The Importance of a Good Shaping Plan

There is no feeling better than the dopamine hit of task achievement.

You know the one - that feeling when all of our plans go TO PLAN when working with our horse.

But there’s a little secret to getting more and more of that success… a good shaping plan.

A shaping plan determines what your end goal is, helps identify what trying look like, and if things go wrong, can help you see where to pear back or identify gaps. This is why taking a moment to think about what it takes for both you and your horse to achieve a task is critical to your ongoing success as a holistic horse handler that doesn’t need to bully or punish a horse (and if you need assistance, the Holistic Horse Handling Program has over 30 unique foundational shaping plans PLUS a “build your own plan” guide for those moments of unique situations that will inevitably occur!)

Let’s take a quick look at what seems to be a very simple process - putting a halter on.

Your horse needs to:

• be able to relax

• be able to stand still

• be able to stand still near you

• be able to stand still near you and relax

• be able to consent to your touch

• be able to stand still with you touching their head and ears, still relaxed

• be able to stand near you touching their head, relaxed, with a halter

• be able to consent to being haltered

• be able to stand as you put the halter on, relaxed

• be able to stand as you adjust the halter, relaxed

• be comfortable with the halter on

You can see how such a simple process actually takes up a lot of small steps and at any one you could experience issues.

Before we even look at putting the halter on, there are a number of foundations that we need to have built - relaxation, stand with relaxation, consent to touch, consent to halter, and communication skills, so they can let us know if something is too much or uncomfortable.

Without a good shaping plan, it becomes really hard to identify the missing gaps when, for example, your horse starts tossing it’s head. Is it relaxed? Is it trying to tell us something? Is there frustration? Pain? You may be able to have a stab in the dark but you risk damaging that connection you have been trying to achieve. With a shaping plan, you have more insight into what might have gone wrong and work on re-evaulating your plan to suit your horses skills and emotional needs on that day, as opposed to fumbling in the dark.

The added bonus of a good shaping plan is you get to practice those foundation skills over and over until they are as automatic as breathing. You will see when your horse is relaxed, and know how to help them relax. You will see when your horse isn’t consenting, and know how to work towards a positive result.

So let’s break down the components of a good shaping plans:

1. Objective: what is the goal (and does it serve to benefit the horse)

2. Prerequisite: what does the horse need to know - and what do yiou need to know - to achieve this?

3. The What: what does it look like when successful?

4. The How: how will you guide the behaviour, mark the behaviour, reward the behaviour?

5. The Troubleshooting: what might happen instead? How can you change that behaviour?

6. The Reflection: what went right, what went wrong, what can we do better and what to we need to practice?

More often than not, we think about Step 1 & 3, but don’t always plan for the rest. But if you give some consideration to the Prerequisites, you will realise how easy the other steps fall into place.

So, given this information, what shaping plan are you going to put together? Tell us in the comments below or head to the Stronger Bond Facebook Community for inspiration!