Article I've just written for EBF. Any comments and constructive criticism gratefully received.....
Finding the fear
I had never anticipated writing an article on equine-related fear. That was something that happened to other people. I had been very lucky when I was learning to ride - the British Forces Pony Club (in Sennelager, Germany - anyone else know it?) where I probably received my most influential early teaching had a selection of manic ponies and most of our hacks resembled mock hunts across the training area, jumping everything in sight and considering the ride boring if we hadn't fallen off. One of my favourite ponies would even buck if you touched him lightly behind his saddle and, in my ignorant belief that this was high spirits rather than pain (as I am now ashamed to admit), we would have lots of rodeo games as well.
As I became older I grew out of such a gung ho approach and learnt to consider the horse a lot more than I did as a teenager. But I still love going out galloping and jumping and have generally felt comfortable around horses.
Then I became pregnant and it all changed.
In my part-time work as an independent barefoot trimmer I was trimming a number of horses, some easier to handle than others. It had never been a problem - I would do what I could, avoid getting into any confrontation, respect the horse's wishes and leave a training program with the owners so that they could do some shaping with the horse and help me do more the next time. Depending on how much effort the owners put in, we were making progress.
As my hormones kicked in, I started feeling much more protective of myself. I started jumping out of the way of a reluctant pony much more readily than I would normally. The barging I anticipated was sometimes entirely imaginary on my part but I started to cause it to happen. The combination of my inadvertant reinforcement of "unwanted behaviour" and my fear of getting hurt worried the horse even more, started a downward spiral of behaviour. The "unwanted behaviour" escalated and, had I been unaware of what was happening, I would have been in danger of creating problems for the owner after I'd gone. Luckily I realised and we were able to make alternative arrangements for the more problematic horses before I made things worse.
When my baby was around 5 months' old a friend asked me to help her with her mare who was being difficult to lead out of the field. I had watched my friend struggling and noticed that there was poorly-timed reinforcement all over the place - the mare was getting confused and, in the absence of clear instruction, taking control of the situation with bites, pawing and the odd rear. Rather arrogantly I went to help, vowing to ignore the unwanted behaviour, work through the extinction burst and offer the mare the consistency she needed to understand what was desired of her.
I soon realised that I was out of my depth and not out of my fearful phase - as I applied light pressure to the lead rope, she resisted with biting, pawing and rearing and my resolve and ability to work through the extinction burst withered away. Reinforcing this sort of behaviour is obviously a bad thing but as I went to re-catch her from the other end of the field, I knew that I was not the person to try again. I would inadvertantly make things worse. So I took off the head-collar, let her go and helped my friend devise a safe plan of action until we could get a different trainer out.
In my fear of the situation I was mentally labelling this mare as somewhat dominant and felt she needed to learn from some simple exercises that she could relax and not fight basic requests from a human. I had seen the trainer use these exercises with other horses, whereby the horse learns to yield to very mild pressure, as a basis for future exercises involving positive reinforcement instead.
The trainer duly came and his words were like a slap round the face to me. He commented on what a wonderfully light and sensitive mare she was. He gave her lots of scratches and had her relaxing in his company. He led her around so that she could willingly earn more scratches. She learnt to stay out of his space in order to earn yet more scratches. And she showed no desire to rear or bite or perform any of the behaviours that I had found so scary. So she had no need of these pressure+release exercises that I had been so sure would be key.
I know all of this so well. I have been promoting and teaching the use of positive reinforcement for years. I have argued ad nauseum that it is the fearful, sensitive and hence aggressive horses who need it more than most. Yet all it took was one little baby, a dollop of fear and a scary situation to have me reaching for an assortment of pressure techniques and making the situation worse.
So I hope I, and maybe some of you, can learn from my mistakes. If you are in a situation of which you feel afraid, extract yourself as quickly and safely as you can and give it some serious thought before you get back in there. If you still feel the need to use pressure techniques on a horse who is using aggression and "big" behaviours to say "help", maybe you need to reconsider whether you are actually putting your fear of geting hurt and/or your ego ahead of your desire to help the horse. And if you stil think the horse is saying "sod off or else" rather than "help" then maybe have a big think about why the horse might say that to you.
There is nothing wrong with feeling afraid. It is a pretty good mechanism by which we can keep ourselves safe. Yet our culture is not very forgiving, and the equine world even less so. "Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway" is a best-selling self-help book by Susan Jeffers, in some ways very good, in other ways perpetuating the message that fear needs to be overcome as quickly as possible. What's the rush? Using flooding techniques for ourselves is just as inadvisable as for our horses. Shaping our own behaviour gradually in the way we would (should!) shape that of a fearful horse helps us to counter-condition our own fears and not overface ourselves. That in turn prevents us getting into situations we cannot handle without resorting to aggression. To me, resorting to aggression to overcome a scary and preventable equine encounter is much more a sign of failure than pre-empting it and knowing when to leave it for another day.
In my years of advocating the use of positive reinforcement with horses I have found that whenever I waver and start to think I've found a horse who is the exception to my principles, it is always this horse who ultimately becomes the better teacher. Always this horse who actually reinforces my view that horses are peace-loving and not out to get us. Always this horse who tells me more about what is going on in my head that I might like to admit. I see my friend's mare daily and she serves as a constant reminder to me, if you think positive reinforcement is not the answer than be very, very careful.
And on the plus side, I hacked my horse last weekend and flew over some log jumps for the first time since very early pregnancy. It felt fab!
What a brilliant post Catherine. Very brave of you to write it . I have had many dilemas myself working with Romeo.For those that don't know , he was imported from Portugal and gelded at 5 .6 mnths later I bought him.He turned into what I described at the time as a ' monster ' as he went from a very strictly controlled environment and handling into a bit of a free for all environment.Many many times I questioned whether I wasn't being firm enough with him and maybe I should start to do some ' pressure and release ' training with him , incase he was trying to dominate me .Thankfully I didn't and have just stuck with the + re with just a few saftey arm waves when he got a bit too big .He became unruly becuase he was confused and frustrated and didn't understand he wasn't always going to be told what to do. He is getting it now , we have the odd slip occasionally but we are now finally starting to trust each other.
So thanks for your article , it was great too read and know I'm not the only one
Rach
This message has been edited by lorzzle on Apr 20, 2009 9:15 AM
Would you mind if I put your post on a closed forum?.
I was invited to be a member by some of my clients and am there as a "Barefoot Expert" to be asked questions specifically on barefoot which usually lead me to referring them to a professional.
Really it is a forum for people with confidence issues surrounding horses, I feel your article would be so appropriate for many of them.
There have been times for me (with the ponies and the new dog)that I have thought that the 'others' must be right and I wrong but luckily to wake up to myself and realise the fear factor talking.
I was just thinking the other day, when my dog was pulling my arms out on our walk... and me thinking that at least dogs with choke chains don't pull... of something I had read (or thought I had read) in the past that went something like:
What right do we have to say to an animal 'Do as I say or else I will hurt you'
Anyway, I can completely relate to the fear concept you talk about, having had 2 children. They are older now but they still need me and I don't have the bravery or inclination to get myself into situations that put me in danger. Perhaps it's some kind of maternal instinct thing?
Interesting what you say about flooding as well. I wouldn't dream of flooding my animals to make them face their fears but feel bad if I don't feel the fear and do it anyway!
Jo, please do post it elsewhere. That's great. Please could you just include an acknowledgment to Catherine Bell (http://www.equinemindandbody.co.uk ). BTW - I replied to your email but never got a response from you. Not that I needed one but some emails seem to have gone awol recently so just checking.
Oh and Helen, if it's any consolation, dogs with choke chains (oh darling, don't you know they're called training collars now?! FFS!) do still pull. My parents in law have a lovely example of this - and they're really stuffed on occasions when they forget the chain... Her desire to get to places just over-rides her discomfort. Stopping and waiting worked a treat with Sam if that's any good for Louis......
I posted your article last night and the lady who started the forum and is the forum owner asked me to pass this on to you:
From Bea:
Thank you so much for posting this Jo. What an absolutely frank and honest account of how things were for Catherine. I wholeheartedly commend her for that, so many people won't face their fears and even less will admit them to the world for fear of ridicule etc.
I've always believed that horses are great teachers and I try hard to learn their lessons. I don't always get it right.
That article is a masterpiece and is one I am sure I will return to often.
Please can you thank Catherine for allowing us all to see this, I for one am really grateful.
I've been working with Ben Hart's techniques today funny enough in terms of finding the comfort zone for Timmy near the A14 where ultimately we will need to pass underneath to go on some of our other hacks. Like the piggies, we don't HAVE to go this route, there are still lots of other options. But I want go anywhere do anything horses - my biggest task is becoming a go anywhere do anything rider like I was when I was a kid...
Anyway, sorry, I'm rambling now.
xx
Catherine:
PS: There were lots of other, all positive, comments from the other members, so thank you from them all. JO
"Oh and Helen, if it's any consolation, dogs with choke chains (oh darling, don't you know they're called training collars now?! FFS!) do still pull. My parents in law have a lovely example of this - and they're really stuffed on occasions when they forget the chain... Her desire to get to places just over-rides her discomfort. Stopping and waiting worked a treat with Sam if that's any good for Louis...... "
Training collars? Of course they would be!! FFS, silly me!
Yes, I know they still pull, they have necks of steel. I just like to mumble threats to Louis as I'm going tripping and bumbling along behind him!
Tried the stopping and waiting and each time I stop when he's pulling, Louis does a beautiful circle and walks next to me again... for about 3 seconds... and then forges ahead again ... and so we do it again... and again... and again.... Sigh!
