Week Number One with Henry

Week Number One with Henry

My plan for Henry's first month is to just let him get used to things and work on simple stuff.  I want him to settle in and to get to know him.  We have been turning him out to play and leading him around to show him the sights and sounds.  Everything is going well.  We haven't introduced him to the other horses in the family because I thought it might be a good idea to keep him quarantined for a bit.  He seems quite healthy, and this is only as a precaution.

The day we met him, it was obvious that he was head shy, and it became all the more apparent when I tried to take off his halter.  I immediately tried to put it back on, and he wanted nothing to do with it.  I took a lead rope and wrapped it around his neck to keep him in place.  He then allowed me to halter him, but he did fight it a bit.  I haltered and unhaltered him three times, and each time he got better.

I talked to Ellen about it, and she suggested unbuckling the strap that goes over his head and snapping the throat latch closed.  That is how she used to do it with Ranger who didn't care for being haltered.  This way, I wouldn't have to pull it over his ears.

The next day, I did just what she suggested.  At first, he didn't want to hold his head still and got worried when the halter approached his face.  I put my right arm under his head and placed my right hand on his nose to stabilize his head.  Instead of trying to halter him with my left hand, I brought the halter under his head and placed the nose band in my right hand that was on his nose, and then slowly brought the nose band around his nose.  It worked!  Whenever he does anything good, I rub his neck right in front of his withers and praise him.  He just loves that.  I didn't take the halter over her head, at first.  We just kept repeating putting it on his nose then rubbing his neck.  I lost count of how many times I did it.

When I finally brought the strap over his head and buckled it, he didn't even  care.  We did that a couple of times and called it a day.  I then walked to the other end of his stall and looked at him.  He studied me and walked over to me so I could pet his face.  He was no longer head shy.  (He is still sensitive with his ears, but we are working on it.)

We practiced it the next day with great success.  The following day, I went to retrieve him from his stall.  He walked up to me, and before I realized what was happening, he stuck his nose in his halter on his own.  

Another project we are working on is picking up his feet.  That is something he didn't do well with when I went to look at him.  I have about a month before our farrier comes out, and I want him to be well behaved for him.  Our farrier, John Warner, is terrific at his job, and the least we can do is have our horses be the best that they can be.

Henry didn't want to lift his feet up, and when he did, he didn't want to hold them up.  I hate struggling with feet, and it was tempting on some days to skip the lesson, but I was determined to work with him on it.  The first couple days felt like I was getting nowhere.  He planted his front feet down like the had taken root to the ground.  When I got one up, he immediately pulled it away.  The back feet weren't that bad.  He just didn't want to keep them up for long.  When finally I was able to pick up a hoof, I held it there, praised him and rubbed his neck in his favorite spot.  By the third day, he picked them up readily, but didn't want to keep them up.  Of course, he got no neck rubs if he pulled his hoof away.  I think he made the connection, because by the fourth day he didn't do that bad at all.  I am so glad I found his magic spot.

Ellen groomed out his mane and tail and gently introduced him to coat conditioner.  The spray bottle didn't bother him that much.  She said that he said he wanted one of his own so he could play with it.,

Some may wonder if I am going to do clicker training with him.  I haven't decided, yet.  Of course, I went through this with Trifecta, too, and capitulated in the end.  He was impossible, and that was the only thing that really helped.  Henry doesn't seem as complicated as Trifecta, and with him just loving the neck rubs, I can still use positive reinforcement--I just don't need the treats.  There are some negatives with clicker training that we discovered.  I may just use it if we come across any big stumbling blocks to get us through.  We'll see.

I have learned so much by using clicker training with the other horses, but the most important thing I learned has been how to use operant conditioning.  Everything we do with horses (and other animals--and even people) is either reinforced or discouraged by the action following the behavior.  I have become very mindful of this.  If it is positive reinforcement, it doesn't have to be a click followed by a treat, but it could be rubbing his neck or verbal praise (once he is conditioned to know that verbal praise is good.)  Negative reinforcement is removing something --usually pressure.  (Timing is very important.)  Positive punishment is obvious--which Henry experienced when he bit me.  Negative punishment is harder to integrate in training, but I have used it.  It is punishing by taking something away.  Sometimes Trifecta can misbehave when I am riding him close to his friends.  I then punish him by taking him away from his friends.  If he is good, I let him stay and that is positive reinforcement.  Even when I didn't rub Henry's neck because he pulled his foot away, he may have felt that was negative punishment if he was expecting that I would do it automatically.

Whatever happens after a behavior reinforces or discourages, and with Henry--just rubbing him in the right spot is such magic.

We are using it on his leading, too.  With my rubbing his neck when he does "whoa," his "whoas" are getting sharper and straighter--and this is just the first week!

Our first week went so well, and I am looking forward to see what the future holds.