Thoughts on my horse's behaviour -kelly or others?

[dudey]

I have just been watching a program on horse and country of Kelly working with a coloured cob called Jake who is sacred of tractors. She had the horse follow the tractor round the round pen to get over his fear adn he was at the end following it without rope.

Then suddenly had a thougth about my horse. He is stabled on a farm and while he is mainly ok with tractors he is not 100%, (i nevere have problems getting him past of of him getting very worried, but more he is aware of it) he is generally fine if its just the tractor but if a trailer is on it too he is less sure. However they have a Terex (which is kinda between a tractor and a JCB) which he is really not happy with. It replaced a matbro which he was also not happy about. He is very aware of it and where it is, and will run away if he is in the field, his field is on the side fo the raod that the terex regularly goes up, or if he is in stable and it comes past or into the yard he will dash to the back of his stable. However We have always laughed at him as to his reaction after this, as if the terex or matbro came close he would run away, however as soon as it passed he would come forward, as if he was chasing it and we joke that he is saying something like "yeah terex, you run away, im nto scared of you, but you are of me".

What is he doing here? Is he schooling himself or it is natural instinct that Kelly was using with this horse getting him to follow the scarey thing?

[portiabuzz]

hes scared so gets away from the tractor, but then when it goes away he gets more curious to look closer? Or does he move quickly towards it?

[dudey]

He moves quite quickly towards it

[Yann]

If it's moving away it's not dangerous, so he's curious about it - does sound to me like the same instinct Kelly would have been using, and might be a way to help him get over his worry if the farmers will oblige

[Catrin]

One of the reasons is that he wants to know where the vehicle is: if it's going away, it won't harm him. The other that he gets chance to look, smell and hear it, so he recognises it in the future.

[dudey]

I should maybe add that I have had him almost 10 years and have kept him at the same place the whole time, so he has seen the matbro/terex every day for almost 10 years which no sign of him getting used to it. I have many many times asked him to investigate it while switched off and the farmers are very good and always go past very slowly.

[dudey]

Anyone else?

[pip]

I wonder if it is the sound of the engine, or does it have an extending arm?
Mine are OK with tractors and trailers, but there is one machine, an older Kramer loader, that they do not seem to like at all and the only thing I can think is that the engine note is quite harsh. They are fine with everything else, including the combine.

[dudey]

Yes could be the noise of it and yes it has extending arms. Hmmm

Any ideas why he "follows" it?

[dudey]

Up!

[1biteyhorse]

My mare does a similar thing with the bin mens wagon, she is not impressed as they come past us but will happily follow along behind having a good old look.

[Kelly Marks]

When the object moves away it's non threatening.
The stage between fear and overcoming fear is curiousity - look out for it!
Glad you're making the link between the H & C programmes and 'real life' - that's really rewarding for me to know.
This is such a good piece I'm going to use it in the LP if that's OK?
Dudley can you get a photo of your horse following the Terex?
Kelly

[dudey]

I have watched them all and there was something else you said that made me go "ping" and a bit more became clear but cant for the life of me remember what you said! Will need to go and watch again.

He is generally a very nosey curious horse. He spends alot of his time "watching"! When I first got him he would spin and dash off from things he was sacred off. So i taught him that being scared was ok, stand and look at something is ok, take 1 step forward is brilliant, stop and look again is good but spinning round and taking off is not ok. To the point where he had to walk up to scarey object, I wasnt bothered how long this took him, and once he was brave enough to stand beside it and even have a sniff he got told he was brilliant and we carried on. So now if he spooks at something he will take himself up to it step by step, sniff it and then walk on. And he is generally pretty bombproof for a flighty quite stressy TB, and not bad at all for a horse that was going to be PTS as he was too dangerous. He really has been such a good instructor for me.

What is the LP?

And yes I will try and get a pic, im not actually sure if he would follow it, I have never tried, but will give it a go! However the yard is sheet ice atm so will need to wait till after it thaws! I could actually try and get a short video of it going past him so you can see what he does.

[dudey]

In fact, are you doing any demos in Scotland at any point, wondering if Minto would like to do some work with Kelly and the terex.....

[Kelly Marks]

Hi Dudey
The LP is the LIstening Post magazine which is for members - just £20 per year and four lovely magazines, Free DVD, private audiences and (have I convinced you yet?)
Kx