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Post by rideforever on Jul 30, 2016 14:10:40 GMT
Is it possible to use completely fear free training on a flight animal?
I follow a page on Facebook, called "Fear FreeTraining". Basically, it's an advertisement for his book of the same name, but he brings up interesting points.
- a relaxed confident horse learns better
-3 day colt training competitions are stressful to the horse and not good training
Basically, he thinks that round penning is all about chasing the horse into a sweaty, stressed mess
I'm not sure it's possible to avoid a horse experiencing fear during training. And maybe I'm odd, because while I don't go out of my way to scare a horse, I'm ok if he does get scared. They are prey animals, after all.
And that gives me a chance to show him how to work though the fear and give him coping skills.
How do you all deal with fear in a horse?
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Post by horseguy on Jul 30, 2016 18:57:46 GMT
I agree that the time limited horse training competitions are generally stressful for horses. Training was never meant to be a competition.
As for "fear free" training. It depends on the horse. All training depends on the horse. They set the timing, intensity, everything. If they bring fear to the process, it must be dealt with. I horse trainer should never bring fear to the training process. If you are afraid or become afraid, you must stop the training. Let me tell you, I have been afraid while training many horses over the years, but somehow early on I learned that when I became a afraid I had to stop. That principle evolved into what I began to call a heart rate meditation. If I was training a horse from the saddle, which I like best as a context, and I became afraid, I'd just sit and breath and listen to my hear beat. I absolutely believe that horses feel our breath and heart beat. Once I would go into this focus on my breath and heart beat, I'd say 99% of the horses that scared me would stop moving and stand. The other 1% would buck, twist and do stuff, and that made it hard to watch my breath and heart rate, but I tried.
The vast majority of horses that have scared me responded to my "meditation" by standing still. I'd just sit in the saddle and let my breath and heart even out. When those two things were steady and even, then I'd begin training again. After doing this breath/heart practice for decades, I learned that horses are very curious about how we deal with fear. When you face your fear and let it run it's course, then they almost always respond with trust. This is how I deal with my trainer fear.
Dealing with a fearful horse is different, unless they scare you. Dealing with a fearful horse means that the training is not fear free. They bring the fear and you have to deal with it. My favorite and first way to address a fearful horse is to show them a good time. Perhaps my all time most wonderful horse was Riley, a 3 yr. old 17H TB/QH gelding and a striker. Long story short, after trying all kinds of stuff to show him a good time to get him past his intense fear, I took him out on the cross country course and let him run. I think the third time around the course I started pointing him at some jumps, mostly because I was bored. It was like I just gave him his first hot fudge sundae. After that he was no longer afraid of humans, I think he changed and let go of his fear because humans became the beings who took him out running and jumping, his most favorite thing.
Show a fearful horse a good time, whatever that may be for them, and you will no longer have a fearful horse.
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Post by jimmy on Jul 31, 2016 14:33:40 GMT
Most of those proponents of "fear free training"(insert trademark) freely state the the horse is a prey animal and we are a predator, and that the only way to diminish fear is to stop acting like a predator.
If horses are indeed a prey animal, then their entire makeup is based on fear. Their defenses are based on fear. There language, vocal structures are based on alarming, calling out, warning, scared. They are all about fear. It's how they are wired.
I do agree that the greats reward a horse can have is to be free of fear.
I think it would be better to call this training approach, "Predator Free Training", Because that is really what they mean.
I may have started something!
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Post by rideforever on Jul 31, 2016 23:05:38 GMT
Jimmy - You better trademark that!
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Post by horseguy on Aug 1, 2016 12:13:06 GMT
I didn't know that "fear free" was a trademarked brand. It makes sense that someone would try to use that as a slogan or tag line. The idea of fear free would be attractive to today's horse owner.
I think equines are prey in nature, but horses have been bred for thousands of years, so I think the natural wiring has probably been altered with only remnants of the natural still in them somewhere. I guess I feel that each horse brings what they bring to humans and our job is to respond to what they bring to us. Lots of fearful horses have come my way. It's sad to deal with the ones that have been made crazy by fear. I think what makes the crazy ones crazy is that horses have such good memories. They seem unable to forget, even in the face of opposite experiences from fear like kindness and patience. It takes so long to reduce a horse's fear, we need to be very careful not to create any in them. During my first paid horse training job a old trainer told me, "Horse training is not so much doing anything right as it is not doing anything wrong". Not dealing with your own fears while working a horse, or not dealing with the horse's fear in a way that reduces it, is wrong, prey animal or not.
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