Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2010 9:51:04 GMT 1
It's about time this lady had her own thread. Meet Bronte, Nancy's buddy and nantesse's other trouble free horse. Ha! We wish...
Bronte is a stressy lady. She is very bonded to Nancy and suffered big time when stabled if she even thought Nancy might be going somewhere. She was bad to load but we've worked on that a little, going to the vets for scoping, and she was great last time. But of course Nancy had loaded first. More work there, in the future, maybe.
Bronte did have ulcers as well and certainly seems happier now and for being out 24/7. She still has some big worries. One of those is being touched by people. The lovely Nyul came to give her an Equine Touch treatment and Bronte wouldn't even let her near her! Now, I've led Bronte before now but only for the purpose of loading (and that is getting from a to b loading, rather than training) and hadn't noticed she was that dreadful. However, just reaching out to put my hand on her neck got a huge reaction, Bronte wasn't sure whether to bite or spin and kick so tried both at the same time. To start off with, any touch, anywhere, got this sort of reaction. Using pressure and release, while blocking the teeth, we got to just sort of unhappy:
and then onto actually ok being stroked most places. I didn't go into her worst places, deep under her belly, just yet. If she finds it hard to cope with being touched on the shoulder, then there is no point in asking her to even think about more vulnerable areas.
There was one really intresting point that came up during this to do with using stroking to desensitise. Jo showed me how Bronte is with her. She's not so bad but still not exactly joyous at being stroked. What happens, though, is that Jo strokes Bronte, Bronte makes faces, and Jo carries on and finishes her stroke as you would a normal horse. If you think about it, though, Jo hits a spot that Bronte says "bog off" and her hand then continues past that and leaves. Bronte is, then, justified in thinking that her behaviour has worked. The key, then, is to get to the "bog off" point, hold you hand there and wait for the horse to think about it, accept it, then release. You are then releasing the acceptance, not the unwanted behaviour.
This way, you can go from this
to this
Bronte has some bad experiences with people that she needs to replace with good ones. It'll take time and patience, together with some improved technique. I wouldn't hold my breath that she'll turn into a cuddle monster, but hopefully she can learn not to be a monster of any sort!
Bronte is a stressy lady. She is very bonded to Nancy and suffered big time when stabled if she even thought Nancy might be going somewhere. She was bad to load but we've worked on that a little, going to the vets for scoping, and she was great last time. But of course Nancy had loaded first. More work there, in the future, maybe.
Bronte did have ulcers as well and certainly seems happier now and for being out 24/7. She still has some big worries. One of those is being touched by people. The lovely Nyul came to give her an Equine Touch treatment and Bronte wouldn't even let her near her! Now, I've led Bronte before now but only for the purpose of loading (and that is getting from a to b loading, rather than training) and hadn't noticed she was that dreadful. However, just reaching out to put my hand on her neck got a huge reaction, Bronte wasn't sure whether to bite or spin and kick so tried both at the same time. To start off with, any touch, anywhere, got this sort of reaction. Using pressure and release, while blocking the teeth, we got to just sort of unhappy:
and then onto actually ok being stroked most places. I didn't go into her worst places, deep under her belly, just yet. If she finds it hard to cope with being touched on the shoulder, then there is no point in asking her to even think about more vulnerable areas.
There was one really intresting point that came up during this to do with using stroking to desensitise. Jo showed me how Bronte is with her. She's not so bad but still not exactly joyous at being stroked. What happens, though, is that Jo strokes Bronte, Bronte makes faces, and Jo carries on and finishes her stroke as you would a normal horse. If you think about it, though, Jo hits a spot that Bronte says "bog off" and her hand then continues past that and leaves. Bronte is, then, justified in thinking that her behaviour has worked. The key, then, is to get to the "bog off" point, hold you hand there and wait for the horse to think about it, accept it, then release. You are then releasing the acceptance, not the unwanted behaviour.
This way, you can go from this
to this
Bronte has some bad experiences with people that she needs to replace with good ones. It'll take time and patience, together with some improved technique. I wouldn't hold my breath that she'll turn into a cuddle monster, but hopefully she can learn not to be a monster of any sort!