Halter-training KitKat and Mars - Part 1
By Ali Chew
I was asked earlier this year to halter train a couple of foals who were due to go together to a new home a few weeks later. Halter-training is a very important part of a horse’s education – a horse that doesn’t lead well is often a pain to handle. In my book, a horse leads well if you can trust it to walk with you, stop when you stop, turn when you turn and so on, calmly and quietly, in a variety of situations, without you having to push and pull it around and without it walking on you. All this can take quite a time to achieve as once the basics are established, they must be practised in as many different situations as possible. In a couple of weeks, we would only be able to get these foals started.
Halter-training Options
There are many different ways to halter-train a horse. I could have put on headcollar and lead rope and dragged the foal out into the field and then just held on until it stopped fighting – this ‘flooding’ technique is not very ethical and not very safe though! The foal’s fear levels would have been high, its understanding low and, even if I could have held on, I would most likely have been kicked.
I could have used one of the ‘natural horsemanship’ type methods but I’m not keen on them as they are based on negative reinforcement and the flight response to fear.
I could have used pressure release halter training – put pressure on the lead rope till the horse moves forwards, and then release the pressure as a reward. This again uses negative reinforcement (removing an aversive stimulus to reward the behaviour) – but think about the horse’s situation here: you create discomfort for the horse by pulling on its head and when by chance it eventually steps forwards you release the pressure and remove the discomfort; but the horse is probably a bit scared of you and that won’t change just because you are the lesser of two evils, in fact the fear is probably going to increase for a while as, until it realises you are not going to hurt it (which may take some time as you’ve already made it uncomfortable!), it has to be closer to you than it wants to be.
I prefer to base training on positive reinforcement, or reward, and find clicker training particularly effective, safe and animal-friendly. It is excellent for halter-training as, unlike the other methods described, it does not use force and makes the handler a pleasant stimulus that is worth approaching. This is the method we decided to use although the owner was slightly worried that using food rewards would encourage the horses to bite – if done correctly however, clicker training can actually be used to stop horses biting.
The Foals
The foals I was asked to train were both about 7 months old; Mars, a Welsh Section D filly and KitKat, a coloured cob colt. The filly had just been weaned and the colt had been weaned about a month before. KitKat was reported by the owner to have been quite bold and confident while with his dam but since weaning had become very nervous and highly reactive – this was confirmed by his reaction to people in his loosebox, especially strangers, particularly if they moved, when he would leap across the stable kicking out with both hind legs. Mars on the other hand was a confident young lady, slightly nervous of people but curious enough to hold her ground. Both had had some halter-training before weaning and were wearing headcollars but neither appeared to have remembered much about it.
Making Contact
The first stage in training the foals was to make contact – you can’t lead a horse if you can’t catch it! To do this I stood quietly just inside the door of the loosebox and let them habituate to my presence – this just means letting them get used to my presence and learn I was no threat. Once they were comfortable with me being there, I took a scoop of pony nuts in with me (a scoop so that it was obvious I had food). Mars very quickly worked out I was a source of food and was quite confident in approaching me. KitKat, at the other end of the scale, was very suspicious and took some time to work up the courage to investigate the food, which for him I held on the floor as this was where he was used to being fed and, crouched down, I was smaller and less scary (but wearing plenty of protective gear!). At first he was very tentative and kept all his weight back, ready to back off at high speed, but gradually as he relaxed I was able to transfer some nuts to my hand and then each time raise my hand a little higher until he would eat from my hand while I was standing. Mars skipped all this palaver and went straight to eating from an upright person’s hand!
Click / Treat
By this time I had added herbal horse treats and carrots to the pony nuts as such high value foods that are not fed routinely tend to be more motivating (the foals’ feed had been reduced to stop them getting fat too). In the meantime, I was also introducing the sound of the clicker – for KitKat in particular I started with the clicker in my pocket to muffle the sound as I had a feeling it might worry him at first. Then I moved on to click just before giving food to associate the sound with the reward, and then to requiring behaviour to earn a click and treat – it is important that the horse learns that it has to do something in order to earn its payment of food and that whatever it is doing when it hears the click is worth repeating.
For both foals, the first behaviour to be rewarded in this way was approach. Initially as soon as the foal turned its attention to me, it was rewarded with click / treat. Then the full approach was gradually ‘shaped’ by rewarding the foal for turning its head to me, moving bodyweight in my direction, taking a step towards me and finally walking up to me. Mars again learnt this very quickly while KitKat was much more cautious.
I will tell you more about the foals’ training next month.
If you have any concerns regarding the behaviour of any of your animals, would like one-to-one help training them or would like to learn more about animal or specifically equine behaviour, please contact Ali on 07799 608125 or ali.chew@virgin.net
