Training Tips

QUESTION: Sylvia, I have been working with both my horses in your program and my big grulla gelding is doing very well. He is even ok with the plastic bag on the training wand (well, to some degree... we are still working with it). However, my buckskin is a totally different story. I could not believe how he reacted there and I'm afraid I am making things worse. Here's what I did and you tell me what I did wrong.

I started out with bonding, rubbing his eyes, ears and scratching under his chin until he was licking his lips and almost looked to be falling asleep. Then I moved to the pressure & release yielding which he picked up in about 5 minutes. And I had his head yielded to the side in one hand and rubbing under his tail. I was actually surprised at how quickly the process evolved. Then I moved teaching him to drive forward from the rear, and the wind down to the one-rein stop, and he even did that great and gave his head. I then moved onto desensitizing, swinging the rope, and that made him pretty nervous, but he accepted it. I then took the plastic bag and started rubbing his neck, head, etc. He was a little more nervous about it, but again tolerated it. I then brought out the wand with plastic bag tied to the end. Oh my gosh!! He completely freaked and when I say freaked he was violently pawing and stomping the ground and rearing at the bag. He would rear and kinda lunge and then of course try to run (that flight instinct and all). I would try to calm him and get close to him to rub and bring him back down, but if that bag moved he was gone again. I know I did the wrong thing and stopped, but it was getting late and dark. How do I work this guy through his horrible fear? Any suggestions?

REPLY: Hi. You didn't do anything wrong at all, you're doing great. You're reading the horse and you stopped to ask questions/for directions. So...you did perfectly there!

One of the many beauties of these natural horsemanship training methods is: it flushes out buried issues we didn't know about before, that had remained hidden like a time bomb, and then affords you the opportunity to fix the problem now -- but safely on the ground first! Great he showed you this!

What you probably flushed out there is: a horse who has been beaten by whips in the past, or something that looks like a whip to him, in his mind. Do this: back up and break this down into smaller, digestible baby steps. How? Like this: first, make sure he can handle well the plastic in your hand stage, being rubbed all over with just that, which it sounds like he is now.

Here's a link on my site that shows more how to desensitize the horse to plastic in your hand:

Next, take the extendable/retractable training wand and retract it to it's smallest size. Wad the plastic on the end so that it's small and completely imperceptible in your hand. Lower the horse's head (lowered head is a relaxed horse remember, automatically; where the head goes the mind follows, in horses). Let him sniff the retracted wand (no plastic showing if it's an issue/okay to show it if the plastic is not an issue), you squatting there if you deem it safe enough with your instincts; if it doesn't feel safe, don't squat, just bend and ask for his head down.

While his head is down there, and after he's been allowed to sniff it, start rubbing his face, head, neck with the wand, get his whole head desensitized to just having it rubbed all over him, soothingly, to show him this "small" tool (retracted, remember) is nothing that will ever harm him. Go ahead and stand up, let his head up and continue to rub him all over with that retracted (to smallest size) wand, no plastic showing yet if that's an issue--if plastic isn't an issue, it's okay to let the plastic out, just rub him all over with retracted/short wand; you're separating this out/breaking it down, using advance/retreat.

As you go along there rubbing him with that everywhere, give him nice scratches with your fingernails with the same hand that is rubbing him with the wand. And he'll start realizing: "it feels good to be rubbed/scratched when this tool touches me." Do both sides evenly. But use advance/retreat there, meaning, as you sense you are crossing over and out of his comfort zone there at times (if he starts to move, you've crossed out of his comfort zone), quickly return to a region he was comfortable being rubbed with it earlier. Scratch/rub there a bit, then dart quickly over his comfort zone threshold line, but just as quickly dart back to "safe base" and he'll get there faster, and the comfort zone will stretch wider. Don't be goal focused there, be retreat focused and he'll get there.

Once he can handle that step all over him, next, pull out a few inches of the retractable/extendable wand to make it a few inches longer, and repeat the same exercise, all over his body. This time it's only slightly longer, but not much. Desensitize him with that, just as you did earlier, still hiding the plastic in your hand. When he can handle that well, again, stretch the wand out a couple inches more and repeat all over his body. Keep this route up, baby step by baby step, until eventually, the wand is stretched out to it's entire length and you can rub/scratch him all over with it (and with your fingernails simultaneously). But take this in baby steps, listening compassionately to the horse. He's probably been beaten before with something that looked like this, and you are erasing that memory, replacing it with a new pleasurable one.

Once he can handle the entire length of the wand being rubbed all over him, now slowwwwwwly let the plastic open up in your hand (if that is needed) as you rub all over, but again, do this in incremental baby steps evenly, both sides of his body, listening to the horse. You are now rubbing his body with the plastic in your hand, but it just happens to be attached to a dangling wand that you will have already desensitized him to earlier. Step by step get him used to this, incrementally -- be progression/retreat focused -- not entire-goal focused, and shortly that much he will handle.