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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2010 14:55:47 GMT 1
In advance of the anticipated move by Kate's mum, we thought we'd best tackle young Spider's fear of travelling. Nothing like some good planning, is there?
When Kate and Jenny bought Spider, they didn't realise what a problem he has with travelling. He doesn't just sweat up, move around or "normal" things like that, he tries to climb out. Literally, to the point of climbing over breast bars and the like. He was also bad with being stabled when he arrived, but that has now been resolved with some good work.
We think he'll probably be better with another horse but, for the safety of that other, I feel it is best to teach him on his own first now, rather than rely on company later. The thought of him still panicking and also setting another off, or trying to climb into the other's partition... well... best avoided really!
Today was actually Spider's second session. The first was a few months ago but things cropped up and it wasn't followed up. I'll recap from then, though.
For all his fears, Spider loads fine. With barely any hesitation, he will just walk on. Session 1, though, showed us that he was anything but happy about it. Even just seeing the lorry raised his stress levels: raised head, wide eyes, raised breathing and heart rates, all showed that he was really quite worried about this.
What I like to do with travelling problems is keep the pressures and stresses as low as possible. Bearing in mind that we are going to work towards the ultimate pressure of confinement with no means of escape in a tin can, any pressure at all can build extremely quickly, with the horse then having few options of how to react.
We started that first session, then, with groundwork by the lorry until he was relaxed just near it, then loading and unloading, then asking him just to stand there, looking out. Only when could stand relaxed inside the open lorry did we then think about starting to close it up. This we did step by step, carefully judging any sign of any stress, holding it there, then releasing. We built up to the point of Spider being able to stand inside the lorry with the back panels across. That might not sound much but to him it was.
Fast forwards, then, to today. It was going to be interesting to see how much of this had stuck, how far back was were going to have to go. With the ramp of the lorry down in the familiar school, Spider didn't bat much of an eyelid. Kate led him up to it - all fine - and loaded him, nothing. This was great, really great.
She asked him to turn round, face the outside world (no problem) and then unload. What? You want me to get off??? Oh, not sure about that! The step down from the lorry body onto the ramp bothered him to start off with so we let him take his time. Once on the ramp he was fine. So we repeated, and repeated to teach him to be happy with the unloading as well as the loading.
Now, this is Spider we are talking about. Spider likes to have a say in what is going on, and today he decided that this was the part of the process he was going to hold onto. He learned he could plant at the top of the ramp. A little backing and coming forwards again, though, and he learned that little resistance was useless.
With the jockey door open for safety, we then built up to having the back panels closed again. This went quite quickly, and the only sign he showed of stress was a little nibbling at the windows. It wasn't much, more that he was looking for a behaviour to give him something to do. As we repeated the process, he felt less need to distract himself and settled well.
The next step was to tie him up. I wanted to be able to communicate with him at all times, so I ran the lunge line through the ring rather than actually tie him up. He immediately started to stress, pawing at the side of the lorry. As soon as he stopped, we unloaded. The stress had been there, nothing had happened, and he was off again. That was that. After that, he tied with no problem.
He also coped with me vanishing through the jockey door - line still in my hand so I could talk to him through that. He was concerned but we kept his stress level at no greater than that and he found he was able to cope. And he could even cope with Kate vanishing too, leaving him standing all alone in the lorry.
This was a huge milestone for Spider. Yes, we've still got a long way to go, but for him to be able to stand on his own inside a lorry with barely any concern at all was huge.
Back on Friday to carry on, when hopefully we'll get the ramp up and the engine running. And hopefully with a camera, too!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2010 14:23:51 GMT 1
Oh, but he is a good little boy! Having had such a good session earlier in the week, the aim today was to keep things really calm and build on the good experience. As far as I was concerned, if we only repeated well what we did, maybe added one extra element, I would be happy. It's all about giving him great memories to draw on at the moment. So, we started with Kate just leading him in and out to set the tone and start from a point of confidence. You can see he was terribly worried: and then fairly quickly we moved onto bringing the back panels round him Not a flicker, just simply not a problem. I should say that he is attached to a longline here and any time that he's on his own, with the line run through a tie up ring so that we can still talk to him even when he can't see us. I'm in the living area for safety. Fairly quickly, then, we moved onto having him standing on his own, panels closed, not being able to see either Kate or me. Again, he's still on a line through to me in the living area. He was just so good, so so good, that we decided to push on. Next step was to take a few steps back and repeat but with the engine running. It's a thuddy sound in there, and you can of course feel the vibration, so he did have a moment of concern but no more than that. Within a few minutes, we were starting to add the pressures of the panels closing, the people vanishing, and he was never more than a little concerned. To make it nice, he got some grass pellets on the floor and that really took his mind off it! Because he was doing so well, and because we do have a time limit with the impending move, we decided we would press ahead. Poor Kate, please do spare a thought for her arms, as I now made her raise the ramp, just till he could see it, and release, and again, and release... We unloaded him a couple of times in the middle, but build up until we had the ramp closed, with the engine running, and Spids all alone. Again, a little concern to start off with but he then went and investigated the ramp up by him and that was it, he was happy. We got up to leaving him for about 10 seconds with him just standing there, then for about a minute with some grass nuts on the floor. When Kate dropped the ramp and opened it up, he made no attempt at all to leave. Not with those grass nuts in there! It just shows how you can break down a fear if you keep the pressures just at the right level for them to cope and learn at the same time. Kate is now going to practice and practice, filling his memory with positives, and then it'll be time to add in the partitions. To be continued...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2010 16:45:32 GMT 1
One of the difficult things in dealing with problems like travelling is finding ways of breaking up all the different complex elements and going through them one by one before starting to ask the horse to cope with combinations. With Spider, we'd got him happy going in the box, with the engine running, with the ramp up, standing on his own. Pretty good. But the next bit is a biggie... partitions. That is the point at which the horse can really start going into pressure, as he feels the partition against his sides, and then there is nowhere for him to go.
I happen, though, to have a few totally revolting square mats left by the previous owner of our house. They are just perfect for tying to pen panels to create a corridor for a horse to learn to be more and more enclosed, and finally work up to having something touching him in this space.
We first of all got Spids used to walking between a the fence and the pen, then tied on the mats with plenty of space. He wanted to blast through even then, but Kate led him beautifully, just checking him but otherwise keeping pressure off him, and he settled quickly. With Kate leading and giving him the time he needed to learn, we then got the panel closer and closer, literally edging in a couple of inches at a time, until it was nearly touching him. He had moments of concern but no more than that.
The biggest worry was having something touching him so we introduced being rubbed with a shavings fork handle separately, then in the panel area, until he was happy standing with the mats very close and the handle rubbing all over him, then my hand, then the mat pressing against him. He was then able to walk calmly through between the mats with them both brushing against his sides, and then standing still between them.
Kate is going to practice this until he gets bored with them, and we will then be able to use them as familiar things inside the lorry to get him used to the idea of partitions.
Getting there...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2010 9:33:28 GMT 1
I'm sure when I first got my blue mats out of the car last time, Kate thought I'd really lost my last remaining marbles. Yesterday, though, they proved just how useful a couple of tatty bits of plastic stuff can be. And yes, this time I remembered the camera! We started off with a recap of walking between the mats to build up confidence. There was a little interest but not much more, so we quickly went through narrowing the gap, touching, and having the mats touch him I then hung one of the mats in the lorry so he could get used to its presence there. After a little exploration, he decided that wasn't too much of a problem either, and he didn't mind standing right next to it. I'm afraid we now get to the interesting bit and no more photos. With Kate leading and holding, I untied one end of the mat so that I could swing it round, mimicking a partition. Even though Spider had seen the mat, had it against him, and had no problem with it when against the side of the lorry, once it became a partition he was not so keen. No big reactions, just tucking himself away from it, head into the corner, body stance braced away and one little bit of pawing. As we said at the time, it's easy to see how someone looking less closely at body language could say he was fine, not worried, because it's all so low key. He was, though, clearly not happy with it. We worked with pressure and release, asking him to bring his head round, explore and discover it was ok, and relax. We didn't work for very long, just enough for him to start to engage with the mat again and bring his head from out of the corner. We unloaded and loaded a few times, with increasing confidence, until he started to realise that this was ok. This is clearly going to be the biggest area for Spider, the narrow confinement in the lorry. He has to learn not only to accept that but also learn to accept the pressure of the partition against his sides as he moves. Even if we give him plenty of space, we still don't want to risk him moving into the partition and going into pressure against it. More good progress, then, but still plenty of work to do!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2010 15:31:37 GMT 1
Well, it was clearly quite terrifying, that partition: "Leave me alone! Can't you see I'm eating!!!" Another good day of progress. Kate had practiced with the mat and it shows. As she said he was no longer bothered by it at all, we decided to see how he'd be with the real thing and popped a partition in straight away. He sniffed it, then ignored it. That was about it. With some haylage in the corner to keep him happy, we practiced loading, turning to get into place, bringing the partition across and then unloading. It was probably one of the least eventful things I've done in a long time. It was as if he'd never had a problem. Ahead of what I'd planned, then, we practiced Kate leaving through the jockey door (maybe some recognition she'd gone might have been touching), me closing the doors at the back (what doors?), and even raising the ramp. That's the only thing we got a flicker from. His eyes widened a little, his head raised and for a brief moment he stopped eating. Pressure and release... 3 times, then unload. Then load again, ramp up till almost closed, nothing! A brilliant note to end on, which is what we did. There are still a lot of steps ahead of us but if we can make each one as easy for Spider as this, then we should get there.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2010 18:36:05 GMT 1
Good boy Spider! After a break of a month or so, Kate now has her lovely new lorry with CCTV, so it's time to get practicing again.
Today's session was really all about making sure he was happy in the new lorry. Kate had popped him in and out a couple of times but he wasn't entirely happy with it. It's very different, side ramp and very new smelling still. It really is worth spending just that little bit of time on settling a horse to these changes, though. I'm fairly sure that if we'd tried to build him up without having listened to and answered his worries about the new environment, he would have just added to his stress and it might then have gone wrong. As it was, we took him in and out, rewarded him for standing still and relaxing, and only when he was able to stand still, happily and calmly, no worried eyes or anything, did we introduce the partition.
We took a little time over the partition but it was clear that he was happy with it (We'd set it to almost double distance, to give him plenty of space). From there on, we just rattled though it. The only, and I mean only, reaction was when we started putting the ramp up and he first saw it. From then on, he was just brilliant. We put the ramp up, waited, down, unloaded, repeated twice more, and he could not have been more chilled.
Next step is to repeat what we did in the other lorry of practicing this with the engine running, then we can get moving...
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2010 13:56:48 GMT 1
Working entirely inside the lorry now, it's hard to take photos but I thought I'd try and take a snippet of video instead by placing the camera on the side in the living quarters. However, all I succeeded in doing was taking some footage of my bottom, with the occasional glimpse of a horse's nose, and I think the world can live without that. You just have to take it from me that this actually happened, then. We moved!!! Not very far and certainly not very fast, but we did nonetheless move. Before we did that, Kate and I did a little practicing as to how to go as smoothly as possible, just for a metre, then stop, so that we could be sure to give Spider the nicest experience possible. This was so worth doing as we found that Kate could move both forwards and backwards smoothly, but braking always caused a slight jolt. If, though, she just let the lorry stop, it was smooth. The plan, then, was to load and close up, then for me to stay with him (with the groom's door open for safety), while Kate drove forwards a metre, then stopped, then again, etc, till he settled. Pressure and release... We would have done that, had he become unsettled, but he didn't. I could feel the lorry moving, just, and I'm sure he could but quite frankly, he couldn't have cared less. On to the next bit, then. We moved forwards a bit further - Spider carried on eating his hay - we started to go round a corner - Spider carried on eating his hay. This was going SO well... then Spider noticed the window and saw the world outside moving, and at about the same time one of the other horses called out. Ah! That's what Spider doesn't like!!! He never went past head moving and eyes wider, but he was distinctly less happy. I encouraged him to lower his head, eat, not worry... and when he did, we stopped, unloaded him and walked him around for a few minutes, then loaded him again and repeated, and again. Each time he loaded well, each time he was absolutely fine with the partitions and the ramp. That's fantastic as it could have shaken his confidence a little an reminded him why he didn't like these movey things. With Spider still alive, no blood gushing or anything like that (much to his surprise, no doubt!), we left it there. Having now identified what's ok and what's not, my feeling is to split them apart, really consolidate the bits he seems happier with - the sound, the movement - then come back to the more difficult bit. Kate is going to run up a couple of pairs of curtains, either that or somehow cover the windows, and I think next time we'll have Daizey (her wot was calling cause she thought she was going somewhere fun ) out and away from the lorry, and see if we can build up on the loading, engine running and the lorry moving. Then, even if we haven't got to the point of him being able to see out in a couple of months by the time of the move, at least he'll be able to travel over to the new house safely. Total distrance travelled today, by the way, approx 100m, maybe. Max speed, probably slow saunter. It's a start, though, and from small starts...
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2010 13:05:44 GMT 1
Spider has just driven round the stable block without stopping. ;D Three times. ;D ;D ;D
I personally think it was because he liked the design of the pillow cases that Kate has taped to the windows... but it could also be that without being able to see the world moving, he found he could concentrate on the motion and then it was within his scope to cope with it. It's also possible - a long shot, I know - that the distraction of carrots hidden in his haynet might have helped, just a little!
So, we can now do moving, and we can do corners. We've looked at the options for driving futher and have safe areas that include bumpier terrain, noisy gravel and inclines of various gradients. At any point we could stop and let him have a release of pressure or even unload if needed. We also then need to build in the sound of things hitting the outside of the lorry.
But... he now knows that being in a lorry, while that lorry is moving, and even while he has to adjust his balance, is ok. One small distance for a lorry, one huge distance for a Spider!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2010 21:09:42 GMT 1
I got a great email from Kate earlier: Just thought you'd like a update... We did exactly the same today as the other day. He was a little more anxious, but there was a lot going on, you weren't there, it was late in the day, hot etc etc BUT the important thing is... He coped with it! He didn't flip, he was ok. Kept hunting for carrots and didn't get overly worried, just a little more looking about, no trying to turn around. I'm really pleased with him and I think he'll be fine to try different surfaces on thursday. Looking forward to it! I'm very, very pleased. That he is learning he can cope even when things change, even when things aren't ideal, is just fantastic. That's building his confidence, and when he has that, well, there will be no stopping this little horse!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2010 12:00:22 GMT 1
We have been on a journey, a long, long journey... it was about 1/2km, in fact!!! We started off by going round the stable block once, just to start with something familiar. Kate was driving a little faster (but still not quite registering on the speed dial!), and Spider didn't bat an eyelid. From there, we went for a little drive down a track. It was bumpy and on a fairly steep hill (down). Spids had a couple of moments of uncertainty, looking around to see if there was anything to worry about, and he really had to work to keep his balance at times. We stopped twice to take the pressure off, then got the to bottom of the hill where we unloaded him and walked him back home from there. He wasn't relaxed and his breathing was up, but he'd coped. He'd never hit a point beyond concern, and for most of it had managed to carry on playing hunt the carrot in the haynet.
If allowed, I think he might have unloaded too quickly but we asked him to stand and wait, then he walked quietly down the ramp. I popped him back on again, stood for a moment, then again unloaded quietly.
Again, this now needs practice. It's twisty, bumpy and steep, much worse than anything he'll actually have to encounter on a real road journey, but if he can do that, the real thing should be easy by comparison.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2010 17:18:27 GMT 1
Apologies for boring you with Spider again, but Kate and I are just so pleased with this little man. This morning was really consolidation, plus a bit. We loaded, then went the other way round the stable block, along the bumpy track, down the steep hill, did a 3 point turn, back up the steep hill and home. In between, Kate noticed her door wasn't probably closed so there was a bit of banging there, the carrots I'd brought along to hide in his hay if needed fell on the floor, and you can hear the noise of the lorry. He looked up a couple of times when Kate was turning round, and looked a bit confused when the slope changed from down to up, but that was about it. Apart from that, he sort of did this: If you remember, this is the horse who was so panicked at travelling to the point of trying to climb out over the breast bar (on more than one occasion). It's taken a while but I think we might be almost there!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2010 17:34:42 GMT 1
Ok, hands up all of you who would now think Spider was ok to travel? And hands up all of you who would, in this situation, now have taken him for a spin round the block?
Well, I'm so glad we didn't. If you take nothing else away from this thread, take away the need to be thorough in your preparation for travelling a horse who has previously panicked when travelling. That reaction is still in there, if you hit the right trigger...
Today was a real test for Spider, without moving an inch. We know that, whichever way we go when we leave the yard, the road will be narrow, just for the first mile or so. If we meet another vehicle on that stretch, we will have to have branches hitting and scratching the sides of the lorry. That's what we were preparing for today, with the help of the lovely Shelagh (Arizona).
With Shelagh on the outside with a carefully chosen branch, and Spider in the lorry but with everything still open, we started off with just a slap and a scrape on the outside. Spider was fine, not a big problem at all. So far so good, we thought, and started upping it to bigger noises. A few jumps but nothing major. He kept returning to his haynet so I was happy to continue.
Then I asked Shelagh to simulate a branch hitting the front of the lorry then scraping along side it. Oh no, that was not nice, not at all!!! The hitting noise made him jump, but what he really didn't like was the shadow of the branch coming through the pillow cases over the windows. We were back to his initial problem when we first started moving, he doesn't like the movement outside.
By now, his stress levels were quite high. He didn't do anything major but this was the most upset I'd seen him since we started travelling. It was not the day to try and push it, and risk undoing everything we'd worked so hard for. We unloaded him (head high, eager to get off) walked him round for a couple of minutes and then loaded him again.
To leave on a good note, I asked Shelagh to scrape along the side of the lorry but keep the branch below the windows. Spids listened, thought about worrying, but then returned to his haynet. Good. This confirmed to me that, even with his adrenalin still high, he can cope with the sounds, it's still the visual he has a problem with.
On that good note, we unloaded him (head down this time), and called it a day.
In an ideal world, we would resolve this problem in his mind before travelling him. We don't, though, have enough time. The move is approaching in just a few weeks and we need to do the best we can in that timeframe. The plan, then, is to really black out the windows so that not even shadows can come through, then try again on Friday.
I'll let you know how it goes...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2010 14:13:09 GMT 1
Bingo!
Blackout the windows completely = 1 happy Spider!
Here's another interesting lesson from Spider - dark is better than moving. We had the jockey door open to let some light in, and had the lights on - to start off with, until they for some reason went out! To our eyes, it looked a bit dark and we wondered how Spider would cope. To Spider, it was probably no different than being in his stable.
We made some clunking noises inside, some rustling noises, and simulated branches against the side of the lorry - both sides - and he did no more than look round once or twice. With nothing to see, there was nothing to worry about.
I think we're ready for a little drive...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2010 20:43:02 GMT 1
Spider would like you all to know that he has now been for a drive. ;D
Because of all the preparation work done, he didn't mind about the driving, the bends and the hills, the bumpy bits in the road, the trees brushing against the sides, nothing. He could see through the door and out of the front window at one point and was more interested than worried, then returned to his hay. He was good with general traffic but did get a little worried by a group of very noisy motorbikes and sports cars that accelerated past as if on a race track. He settled down again, though, and we arrived back home cool as little cucumbers. No sweat, no worry, nothing (none of us!).
I think we were probably out about 15 - 20 minutes and at one point reached a heady 30pmh!
Kate is going to see if she can fit in another couple of quick zips round the block, then I think we're there! Ready for the big move in just under a month.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2010 18:12:26 GMT 1
Well I tell you, what a learning curve about travelling! Having spent all this time getting Spider settled to travelling, Kate very wisely decided to practice loading the others to make sure they would be ok when it came to the big move, just a couple of weeks away. Nothing horrendous, but some of them were sticky so we decided to do some practice yesterday.
To prove Kate a liar, they all loaded nicely. Daizey thought about it for a moment but by keeping ultra low pressure she hopped on fairly quickly. The others were fine. But... (you knew there had to be a but) we've since found that only Seamus is really happy in there at all. As long as he's eating, he really couldn't give a stuff.
Until we started moving we thought Gloria was ok but once she started to feel the motion she went slightly shut down, couldn't even eat. Daizey, who was with her, started pawing and became more stressed as we edged slowly round the stable block to see if she'd settle.
Digby was fine loading but when he started to see things closing in on him he became nervous. He did settle once he felt the movement and I think he'll be ok, but practice of being enclosed will help.
Bubbles we knew doesn't travel well. When she travelled to Kate's she arrived in a pool of sweat. We tried her on her own first and she started to become stressed within about a minute of moving and you could see it would just escallate if we'd continued.
So... we had our work cut out. The original plan had been to travel Seamus on his own as we thought he'd cope with it (there has to be an odd one as we don't want to risk Spids with someone, or change what we have taught him). However, because he's so chilled he's a good anchor, so today we tried him with Bubbles. She was so relaxed with him there that that's decided.
When we loaded Gloria and Daizey today - still together as they are quite close - there was immediately anticipation so when we did drive round the block they were pawing in stereo! Backing off, then, we did some loading, eating, unloading. Gloria actually got worse for it, so we swapped over who loaded first, stuck Daize in first then Gloria and they both settled much more quickly. I'm sure there will be a reason why they prefer to be that way round, not sure what it is, though!
That's something to practice, then, loading, eating, hopping off - and the same with Diggers on his own, so that hopefully when we do more practice actually travelling later on they start from being relaxed when the lorry starts moving.
I do so many loaders and relatively few travellers. I wonder how many travelling problems we're missing because once the ramp goes up, unless they really are bad, we just don't see it? If we had not been in there with them, especially with Gloria at the start, we may never have known... Makes you think, doesn't it?
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