In the past Filly has been very very touchy being touched in certain areas. Particularly in the area between her hind legs, and the inside of her hind legs. These are areas that need to be touched for two reasons. Most commonly just to clean the mud off, particularly this winter, but also in case medical treatment needs to be given there.
Her reaction was generally one of fear and opposition reflex. Lots of tail swishing, kicking out with the hind legs, muscle twitching and tenseness. So a pretty ingrained and strong reaction.
Over time I've managed to use approach and retreat to get to the point that I could put my hand in the area, then remove it when she calmed down. This could get pretty exciting so I had always done it in the indoor school to give us both room to move. We got to the stage where she was ok ish with it. Not totally accepting but maybe not scared for her life. I had even done it at liberty so she was totally free to wander off if the pressure became to great.
Time to repeat the exercise somewhere else.
Last week I went into her stable to prepare her to ride. I checked her belly to see how muddy she was. Very ! So I started the process of getting some of it off. She was fine with the belly, but not with that sensitive area between the hind legs. As she reacted I could have backed off, but that would have rewarded the reaction. So I persisted in just holding my hand there. She got pretty agitated and then I made a mistake.
If a horse is trying to kick you you're safe if you are close to them and next to the hip. But she moved too fast and I got out of position. Result was a really hard hind leg kick on my left upper thigh. Very very painful. I had to sit down for a fair while to recover and the leg stiffened up making walking difficult.
Lots of thought as to how to fix the problem with less pain. I decided to try using positive reinforcement training to overcome it initially. But what to reward. Lowering of the head helps horses to relax, so maybe getting her to lower the head whilst I touched the sensitive area, then rewarding with a click and treat would be a start.
That worked well, but she still held resentment as the tail swishing showed. So the click was now withheld until the tail also relaxed. Again that really helped.
It took a few sessions in the school to get it solid, but now I can touch the area with only a little reaction from her. I wouldn't say she loves being touched there, that will come with time.
Back to the stable and repeat. More reaction than the school, but not like last time. Further training and she now puts her nose on the floor and waits for the click.
This is not the way I would have liked to have overcome this problem. I would have preferred to have done it in a way that worked more on her understanding that she was not going to be harmed. This way feels a bit like bribery to me. However it has gotten the job done and given us a base to work towards understanding from. I'll phase out the treats pretty quickly and won't require the head to be lowered. That was really only done to try and induce and indicate relaxation.
Head lowering is something I use a fair bit to help get a horse to relax when they are tense about something. The trouble with using clicker training to achieve this is I am never sure if what I have achieved is relaxation or just a trained physical response. It does get us started down the right road however and for that reason I find it effective so long as I remain concious of the pitfalls.
As for my leg. It is now pretty much healed. I've ridden and had two evening Aikido training. No bruise in the impact area, much to my wifes' annoyance (she thought I deserved one), just some swelling that has gone down. Interestingly there was a small bruise on the inside of the thigh on the opposites side of the leg.
Like they say "a mistake is only a mistake if you don't learn from it. If you do learn from it it's a learning experience". Well that was a painful learning experience.
My instructor, Josh, said "pain is just weakness leaving the body". Very deep. Thanks Josh ;)
Her reaction was generally one of fear and opposition reflex. Lots of tail swishing, kicking out with the hind legs, muscle twitching and tenseness. So a pretty ingrained and strong reaction.
Over time I've managed to use approach and retreat to get to the point that I could put my hand in the area, then remove it when she calmed down. This could get pretty exciting so I had always done it in the indoor school to give us both room to move. We got to the stage where she was ok ish with it. Not totally accepting but maybe not scared for her life. I had even done it at liberty so she was totally free to wander off if the pressure became to great.
Time to repeat the exercise somewhere else.
Last week I went into her stable to prepare her to ride. I checked her belly to see how muddy she was. Very ! So I started the process of getting some of it off. She was fine with the belly, but not with that sensitive area between the hind legs. As she reacted I could have backed off, but that would have rewarded the reaction. So I persisted in just holding my hand there. She got pretty agitated and then I made a mistake.
If a horse is trying to kick you you're safe if you are close to them and next to the hip. But she moved too fast and I got out of position. Result was a really hard hind leg kick on my left upper thigh. Very very painful. I had to sit down for a fair while to recover and the leg stiffened up making walking difficult.
Lots of thought as to how to fix the problem with less pain. I decided to try using positive reinforcement training to overcome it initially. But what to reward. Lowering of the head helps horses to relax, so maybe getting her to lower the head whilst I touched the sensitive area, then rewarding with a click and treat would be a start.
That worked well, but she still held resentment as the tail swishing showed. So the click was now withheld until the tail also relaxed. Again that really helped.
It took a few sessions in the school to get it solid, but now I can touch the area with only a little reaction from her. I wouldn't say she loves being touched there, that will come with time.
Back to the stable and repeat. More reaction than the school, but not like last time. Further training and she now puts her nose on the floor and waits for the click.
This is not the way I would have liked to have overcome this problem. I would have preferred to have done it in a way that worked more on her understanding that she was not going to be harmed. This way feels a bit like bribery to me. However it has gotten the job done and given us a base to work towards understanding from. I'll phase out the treats pretty quickly and won't require the head to be lowered. That was really only done to try and induce and indicate relaxation.
Head lowering is something I use a fair bit to help get a horse to relax when they are tense about something. The trouble with using clicker training to achieve this is I am never sure if what I have achieved is relaxation or just a trained physical response. It does get us started down the right road however and for that reason I find it effective so long as I remain concious of the pitfalls.
As for my leg. It is now pretty much healed. I've ridden and had two evening Aikido training. No bruise in the impact area, much to my wifes' annoyance (she thought I deserved one), just some swelling that has gone down. Interestingly there was a small bruise on the inside of the thigh on the opposites side of the leg.
Like they say "a mistake is only a mistake if you don't learn from it. If you do learn from it it's a learning experience". Well that was a painful learning experience.
My instructor, Josh, said "pain is just weakness leaving the body". Very deep. Thanks Josh ;)
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