De-Spooking Isn’t That Scary!
"My mare lies down trembling when she gets frightened." Has this ever happened to you? How about, "He has jumped on top of me several times when he sees the scooter"? In my travels each year, as I meet hundreds of horses and their human companions from around the globe, these statements and ones just like them are far too common. Dealing with a frightened horse can be frustrating, difficult and at time just as terrifying for the human as it is for the horse.
Often a horse’s behavior though can be understood and explained with one simple phrase – horses are, by their very nature, flight animals. Once you understand this idea, desensitizing your horse to almost anything becomes easier and can actually be fun for both you and your horse.
Now is the perfect time of year to prepare your horse for the many possibly frightening things it may come across in your upcoming adventures together. Too many people wait until after they are out on the trail or at the show to train their horse. Or worse, they don’t take the time to expose their horse to enough stimuli before hand and are suddenly faced with a potentially dangerous situation of new "scary" experiences.
Even the well seasoned dressage horse, show-jumpers, western pleasure and in general performance horses have all been faced with the barking dog, chasing them down the trail, the plastic bags, blowing in the wind and that loud car that almost seems to sneak up behind you to maximize its startling effect. The more prepared you and your horse are for those unexpected moments, the better chance you have of dealing with them without the bolting, rearing, bucking and all the rest of the behavior that can make horsemanship so dangerous.
Recently I conducted a 2-week Reach Out to Horses Introductory Course in Ashville, North Carolina where we worked, in depth with the art of "de-spooking" as it is sometimes called. One very effective tool I used during the course and all the time when desensitizing my horses is the tarpaulin or "tarp". As many of you know there is just nothing like it. The crackling sound, the intimidating size and odd, unnatural feel scares most horses right out of there hooves!
Using the tarp as a desensitizing tool can be quite a challenge so I wouldn’t recommend you just throw it on your horse or your horse on it. In an ideal situation, I always recommend that people "Reach Out" to their horse in a round pen environment as the first step before they attempt to introduce any new stimuli. Reaching Out to your horse is a unique experience. During this process you communicate in the non-verbal language of the horse. By adopting the gestures and movements already familiar to your horse, you begin to create a trust-based partnership from the ground up.
Reaching Out is invaluable to the training. It allows you to:
- Get an instant physical assessment of your horse’s abilities.
- Determine conformation, personal limitations and what is natural to its breed
- Discover immediate insights into your horse’s personality and character traits
- Learn your horse’s likes, dislikes, needs, willingness, sensitivity and concentration level.
In short, it’s an opportunity to create a relationship based on mutual understanding and respect in a safe environment for both you and your horse. You can learn more about "reaching out" on my website www.reachouttohorses.com.
During the course, one of the participants, Tina used the Reach Out process with her horse Prophet. In the beginning Tina took time to introduce herself by conducting a number of "getting to know you" exercises involving relaxation techniques, head-drops, and neck yielding. Prophet was already accustomed to a pressure halter (another invaluable tool when introducing horses to new objects) and by taking a few moments to teach him pressure and release Tina saved time and possible future conflicts.
When the time was right, Tina let Prophet explore the tarp. Horses, curious by nature, will usually want to examine new objects, cautiously smelling and feeling with their feet as they go. With his limited depth perception Prophet was able to examine the texture of the tarp and realized that unlike water, his feet weren’t about to be swallowed all the way up to his knees! Tina then brought Prophet around to approach the tarp on the side he found the easiest – acknowledging his tries along the way.
Acknowledgement is very important when desensitizing your horse. Whether it comes in the form of a release of pressure, removal of direct pressure on the noseband, soothing and comforting words or a rub on the forehead, acknowledging your horses tries and successes will help to give him the confidence he needs while facing this new challenge. In addition, horses learn from the release of pressure, so you can use the rewards individually or all at once.
Once Prophet became more comfortable with this new experience Tina approached the tarp from the opposite direction. Knowing that horses process only part of the information from the right to the left side of the brain, Tina knew that Prophet would need to experience this as a new event to create a complete picture.
Folding the tarp so that its small enough to rub her horse all over was the next, important step. She rubbed Prophet with the tarp, covering his entire body, gradually increasing the size of the tarp. Tina was able to quickly discover how Prophet felt about it changing shape and touching his body. Remember to reward the smallest tries – the desired response of standing still and calm. Don’t wait for them to get overwhelmed and run from you! If you stop before that moment to eliminate flight, fight or freeze you’ll replace it with confidence and comfort.
Finally, Tina asked Prophet to completely relax by lowering his head. She taught him this relaxation technique at the beginning, and even with additional stimulus he understood her request. Horses need to carry their heads high to see far in the distance in order to negotiate their flight path. When you take away their primary form of defense you ask for an enormous amount of trust. This final offering became the perfect note to finish the lesson.
Once you and your horse mastered the tarp, there are so many other objects to explore with your horse. And don’t be afraid to ask a friend for help. It can be safer and a lot more fun when you’ve got a partner to help you through it. But ultimately if you remember the golden rule, Horses are, by nature, flight animals you’ll be able to approach de-spooking from a whole different perspective, help your horse overcome even its worst fears, and more importantly, you’ll become the genuine leader of the trust-based herd of two!
by Anna Twinney