Why we don't teach desensitisation

Teaching your horse to target is one step of teaching them how to investigate scary objects

This might sound a bit controversial but…

…at Equestrian Movement, we don’t use a lot of desensitisation.

There have been plenty of times in my riding and training career that I have questioned myself because I tend not to use it. I’ve often been told I haven’t done my job properly or a horse hasn’t been properly broken in if it hasn’t been “sacked out”.

And this idea that you haven’t done your job right if you haven’t desensitised your horse had me experimenting with it to see if there truly was something I was missing. If maybe I wasn’t doing the best possible job I was capable of for the horse. After some experimentation I still didn’t like the process and didn’t think it was necessary for a “good” horse.

There are 2 big reasons why we don’t “sack out” our horses to “break them in”.

Firstly, teaching your horse not to react to something there are scared of doesn’t make them less scared.

It just teaches them not to react.

It can work for some horses but they really have to have the right temperament. The kind of horse that is already fairly confident in itself, hasn’t had too much trauma in previous experiences, isn’t particularly spooky or easily startled.

Secondly, it can teach them to shut down.

This means that the fear the horse is feeling is too much to cope with. It doesn’t know what to do with it and switches into fight, flight or freeze mode.

The part of the brain responsible for processing, reasoning and learning is switched off. The part of the brain designed for survival is switched on. The 2 cannot work at the same time.

Maybe you’ve experienced this yourself when you’ve gotten a big fright? In the moment you are just reacting and when its over you’ve had to talk it through with a friend or counsellor to process the experience.

There are plenty of reasons a horse could be struggling with its emotional stress response.

Lets face it - most horses have a tough gig. It could have:

• been weaned too young;

• had to live in isolation;

• not been able to integrate and live with a herd

• not had enough time out;

• lived in a box;

• bad experiences with trainers, handlers, being broken in;

• pain… the list goes on.

I’m not trying to make excuses for them, but I am saying that the number of ways a horse could learn how to process an environmental stimulus poorly is profound. Even if it is naturally a confident and secure horse let alone our more naturally spooky horses.

One of our core philosophies at Equestrian Movement is to first do no harm. Harm may not always be something you can see easily. Mental and emotional harm are just as important to address as physical. We want to build our horses up emotionally to be resilient, brave and confident within themselves.

Another one of our core philosophies is to set our horse up for success. I’ve always believed that we are supposed to be the “intelligent” species. We’re the ones who want to ride these horses and yet we expect them to be the ones to figure it out and even reprimand them for anticipating the right answer. So to set them up for success literally means to make the answer easy for them to find and understand.

So if we don’t use desensitisation, how do we deal with spooky horses?

• We teach them to be curious.

• We teach them how to breath through and process their emotions.

• We teach them how to deal with stress, fear, anxiety, frustration and anger so that they aren’t taking it out on us.

• We want them to build the confidence up in themselves first, and then their trust in us so that they can investigate for themselves something that has them spooked and learn from the experience that it wasn’t so bad.

This has lead to our core training principles in our course Training Trainability, where we teach our horses how to learn.

Leadership, communication and curiosity.

When we start implementing these training tools our spooky, sensitive, reactive horse starts to:

1. trust us to look after them and not put them in situations that are going to end badly for them, whether physically, mentally or emotionally.

2. be able to communicate they are having a problem, before the problem escalates out of control.

3. be curious and investigate potentially scary objects. The best part about teaching curiousity over desensitisation is that you can never desensitise a horse to every potential thing it may ever be scared of (for example the bubble machine in side show alley starting up and blowing across the show ring and bubbles popping on your horses nose). So instead you are teaching them to investigate things they are scared of rather than run away.

Desensitisation is one small piece of the training puzzle too often used incorrectly. While teaching a horse not to react to certain things and then to react to other things is an important part of their education, it is far more important that they know how to process their emotions.

Only then can the horse understand how to find the right answer and how to ask questions.

Are you curious about how we work these principles into our training?

My 2 Cents On Clicker Training...

Let me start this with we 100% love and support the use of positive reinforcement in our training.

Used with clear, consistent boundaries, it can help our horses learn by giving them a stronger motivation, help them enjoy the learning process more, help maintain our relationship throughout the training process and can just make hanging out together more fun and less work. And that is the concept that clicker training is based upon.

You can achieve the same result with the Trainability Program as you can with clicker training - without any extra equipment.

Horses seem to be the only animals where positive reinforcement (i.e. treats and pats) is routinely considered a big no-no. But when you look at all the zoo animals that use clicker training, (elephants, seals etc), the argument against it seems to really not make much sense at all.

The problem with clicker training, however, is the limitation of the actual clicker.

You need to use the clicker to mark the behaviour that you want, but aren’t most of us marking the behaviour already when we say good boy/good girl? Or when we give the horse a break for doing well?

We all know that horse that stops dead in its tracks because you said “good”. Some of us are even marking the incorrect behaviour by releasing pressure for the incorrect behaviour or if the horse is scaring us or bullying us.

The first time I tried to “charge” the clicker with the exercise as per clicker training, I realised my horse already knew these exercises and I had other cues and vocals/noises that not only reinforced the correct behaviour but also corrected the behaviour I didn’t want.

I think the application of clicker training can teach a lot of people how to better interact with their horses.

It teaches the horse to seek the answer, not get frustrated by the process and stay curious about their learning. All of which are important when it comes to creating a positive relationship with our horse that wants to please and is willing. But this can all be done without the clicker, and instead with vocal cues and body language.

So while clicker training is a great concept, it is only a new process applied to the positive reinforcement techniques we should practice and know for our horses. When you work with positive reinforcement to help your horse become more trainable, you eliminate the need for gimmicky or extra tools.

Would you like to learn the concept of true Trainability skills? Click here!