiring and I'm looking forward to both very much. Things seem to be happening in there own due time...all I have to do is keep being open and try new stuff. I'm actually quite excited about the next couple of weeks. Hooray! I think it'll all lead to a happier horse too. I think he'd like to be a bit more of a wanderer and see new places and things. More and more I see curiosity and contentment with newer newer things rather then fear of new things. That's true of me in general with life too. It's hard to be curious when u r afraid of everything. I love the world horses have opened up for me.
Keep in touch...Keep enjoying!
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My first thought here is that the horse is probably wise to be a bit afraid of something like this. For all he knows, it could hurt him. But secondly I think that he is learning to trust the human. If the human shows this thing is okay then the horse is following his lead. Just a fleeting thought.
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Permalink Reply by Deborah Hopkins on
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What I really appreciate about this clip is the light hearted approach your husband takes with this training. He is clearly having fun, and so is the Friesian! He doesn't want the white horse to get his treats or play the game LOL! I notice the trainer always walks away with the objects, and the horse follows ...drawn in to the "scary" object. You have really capitalized on his natural curiosity. Thanks for sharing. I am learning so much from your posts ...
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Permalink Reply by Megan Hammock on
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Would you suggest doing this kind of stuff right off the bat, or easing in to it?
I've been easing in to everything so far, but it seems like my girls find ways to avoid the mure subtle approaches.. Smart little stinkers:) -
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It always depends :)
With this guy we had him in the pasture with the other horses for a few weeks before we did anything with him. That is of course not true, but what I mean is that we didn't do any of this stuff in the beginning.
What we did do (or rather Gunnar did mostly) was to bang on the shovel thing before bringing out food, and that quickly made that scary noise into a nice signal. Then of course there was a lot of scratches and general clicker training for standing in the right position etc.
The most important part of the training in the beginning was to be a horse with our horses, and being subjected to the great outdoors. Wind, birds, cars on the road etc. For him all that was very new and he needed time to just feel at home with it all.
After the first few weeks the training started....
When he came running for the food signal Gunnar started the training that we called:
"100 ways to scare Hubert!"
The game was simple (and you see it in the first two clips): find stuff that can scare a horse and when he gets closer he wins the game and gets a reward. After a while it was almost impossible to find scary stuff, he had learned that whatever we brought out there was just a part of that game.
The easing into things was taken care off by Hubert himself. He was free to leave whenever he wanted or needed to. At first he ran to the top of the hill and stayed away for a little while. There he stood and watched the other horses get treats and attention. Pure torture! so he came back and as he approached he was greeted with a click and a treat.
Soon he didn't run as far or stay away as long... until he eventually stayed with Gunnar the whole time and made sure that the other horses couldn't come close. He became pretty obsessive about Gunnar and the training after a while! (I think it shows in one of the clips).
As he got braver the tasks got harder. If it became too much, he went away, but he really tried hard to stay with Gunnar.
Like Deborah commented on, whenever it became a little too much for him, we move away from him with the scary thing. Horses are far more worried about things that comes towards them than things that moves away from them, and for all moving objects this is an important thing to remember.
Cars, bikes, tractors, people with umbrellas, strollers, etc.. all those things; let the horse follow after them. If you can get the horse to think that he is actually chasing them away he will get pretty brave quickly.
This is very different from the "approach and retreat" technique (that has it's place, too) where you would move stuff towards the horse and then ease it back from them. Getting a horse over fear of traffic for instance is actually pretty easy using the chase-method! (The way I do that, I can explain later if someone is interested)
How all this will work is a little different with different horses of course. There is no cure-all method, what works for one, might not be the best approach for another. However I do think that using treats is a real help for all horses as well as having them loose in an area big enough so they don't feel trapped. Making it a game that the horse wins gets their confidence up pretty fast and most of them soon think it's very fun, too. That is probably the most important key factor... -
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Permalink Reply by Marlene Thoms on
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Last winter, when Sharif was fairly new to me, I would put his hay out in the field next to where and when the garbage truck would come by. At first farther away, but gradually closer to the fence. It did help to get him used to a larger scarey truck (he was pretty good with normal sized vehicles). Whenever there were utility or road work equipment on our street,or if we had a tractor on our farm, I would lead him buy back and forth till he relaxed a little. It takes many repetitions. At least now he doesn't back up on the road when he sees a scarier vehicle, but I wouldn't say he's relaxed yet.
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Right right..
When you said: "There he stood and watched the other horses get treats and attention. Pure torture!"
..it reminded me of Donoma. I'd be paying attention to Kai, scratching and loving, and D would get jealous and come for some love.. Then I would give it to her, but very small amounts at a time to not "overload".. SHe'd ask for more, I'd give, she'd ask for more, I'd give, she'd ask for more, I'd gi--Oh piss, she nipped at my stomach!
She's pretty brave with weird noises and things for the most part.. It's stuff like what I just typed that has me scratching my head..
What you said I think will work though with certain things i"m doing.. D does like to follow me when she's curious.. Then she gets bored and leaves, or wants attention but gets freaked out from it and leaves..
I promise that tied in somehow.. It did in my head, at least! :P
I love watching your videos.. Everyone always has such a good time! -
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