Avoiding Unwanted Horse Behavior

Horse Behavior Problems: The Workarounds We Learn to Live With

By Samantha Harvey, Founder — Alternative Horsemanship™ the Remote Horse Coach

I have lost count of how many times I've heard, "Oh, he's done that for a while."

It usually comes from someone standing next to a horse who has been "like that" for so long that the human has built an entire routine around it.

The Common Comments

A few of the more common comments I hear:

• To coerce the hard to catch horse, a bucket, a second one, and a friend stationed at the gate
• Turning the horse loose- ALWAYS swing the gate(s) open beforehand, because as soon as the halter is off he bolts off and kicks out
• The trailer loading that takes forty-five minutes, two helpers, several types of treats, and one specific buddy horse
• The girthy horse who "just makes grumpy faces" so is cinched one hole at a time, with a lap around the arena between each round of tightening
• The horse who "just needs twenty minutes on the lunge line to get the sillies out"
• The corner of the arena "we don't go in" and is avoided at all cost
• The horse who is "only like that with the farrier"

Outside the Horse World

Humans do the same thing outside of the horse world, and most of us know a house with at least one of these:

• A toilet that runs until someone jiggles the handle.
  
  Everyone who lives there knows the jiggle. Visitors get instructions. Years go by without a plumber. The jiggle is accepted as the solution.
• The stair everyone skips because it is loose, right up until the day an unsuspecting guest walks across it and nearly breaks a leg
• The Wi-Fi that gets restarted every afternoon around the same time, until the family simply refers to 3:00 as "router time"
• The closet door held shut with a foot while someone else pushes higher up to "adjust" the warping to get it to close

Each of these "workarounds" may have become fine for the people who "know the routine." But, when the new house sitter arrives, it quickly becomes apparent how many things need to be done in a "certain way" just for the sake of basic functioning.

Why Workarounds Feel Like Progress

Horses are no different. The workaround(s) seem to keep daily life running smoothly (i.e. the least amount of resistance or time needed to get the horse to comply), so it feels like progress. Yet weeks, months, or years later, the horse still appears to carry the same initial concern leading to the "workaround"-and the human has mastered their ability to bend over backwards in their heroic efforts to avoid "conflict"- without ever addressing the root cause(s) of it.

With each unintentional reinforced instance, the equine's behavior tends to evolve, often escalating into a bigger, more dramatic response, reflecting how the root cause has never addressed.

When the Holes Show Up

The "holes" become obvious the day something changes in the horse's world... a new handler, the vet, the farrier running late, a storm, an emergency, a different trailer, and he offers unreasonable or unsafe behavior.

The Instruction Sheet

I often ask students- both in terms of considering one's safety, but also improving the well-being of the horse:

If someone else had to handle your horse tomorrow, how long would the instruction sheet be of the "workarounds" you currently use?

If there is a list forming in your head, it can be an opportunity for an honest reflection of unaddressed aspects in the horse's education. These offer a specific starting point of breaking down the "big task" into smaller segments to gain insight into what exactly triggers, fears, or concerns are causing the need for a "workaround."

Most masking of symptoms begin with a human's good intentions, but limited time and/or skills to seek out the root cause(s).

Do you have a workaround?

— Sam
Alternative Horsemanship™ the Remote Horse Coach

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