Post by Admin on May 27, 2016 6:05:11 GMT -7
When you or the horse are in danger. I have been having to use negative reinforcement on my mare lately.
She had developed severe separation anxiety because of me. I'd take her out, and let her have her way. If she wanted to turn around, I'd turn her around. That would only reinforce her anxiety. You'll likely see an anxious human being avoid and avoid, time and time again. But you'll notice each time they avoid what is bothering them, they go farther and farther away from going near it, and eventually don't even try at all because their fear has built up so much.
What I am doing with Destiny is a form of exposure therapy. In the horse world, they call this "sacking out" or "desensitizing".
Exposure therapy: Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy used to treat anxiety disorders. It involves the exposure of the patient to the feared object or context without any danger, in order to overcome their anxiety.
Day 1:
I took Destiny out and began working on focus and calming down. When she'd turn her head away, I'd slide my hand up the rope. If she didn't look back at me, I'd bump her head toward me with the lead rope. Once her head was at my side, I'd have her give to poll pressure to lower her head. Then I would stick my finger in her her mouth, tickle her tongue, and she'd lick and chew. At this point, she'd often lower her head further on her own (without pressure) and even blink a few times. Lowering the head and licking and chewing calm her down a lot. Licking and chewing can have many different meanings... It can be a stress release, it could be calming, it could be salivation... Try sticking your hand in your pocket and see if your horse licks and chews. Likely he is salivating from the anticipation of receiving a treat
I worked on this for an hour. Then I brought her back in the pasture. I let her go, and she galloped off in the dark, whinnying and anxiously looking for Calypso. When she couldn't find Calypso, she ran back to me and put her head on my shoulder. I sighed. This would take a lot of work. I stayed with Destiny and calmed her down until Calypso came back. I didn't just want to ditch her. Then I went in the car and went home.
Day 2:
I went to Big R and bought a lunge whip, a flag, and a dressage whip. I went to the barn and did the same as usual. But this time I attached a longer lead rope to my halter, to give Destiny more room to move if she needed to. I first used the end of the lead rope. To my surprise, she flinched and then began to move around. She had only been afraid of the lead rope going over her 2 years ago, when I first adopted her. We had worked on this before, and she acted as if she's never had it over her back. We worked on just the lead itself for about 10 minutes, until she calmed down. I found that once she was calm with that, the lunge whip and flag were easier than they would have been. We worked on this for about an hour, with breaks of leading and head lowering in between. I also made sure to keep her focus on me. If she didn't look around, she had nothing to look for to worry about. The only thing that would spook her would be sounds, and we were working on that with the flag noises and lunge whip cracking.
Day 3:
I haltered Destiny and brought her outside. I did some desensitizing before leaving the pasture-area. She was doing pretty good with that. I began to lead. Suddenly, she balked, turned her head around, and looked back at the pasture and stiffened up. I slid my hand up the rope and then bumped her head toward me. Again, if a horse can't get distracted, it's very hard for them to find something to worry about. She began to balk. I use the ask, tell, demand method. I asked by clucking, told by pressure on the lead, and then demanded by tapping her shoulder with the dressage crop. Some people say to fix balking with slapping a horse's hind end with a full sized lunge whip... That's not as nice. I'd rather cause a mild annoyance than cause her pain.
We then arrived at the "town square". AKA, the place that has the hitching post, hot walker, indoor arena, round pen, barn, and tack room all surrounded in this area. This is my favorite place to work with my horses, since I can tie them and then decide what I'd like to do first. Anyway, she begins to freak out since she's surrounded by several buildings. She jumps into me several times, and I get knocked over and my foot frequently gets stepped on. But each time I notice her about to spook, I run her as fast as I can in that direction, then I disengage her hindquarters both directions, and walk her away. I have her relax away from the object that scared her. Then if she spooks or puts her attention on it, I run her back, disengage, and then take her away and let her stand. This takes a very long time before she realizes that worrying will do nothing for her. A horse's instinct is that worry is helpful, and that if they worry, it'll save her life. But nothing in that area could have killed her. She didn't know this of course, but I had to let her know. Even though she was in a standstill, she was still a bundle of worry. I just stood there until she relaxed, and began to graze. I let her graze for a few minutes to calm her down.
I then tried leading her into the round pen. When we got in there, the owl flew out the window and spooked Destiny. I got slammed into the wall. She stood on my foot and her shoulder was pushing me into the wall as she shook, and I felt my head grinding against the wooden wall of the round pen. She did this for a few minutes despite me trying to get her off of me. Every 10-15 seconds was a sharp wind that would cause a tree branch to bang on the round pen wall, which would scare her further.
As soon as she got off of me, she began running around me in a circle. This wasn't a cue, as I didn't lunge her in over a year. And prior to her anxiety, I had only used the round pen for feeding or liberty. So I was assuming Destiny just wanted a way to get rid of her anxiety. And as a flight animal, their natural instinct is to run, and it calms them down. I picked up my lunge whip and pointed my belly button at her hip, and I stared intensely at it. An ear cocked toward me and she focused an eye on me, noticing my body language. Then she went into a fluid lope. It took her 20 minutes to ask her to stop. Once she did, I let her. She then stopped and tried to come in toward me. She has been trained using vocal cues in the past. So I said, "stand." And she stood. She was a nervous wreck at first. Then she began to lick and chew, lower her head, and even half close her eyes. Once she was calm, I went in and pet her.
I then sent her out again and repeated the process. Once she asked for a place to stop, I'd let her, but ask her to stand away from me. Once she calmed down, I'd go in and pet her.
Day 4 and onward:
I repeated the exercise during Day 3 until she calmly stood away from me, without becoming anxious. I then began to try leading exercises. I had her learn to stay out of my space. Most horses don't need this. Most horses you can comfortable have in your space. Destiny takes that as a sign of you becoming a mother figure, and she begins to display foal behavior. Such as increased anxiety, pushing into you, or jumping on you. She's not the kind of horse that can do this stuff. At liberty, yes. But while leading, no.
I began to walk and then I stopped mid way. I then rolled back on my foot and then slung the lead rope back. It hit Destiny's chest. She took a few steps back and I let her stand. I repeated this exercise. I wasn't purposely trying to hit Destiny. I simply slung the lead rope out, and if she were too close, it hit her chest. If she weren't, it just hit the air. She soon understood this and each time I slung the rope out, she was far enough away to where it just hit the air in front of her. She mastered this exercise in a single session.
I then worked on round penning (aka lunging) and desensitizing. I wanted to get Destiny wound up and full of energy, and teach her to wind down and have less energy. So I'd sensitize her (lunge her) first, then desensitize her (rub the whip on her) afterward. I'd send her out first. I'd ask, tell, demand. I'd stick my hand out and point in the direction I wanted her to go. Then I'd cluck. If she still didn't go, I'd crack the whip. She'd go by then. I had her lunge for around 5-10 minutes at a time before coming to a stop. Once she came to a stop, I'd wait until she lowered her head. Then I'd go in and halter her, then begin to desensitize. Horses are afraid of three things: movement, sensation, and sound. A lunge whip does all these things. I'd crack it and then swing it onto her back and rub her with it. That's all three of a horse's fears. I would do so until she'd blink. We still haven't gotten to the head lowering stage, she's not comfortable enough with these things to lower her head. But she still will blink or lick and chew. I practice this first with the lunge whip, and then with the flag. Then I sensitize (lunge) her again to wind her up, then I desensitize her to wind her down.
If you sensitize too much, you get a horse that is responsive, but is also anxious. If you desensitize too much, you get a horse that is quiet, but is lazy. You want a balance between both. That's why you need to sensitize and desensitize over and over. It creates a balance. The goal is to get Destiny to be responsive to lunging, but then as soon as I stop lunging, she lowers her head and winds down, as if she's been dozing in the sun for hours. When you first do this, you'll find after sensitizing, it's hard to desensitize. Then after desensitizing, it's hard to sensitize. With time, both these things will have a balance. As soon as you point, your horse will lunge. But as soon as you ask him to stop, he'll lower his head, lick and chew, half close his eyes, and come to full and complete relaxation.
So by doing this, I'm teaching Destiny to deal with her fear. I'm teaching her after getting wound up, she can easily wind down. This teaches a horse mind control. Desensitizing is really misunderstood. People tend to look at it as trainers getting their horses not to react to certain things. I like to think of it as, teaching the horse to deal with worry. It's the same thing as in different types of therapy. At first, the whip is a scary thing. The horse reacts to the whip instead of responds to it. But by sensitizing and desensitizing, you're teaching that horse to respond to the whip instead of react, and be able to easily wind down again once the horse isn't being cued to do something.
Doing those things creates a responsive horse that is also quiet. You create a balance. And through this, you cause the horse to have relatively little worry, spookiness, and anxiety. You'll see these kinds of horses have no separation anxiety. Destiny's separation anxiety at this point is almost gone. She'll still balk a few times, but she's not spooky at all. She did get startled once. A barn door slammed when leading. But this time, I trusted her. I heard that door and I knew she'd spook, but I didn't move a muscle. And at the end of the lead rope, I felt a flinch. She didn't jump on me, and didn't run away either. Success!
I did realize on Day 3 that our relationship wasn't as good as I thought it was. As soon as we were away from the pasture, neither of us trusted one another. She didn't trust me to keep her safe, and I didn't trust her to keep me safe. She was constantly jumping on me, and she was spooking because she didn't think I'd protect her. Our relationship with each other was extremely toxic. And I think negative reinforcement has actually been the best thing that has ever happened to us, more so than liberty. This is the only thing that got Destiny over her separation anxiety after 1 year of this going on. Who knew that negative reinforcement would be the one thing to cure her? Who knew?
She's not even close to being 100% cured. This is a work in progress. I'm planning on desensitizing her to a variety of things until I get no reaction. Simply standing there is not enough. The horse must blink and have a lowered head, and no tense muscles. Usually if a horse is "spooking in place" they will still be standing, but their eyes will be wide and they will not blink, sometimes for several minutes. Their head will be high, and you'll see all their muscles tense up. Normally I can even see Destiny's facial muscles straining as well. But it's not enough just to teach a horse to stand. You must also teach them how to relax. And this is the goal!
I may actually start my own progress journal during these things... Hopefully I can get back to liberty soon though because I miss playing with my girl. I just want to conquer the anxiety first, and then we'll be able to play again!
She had developed severe separation anxiety because of me. I'd take her out, and let her have her way. If she wanted to turn around, I'd turn her around. That would only reinforce her anxiety. You'll likely see an anxious human being avoid and avoid, time and time again. But you'll notice each time they avoid what is bothering them, they go farther and farther away from going near it, and eventually don't even try at all because their fear has built up so much.
What I am doing with Destiny is a form of exposure therapy. In the horse world, they call this "sacking out" or "desensitizing".
Exposure therapy: Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy used to treat anxiety disorders. It involves the exposure of the patient to the feared object or context without any danger, in order to overcome their anxiety.
Day 1:
I took Destiny out and began working on focus and calming down. When she'd turn her head away, I'd slide my hand up the rope. If she didn't look back at me, I'd bump her head toward me with the lead rope. Once her head was at my side, I'd have her give to poll pressure to lower her head. Then I would stick my finger in her her mouth, tickle her tongue, and she'd lick and chew. At this point, she'd often lower her head further on her own (without pressure) and even blink a few times. Lowering the head and licking and chewing calm her down a lot. Licking and chewing can have many different meanings... It can be a stress release, it could be calming, it could be salivation... Try sticking your hand in your pocket and see if your horse licks and chews. Likely he is salivating from the anticipation of receiving a treat
I worked on this for an hour. Then I brought her back in the pasture. I let her go, and she galloped off in the dark, whinnying and anxiously looking for Calypso. When she couldn't find Calypso, she ran back to me and put her head on my shoulder. I sighed. This would take a lot of work. I stayed with Destiny and calmed her down until Calypso came back. I didn't just want to ditch her. Then I went in the car and went home.
Day 2:
I went to Big R and bought a lunge whip, a flag, and a dressage whip. I went to the barn and did the same as usual. But this time I attached a longer lead rope to my halter, to give Destiny more room to move if she needed to. I first used the end of the lead rope. To my surprise, she flinched and then began to move around. She had only been afraid of the lead rope going over her 2 years ago, when I first adopted her. We had worked on this before, and she acted as if she's never had it over her back. We worked on just the lead itself for about 10 minutes, until she calmed down. I found that once she was calm with that, the lunge whip and flag were easier than they would have been. We worked on this for about an hour, with breaks of leading and head lowering in between. I also made sure to keep her focus on me. If she didn't look around, she had nothing to look for to worry about. The only thing that would spook her would be sounds, and we were working on that with the flag noises and lunge whip cracking.
Day 3:
I haltered Destiny and brought her outside. I did some desensitizing before leaving the pasture-area. She was doing pretty good with that. I began to lead. Suddenly, she balked, turned her head around, and looked back at the pasture and stiffened up. I slid my hand up the rope and then bumped her head toward me. Again, if a horse can't get distracted, it's very hard for them to find something to worry about. She began to balk. I use the ask, tell, demand method. I asked by clucking, told by pressure on the lead, and then demanded by tapping her shoulder with the dressage crop. Some people say to fix balking with slapping a horse's hind end with a full sized lunge whip... That's not as nice. I'd rather cause a mild annoyance than cause her pain.
We then arrived at the "town square". AKA, the place that has the hitching post, hot walker, indoor arena, round pen, barn, and tack room all surrounded in this area. This is my favorite place to work with my horses, since I can tie them and then decide what I'd like to do first. Anyway, she begins to freak out since she's surrounded by several buildings. She jumps into me several times, and I get knocked over and my foot frequently gets stepped on. But each time I notice her about to spook, I run her as fast as I can in that direction, then I disengage her hindquarters both directions, and walk her away. I have her relax away from the object that scared her. Then if she spooks or puts her attention on it, I run her back, disengage, and then take her away and let her stand. This takes a very long time before she realizes that worrying will do nothing for her. A horse's instinct is that worry is helpful, and that if they worry, it'll save her life. But nothing in that area could have killed her. She didn't know this of course, but I had to let her know. Even though she was in a standstill, she was still a bundle of worry. I just stood there until she relaxed, and began to graze. I let her graze for a few minutes to calm her down.
I then tried leading her into the round pen. When we got in there, the owl flew out the window and spooked Destiny. I got slammed into the wall. She stood on my foot and her shoulder was pushing me into the wall as she shook, and I felt my head grinding against the wooden wall of the round pen. She did this for a few minutes despite me trying to get her off of me. Every 10-15 seconds was a sharp wind that would cause a tree branch to bang on the round pen wall, which would scare her further.
As soon as she got off of me, she began running around me in a circle. This wasn't a cue, as I didn't lunge her in over a year. And prior to her anxiety, I had only used the round pen for feeding or liberty. So I was assuming Destiny just wanted a way to get rid of her anxiety. And as a flight animal, their natural instinct is to run, and it calms them down. I picked up my lunge whip and pointed my belly button at her hip, and I stared intensely at it. An ear cocked toward me and she focused an eye on me, noticing my body language. Then she went into a fluid lope. It took her 20 minutes to ask her to stop. Once she did, I let her. She then stopped and tried to come in toward me. She has been trained using vocal cues in the past. So I said, "stand." And she stood. She was a nervous wreck at first. Then she began to lick and chew, lower her head, and even half close her eyes. Once she was calm, I went in and pet her.
I then sent her out again and repeated the process. Once she asked for a place to stop, I'd let her, but ask her to stand away from me. Once she calmed down, I'd go in and pet her.
Day 4 and onward:
I repeated the exercise during Day 3 until she calmly stood away from me, without becoming anxious. I then began to try leading exercises. I had her learn to stay out of my space. Most horses don't need this. Most horses you can comfortable have in your space. Destiny takes that as a sign of you becoming a mother figure, and she begins to display foal behavior. Such as increased anxiety, pushing into you, or jumping on you. She's not the kind of horse that can do this stuff. At liberty, yes. But while leading, no.
I began to walk and then I stopped mid way. I then rolled back on my foot and then slung the lead rope back. It hit Destiny's chest. She took a few steps back and I let her stand. I repeated this exercise. I wasn't purposely trying to hit Destiny. I simply slung the lead rope out, and if she were too close, it hit her chest. If she weren't, it just hit the air. She soon understood this and each time I slung the rope out, she was far enough away to where it just hit the air in front of her. She mastered this exercise in a single session.
I then worked on round penning (aka lunging) and desensitizing. I wanted to get Destiny wound up and full of energy, and teach her to wind down and have less energy. So I'd sensitize her (lunge her) first, then desensitize her (rub the whip on her) afterward. I'd send her out first. I'd ask, tell, demand. I'd stick my hand out and point in the direction I wanted her to go. Then I'd cluck. If she still didn't go, I'd crack the whip. She'd go by then. I had her lunge for around 5-10 minutes at a time before coming to a stop. Once she came to a stop, I'd wait until she lowered her head. Then I'd go in and halter her, then begin to desensitize. Horses are afraid of three things: movement, sensation, and sound. A lunge whip does all these things. I'd crack it and then swing it onto her back and rub her with it. That's all three of a horse's fears. I would do so until she'd blink. We still haven't gotten to the head lowering stage, she's not comfortable enough with these things to lower her head. But she still will blink or lick and chew. I practice this first with the lunge whip, and then with the flag. Then I sensitize (lunge) her again to wind her up, then I desensitize her to wind her down.
If you sensitize too much, you get a horse that is responsive, but is also anxious. If you desensitize too much, you get a horse that is quiet, but is lazy. You want a balance between both. That's why you need to sensitize and desensitize over and over. It creates a balance. The goal is to get Destiny to be responsive to lunging, but then as soon as I stop lunging, she lowers her head and winds down, as if she's been dozing in the sun for hours. When you first do this, you'll find after sensitizing, it's hard to desensitize. Then after desensitizing, it's hard to sensitize. With time, both these things will have a balance. As soon as you point, your horse will lunge. But as soon as you ask him to stop, he'll lower his head, lick and chew, half close his eyes, and come to full and complete relaxation.
So by doing this, I'm teaching Destiny to deal with her fear. I'm teaching her after getting wound up, she can easily wind down. This teaches a horse mind control. Desensitizing is really misunderstood. People tend to look at it as trainers getting their horses not to react to certain things. I like to think of it as, teaching the horse to deal with worry. It's the same thing as in different types of therapy. At first, the whip is a scary thing. The horse reacts to the whip instead of responds to it. But by sensitizing and desensitizing, you're teaching that horse to respond to the whip instead of react, and be able to easily wind down again once the horse isn't being cued to do something.
Doing those things creates a responsive horse that is also quiet. You create a balance. And through this, you cause the horse to have relatively little worry, spookiness, and anxiety. You'll see these kinds of horses have no separation anxiety. Destiny's separation anxiety at this point is almost gone. She'll still balk a few times, but she's not spooky at all. She did get startled once. A barn door slammed when leading. But this time, I trusted her. I heard that door and I knew she'd spook, but I didn't move a muscle. And at the end of the lead rope, I felt a flinch. She didn't jump on me, and didn't run away either. Success!
I did realize on Day 3 that our relationship wasn't as good as I thought it was. As soon as we were away from the pasture, neither of us trusted one another. She didn't trust me to keep her safe, and I didn't trust her to keep me safe. She was constantly jumping on me, and she was spooking because she didn't think I'd protect her. Our relationship with each other was extremely toxic. And I think negative reinforcement has actually been the best thing that has ever happened to us, more so than liberty. This is the only thing that got Destiny over her separation anxiety after 1 year of this going on. Who knew that negative reinforcement would be the one thing to cure her? Who knew?
She's not even close to being 100% cured. This is a work in progress. I'm planning on desensitizing her to a variety of things until I get no reaction. Simply standing there is not enough. The horse must blink and have a lowered head, and no tense muscles. Usually if a horse is "spooking in place" they will still be standing, but their eyes will be wide and they will not blink, sometimes for several minutes. Their head will be high, and you'll see all their muscles tense up. Normally I can even see Destiny's facial muscles straining as well. But it's not enough just to teach a horse to stand. You must also teach them how to relax. And this is the goal!
I may actually start my own progress journal during these things... Hopefully I can get back to liberty soon though because I miss playing with my girl. I just want to conquer the anxiety first, and then we'll be able to play again!