This is Heather and her lovely rising 2yo cob Splash. Unfortunately, Splash’s first experiences with humans have been quite traumatic, being herded into a cattle crush and handled roughly. When he arrived at his new home they turned him straight out into a large field with other youngsters and Heather quickly realised she couldn’t get anywhere near him and he was extremely nervous of people.
Heather reached out to me and we came up with a plan to start shaping some positive associations with humans for Splash. She decided to invest in a moveable round pen she could erect in his field so we would have somewhere we could work with him apart from the other horses. While we were waiting for the round pen I got her to start feeding piles of hay and just hanging out near him without trying to do anything so he became more comfortable in her presence. Once the round pen arrived she started to put some hay inside so he got used to going in there without it being a big deal.
During our first session, Splash would not come within about 6 feet of me. Instead of trying to pursue him, I used a bucket on the ground and just started to throw bits of carrot into it until he was more interested in it than eating the hay. I kept my distance and would mark and reward him as soon as he brought his attention towards me. By the end of the session he was happily engaging with us and we were able to start slowly closing the distance.
Heather is very committed to working with Splash between sessions so by the next week he was comfortable enough being near us to start learning to target the headcollar with his nose. We have gradually shaped touching the headcollar with his nose, to putting his nose into the noseband, to putting his whole head into it and having it on and off.
We are now at the point of teaching him to lead well and understand pressure, at the weekend Heather caught him normally in the field for the first time (we usually use a hay pile and let him walk into the pen loose) and led him into the round pen. He was calm and happy to come with her. We finished the session with them walking around the whole field together, finally out into the big wide world.
Working with these two has been so rewarding and I’m really excited to support them going forward. He is becoming more comfortable every day with being touched around his body and we will soon be able to start working on handling his feet and helping him develop into a well-rounded citizen.
Cases like this can be so delicate and using positive reinforcement is an extremely powerful and safe way to change those negative associations with people. Trying to use pressure on a horse who is already terrified of humans and convince them it’s fine is an unnecessarily stressful process. Why create conflict when you don’t have to?
Heather now has a pony who is curious, building confidence and happy to see her every day. He is finding out that humans can be pretty great actually. I’m sure they’re going to have a lovely time together.
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