Important behaviourism #1: Horses are as we all know a herd animal,
naturally they want to cooperate. Given the chance Russia will always
find himself close to me when I'm about the yard.
Important behaviourism #2: He only has to be shown something once in
order to understand the concept, so we know tricks won't work.
Sunday, we walked him through the trailer, reducing the 2.5 hour time
down to 40 minutes, still a long time but ultimately a huge improvement.
So how did we do it- by basically ignoring the very reason we were
there. Firstly we placed the trailer between the exercise area and the
route back to his beloved companion spice.
Hayley and myself were catching up on the trailer with an old friend
Charlotte. To our surprise Russia was very keen to be involved in our
conversation and slowly began the creep up the ramp.
Still he wouldn't take the plunge and bring those back feet on the ramp.
So, Hayley stood behind him, Charlotte took the lead rein and I had the
pleasure of his wonderful agile front legs. I encouraged him to walk
forward, Hayley kept pressure behind him, but only enough for him to
know if he stepped back he would so onto her and Charlotte bribed. With
some coaxing, and a little patience, the back feet were on the ramp and
he walked through the trailer.
Yes, we did it. And we will do it all again next week. We did it our
way, the horse was happy to do what we asked, not once had a fight with
us and we all felt there was a vast improvement.
Important points to note:
Horses will bide their time. Stepping backwards is his way of taking the process backwards.
If we apply force, they will apply more - the outcome is humans will always lose the strength battle.
Herd animals want to be with the herd, allowing them to make that
choice when the trailer is the only option to get there is a good start
with a positive outcome.
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