![]() ![]() You will have achieved a good amount of 'systematic desensitisation' – teaching your horse to be more neutral about something she fears by re-introducing it in small, controllable doses. The effect of this will be that she can predict and control your actions, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence. When this is successful, take progressively more steps towards her, but always leave before she does. Aim to do this when she looks more relaxed in her keeping still performance as she will have more confidence in the behaviour. ![]() When your mare is still, take half or one full step towards her before leaving. When your mare has learned to keep still (she consistently repeats this level of performance), it's time to raise the stakes. Step 2) Raise the stakes - trade fear for curiosity Again this is teaching your mare to keep still to make you leave. If she waits for you to get closer before moving away, go to just short of that distance, pause, and provided she keeps still, leave the area. Repeating this a few times a day should teach your mare to keep still to make you leave. If she moves away immediately, casually hang around until she stops moving, then immediately leave the area. How close can you get before she moves away? Does she move away almost immediately? Or does she wait until a certain threshold distance? Treat this first step as an experiment, beginning with carrying a halter and entering her enclosure. Retraining a hard to capture horse Step 1) Getting her to stand still on approach standing still, and make the consequence of that your (temporary) departure. ![]() Teach her a behaviour that is closer to being caught e.g. Turn this state of affairs on its head and teach her approximations of behaviour incompatible with all her current strategies. She currently makes this happen through all the strategies she has already shown you. Since your mare is avoiding capture, it follows that what she wants most is for the catcher to go away. The aim is to teach her good things about you. Nothing is more frustrating to the new horse owner than to have a horse that refuses to be caught.Īs to what you should do, as well as thinking about what good things you could make happen as a result of being caught, such as a bucket feed near to her new horse friends, you need to consider what she wants most in the moment that you or whoever else catches her enters the field. Convince your horse she wants to be captured You may find clues by thinking back to what your horse was used for previously, and in how she was kept and handled. In any event, what happens after catching is in negative contrast to what goes before. It's worth bearing in mind that just as moving house and divorce are two of the most stressful things a person can go through, moving home and herd, as well new people are major stressors in a horse's life, and happen without warning! This alone will make your mare more sensitive than usual. For example working when in pain, or separation anxiety from being taken away from specific others (not uncommon in a newbie, especially if she is generally insecure or has been deprived of equine company). ![]() Alternatively it may be that what she thinks will happen after catching that is worrying her. In your horse's case that aversive could be previous bad experiences with her catcher, and now she thinks all people might repeat this (called a 'situational anxiety' because of what might happen in this specific situation). Essentially the horse's action makes the aversive go away, this is of benefit to the horse and so the action is repeated. Negative reinforcement is the removal of something aversive to the horse as the direct consequence of a specific behaviour, which then happens more often in future. ![]()
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