This beautiful Friesian mare has perfected the art of coming out of the stable at the same time as her handler whether she is asked to or not. She doesn't rush but will crush whoever is in the way. We don't always know why a behaviour starts but in this case it may be that she was afraid of being left in the stable on her own, or in an enclosed space. Since she appears to be very settled when she is left in the stable those reasons seem to have gone. However, that initial reason activated her into-pressure response so that as soon as she gets near to the gate or door to her stable she just keeps going. She is too strong to stop once she has reached this point of no return. Friesians are bred to push a cart (and I do mean push) so she is an unstoppable force once this automatic instinctive behaviour kicks in. The behaviour has been working well for her and has therefore been reinforced over and over again. As far as she is concerned, that is job done.
We broke the session down into sections - stopping her walking straight back out again as soon as she was in the stable, asking her to stay in the stable with her headcollar on when we left her, and finally staying in the stable with her headcollar off when we left her.The Dually halter was insufficient to stop her once she was coming forward and body language only had a limited effect. Accordingly I resorted to using a rattle bottle to ask her to stay where she was in relation to the gate (about three strides away to the right) so that I could leave without her coming with me or rather straight through me.
The rattle bottle is really my last resort for horses that invade space or walk through people but ultimately their safety has to come first. Much better than the practise of hitting a horse with a piece of blue plastic pipe which I know is used at one local stud. Once again it is a case of asking a horse to give up automatic, instinctive behaviour and to do the complete opposite which requires them to think. The rattle bottle had the effect of causing her to think and worked from the outset. I made sure that I rewarded the thinking behaviour by giving her a lovely rub so that if she even shifted her weight to the outside front foot rather than taking a stride forward, she got a lovely rub.
The loaner is going to practice this and will stop using the rattle bottle as soon as a new pattern is established. As well as sending her the photos from the day, K will receive her horse report, notes on general training and groundwork, as well as an article on Dually fitting.
"Thank you very much for today and for the pictures and report. After I saw you I took her for a ride and then tied her up outside. I asked my mum to get the horse that goes in next to her in before I put her in to reduce stress as we do normally bring two in from the field at a time. She put her horse in and then I led Villy in. I turned her around and I asked her to stand. I then held up the bottle and walked out of the stable backwards and closed the door. She didn't attempt to move at all and when I had shut the door she still stood still. Excellent result, am looking forward to seeing how she is in the morning." KF
I don't normally work Sundays and so I took advantage of the rest of the day and change of scenery to go for a run. Owners look a little bemused when they see me strip off to my running gear! I got a bit lost once I left the Roman Road and seemed to have explored most of Upton Heath. Overall distance 10.4 miles.
