Thinking outside the box

Sometimes you have to think outside the box, or in this case inside a box.

This mare has a complex history of aggressive behaviours. Her owners are fantastic and we have made great progress at reducing her aggression by resolving the motivation behind the aggression.

She has a well established response of kicking when her hind legs are touched. We have used desensitisation so she is now relaxed at having them handled and groomed all the way to the hoof. We have a front hoof lift on voice and tactile cue, so we are now going to use the voice cue to ask for a hind lift.

But why the pole square ?

I wanted this mare to have choice in this exercise. This was a big moment for her to choose to either walk away (she has forage out of shot), be aggressive with a kick or decide to offer a foot lift for a reward. We had all 3 at some point in this exercise, by rewarding the behaviour that we wanted, or an approximation of that behaviour we are now getting a clear small lift.

Success !

As she and her owners gain confidence we will add in touch down the leg and a hold of the hoof.

This exercise  was spread across many sessions and finely shaped using her target as a start behaviour. We have several other aspects of her behaviour to consider when creating these exercises for her, this is just a snap shot of some of her work.

ALWAYS consult a professional if your horse is showing dangerous behaviours.

Using a target during the exercise