which_chick | (no subject)

Today was make-up day for the T/R/S horses. Fiddler got to walk to the hayfield and help put away the jumps. (We don't have a ring. Jumps live in the hayfield except for hay growing season. They are in the woods the rest of the time, but that's less useful because the trails are narrow enough that the kiddies don't have to aim the horses so much.) Having a green horse come along to 'help' put away the jumps just means that I drape the lead rope over my shoulder and he walks along behind me and maintains the slack as I pick up and move the 55-gallon drums, the poles, the jump fills, the standards, etc. These are large items that might be frightening (they were not for Fiddler) and it's good for the young horse to learn to follow along quietly while a person is leading him around and carrying large items back and forth. So, we did that. Also we looked at the walk-over bridge (not scary at all today, but on Thursday, it generated standing on hind legs refusals to walk over it) and enjoyed the rattly, empty plastic jugs for sacking out. And we reviewed saddle blanket, presented this time with more enthusiasm than the first presentation.

It was pretty much a snooze. In sacking out, Fiddler does look at stuff when it's brand new, but he settles down pretty quickly once a thing has been introduced. I'm not sure if this is due to him being smarter than previous horses were or to ME being smarter than I was when I was doing this with previous horses, but more on that a bit.

For the non-horse-people in the lexience, sacking out is the process of getting the horse mentally/emotionally able to judge when to "ignore" and when to "attend" to body touches. See, not all body touches mean something. In the course of doing stuff with horses, sometimes stuff (rope ends, reins, saddle pads, blankets, coattails, fenders and stirrups, slickers) just touches the horse more-or-less accidentally and we want the default response for those touches to be "Oh, that was an incidental touch, no response required". (Horses that do not ignore incidental touches are sort of sudden and not easy to be around.) At other times, we are intentionally touching the horse and we want the proper response, which is typically "Move away from pressure" instead of "ignore it". Sacking out can really help a beginner horse figure out the difference between touches that are "move away" and touches that are "ignore".

The burden is on the human to make sacking out successful for the horse. After all, in horse-human interactions, the human always has the game plan. The horse gets stuck trying to figure out the damn game plan by reacting and (mostly) being wrong, trying again, being wrong, trying again, being wrong, trying again until he's right... he's totally got the shitty end of the stick, there.

We do not want to discourage the horse from trying to get the right answer. We want to help and support him, to set him up for success and build his confidence. Critically, the horse should feel certain that (a) the problem set before him HAS a solution (b) we will give him time to find the answer by trying different things and (c) we will clearly and obviously reward the correct answer. The human's job, being the smart one, is to support and help the horse and his grapefruit-sized brain manage this cross-species communication effort.

Sacking out starts with a scary item. What the item actually *is* depends on the horse, but the item needs to be scary enough to be of moderate interest but not so scary that you can't hold on to both the horse and the item at the same time. (The horse is at the end of a fourteen foot rope and ideally is expected to hold himself still with drape in the rope.) There exist some horses for whom some items are so scary that you cannot hold them both at the same time -- these horse/item pairings are not suitable for sacking out.

Then, you have a horse and a halter rope with a fourteen foot (or so) lead. And you have a working area that is largely free of dangerous things to run into. The working area does not have to be a platonic ideal of perfectly smooth and pristine footing. It just needs to be mostly free from dangerous crap. Distractions (dogs, chickens, kids on bikes, wood splitters, tractors, random cars pulling in the driveway, etc.) are not a problem.

Now, you'd think that you hang on to the lead rope with a death grip and try to put the horse and the scary thing in the same place. Whoa, there, cowboy. You're gonna put the horse and the scary thing in the same place, but not right yet. Remember that the horse does not know the game plan. He has NO IDEA that he's supposed to stand there and be good while you wave the scary shit around. If you start by bringing some scary shit out and straight away attacking the horse with it, he's gonna be thinking you're trying to kill him. And it's called a death grip for a reason. That doesn't even begin to sound fun, really.

What you do, with your moderately-interesting scary item, is you give the horse a hank of slack, maybe eight feet, and do not attempt to hold him still. You can't actually hold him still anyway -- he's bigger and stronger than you are. Your aim here is to teach him to HOLD HIMSELF STILL FOR YOU. So you take the moderately-interesting item and take it a little closer to the horse. You're going to use approach-n-retreat with the scary thing to teach the horse that standing still and ignoring the scary thing is the correct answer. For this to work, you have to be able to see the moment before the horse decides to move. Your horse body-language skills need to be halfway decent, but it's OK because you will get lots of practice with this. If you screw up, and he moves, and this will probably happen at least once, the fix is pretty simple. Keep approaching in as quiet and gentle and non-threatening a way as you possibly can. Eventually the horse will stop moving to re-evaluate the threat. And there's your chance. Retreat as soon as he stops. Back up off him when his feet are not moving. Make it your job to "catch" him not moving and then reward him by taking the pressure away at that moment.

Your backing up off of him is the release of pressure. It's the "Good Boy" correct answer reward. You can also say "Good Boy" if you want, but horses aren't real talky and they don't note that stuff as well as they see your body language. (You can't usually pet him because you're holding the scary item and you have just retreated away from him for a reward.) Don't worry -- horses are fucking savants at body language -- he will understand you just fine.

Keep doing your approach-n-retreat thing until you can touch the horse with the scary thing on the shoulder. (Best place for new touches is the shoulder.) There should be slack in the lead rope, no pressure on the horse to hold him there. He should be able to walk away if he wants to. If he can't stand up by you, with a big ol' drape in the rope, he is not really in control of himself and his emotions regarding the scary thing. Keep working at it. For some horses, it may take several days of practice with an item. You'll want to be able to rub it all over him and flop it around his feet, under his belly, over his back, etc. but this does not always happen instantly.

Anyway, with Fiddler this is going surprisingly well... but I've had some practice since I first started sacking out horses and maybe I'm more clear than I used to be. Maybe I'm better at seeing how far I can go before I need to step back and let the horse relax. Maybe I am more patient or more definite about my approach and retreat. Maybe I don't need to always try for that little bit more that actually breaks the horse's hold and makes the whole thing take longer.