Friday, March 12, 2010

Buddy Sour! Not as tasty as a whisky sour...


Well, its happened, I have had to actually work on separation anxiety in my own horses. This never was a problem until now when I have only two on a small farm, isolated from other equines in the world. Its not like I haven't taught this lesson before, its just that I haven't needed to on my own horses. "Dern it" and "oh goody" all at the same time. Obviously, this opportunity is adding to my own horses training. Its giving me more practice in learning to teach a very in demand lesson. It sets a good goal for me when my lesson plans seem to have wandered down a path to no where. But "dern it", like trailer loading, its one of those less glamorous skills to teach. So where do I start? Well, since Boo doesn't seem to be the "sufferer" in this instance and she is the one going to be leaving the property for a clinic in May, we began with Cuervo. I shut him up in my round pen which is in the middle of the turnout where they both live. Like with teaching trailer loading, I do not put any hay in there for him. After all, I need to gauge his responses and hay would definitely prove to be a distraction that would cloud true results. I then get Boo ready to ride right by the round pen. With in nuzzling range. One can also simply do this whole exercise on the ground as well,which is what is recommended if both horses seem agitated by separation. I however have chosen to ride, as I mentioned Big Boo is not at all fussed about where her roomie is or is not. My goal is to raise Cuervos emotions just a little by moving Boo away from his pen and bringing her back as soon as he begins to look a little bit worried. In the beginning he was beside himself bucking and pawing while we simply brushed and got tacked. So even this had to be broken down into smaller bits for him to digest. In other words, I would brush her a tiny bit and return to the rail to hang out with Cuervo, playing lip games and brushing his face. Then I would return to brushing her. Returning to him before his behaviour escalated into pacing laps or bucking jags in place. This only took one 30 minute session and I was able to brush, saddle and mount Boo the next session with nary a peep from him . I actually added walking and stopping around the pen just over the rail for the first few minutes before walking a few steps off the rail and back. I increased the length of the walking increments as he was able to tolerate her moving around the outside of the pen. If he started to trot ahead of us, exhibit driving behaviour, or paw the ground we simply stopped and stood until he relaxed again. You see some horses will actually look worried and whinny to their mates. Cuervo, however, tends toward stallion like behaviour or full on flight with bucking and farting. In some circles this would not be accepted as anxiety but "bad" behaviour and he would most likely be shut up in a barn to "work it out" so the other horse could be ridden with out influence from the "bad" horse. This technique is well accepted and is called "flooding" in behaviour modification circles. If it fails as it has a 50/ 50 shot of doing, the repercussions are miserable for the horse who didn't work it out not to mention for the trainer called later to fix it. I don't approve of this type of behaviour modification for horses nor to do I approve of chemical intervention unless its an emergency situation. Like all other skills, this lesson can be taught and is a life skill that the domestic horse is going to be required to master. Not many of us can ride both of our horses at the same time after all! We are still a work in progress. However our last session (before the gallons of rain) Boo and I where all over the turn out with cuervo poking about the round pen in a very disinterested manner. Next will be to have him in a the smaller turn out while Boo and I continue in the larger one and then reverse it by having our ride in the smaller and he in the larger. Then we will ad stints outside the turn out and stints inside the trailer, out of sight. Until he is ho hum about all of this I will not give him hay as a distraction. By clinic time I expect he won't care that we are gone for the day. Stay tuned......

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