Hi,
This is a long email. I thought about splitting it in two, but decided to finish up with Blondie’s saddling project. This topic could easily take ten more emails (in case you want those emails let me know, and I’ll think about it).
So let’s continue…
Now that we have found our starting point and established a clean pattern, I can begin shaping the saddle.
The trickiest part is the girth. Many horses seem ok with the saddle on their back but show signs of discomfort when the girth is tightening around their chest. Whether that is due to discomfort at this moment or based on learning experience is not necessarily obvious.
Too many people jerk up the girth with one strong pull and too tight. No wonder the horses complain.
Yes, you want the girth tight enough to prevent the saddle from sliding and accidentally ending up under the horse’s belly, which can be another reason for a horse’s dislike or fear around saddling, but it shouldn’t constrain too much. Leaving enough room for your flat hand is a good rule of thumb.
In Blondie’s case, I am very confident that her response to the saddle is based on learning history and not linked to pain or physical discomfort. Therefore, I wanted to build a new saddling routine that valued her hesitations or worries.
The entire interconnected behaviour chain is filled with check points to evaluate if proceeding to the next step is “Blondie approved”. These check points make all the difference in the end between a calm and relaxed routine or one with swipes and pinned ears.
An outsider won’t perceive the difference between the new routine and one that ignores Blondie’s response and just “gets on with it”. But YOU will see the difference in the end.
Approximating the girth
In the last email you saw how much I needed to deconstruct the saddle in order to get a clean loop. You might ask yourself how a rolled up leg wrap can transform in to a saddle?
Watching the next video clips, you will understand better, how this process evolved.
In the following sessions, I used the component skills that I built previously to approximate the girth in a way that doesn’t worry Blondie. I began opening the leg wrap slowly until Blondie was comfortably targeting the bandage. Then I used the targeting behaviour that Blondie learned to bring herself under the saddle pad.
I presented the bandage, Blondie targets herself under it, starting at the neck before moving to thorax and girth area.
I am not showing all the variations of where the bandage contacted Blondie’s body. Just know that I kept it variable, always starting at easier zones before approaching the saddle and girth area.
Note that I also reinforced the unwrapping part, i.e. when I took the bandage away, as this part is important for removing the saddle.
A movement cycle is complete when you are in the position to repeat the behaviour.
Removing the saddle is part of the complete routine.
Tightening the girth
When Blondie was comfortable with the bandage all over her body, I needed to solve the puzzle of closing the girth.
I started out by leaving the bandage hanging down on the other side, from her back to the ground, then I would kneel down to grab it. That turned out to be another of Blonde’s worries, so I added a training step to make sure that me kneeling down wasn’t a concern anymore. With that step in place, I could pick up the bandage from the ground by reaching out under her belly.
In order to maintain the dialogue, i.e. Blondie initiating the next step, I waited for a weight shift of Blondie towards me which she already offered. As she leaned towards me, I raised my hand holding the bandage which brought it in contact with the girth area, which was immediately followed by a reinforcer and removal of the bandage.
This was a key step that is carried forward in the final routine.
In the following step I combined the bandage with the saddle pad et voilà, we have build a saddle!
This was a crucial moment and was put to test straight away. Just as I had put the proxy saddle, a hunter fired his rifle and Blondie startled. Things could have gone wrong here, but Blondie was solid, and passed the “Shit happens – Real life test” with bells and whistles. What a girl!
I believe you can now imagine how this process unfolds. In the following training sessions, I replaced the bandage with an actual girth with the sound of the metal buckles, first without saddle pad and then combined. Initially, I used a very long girth, to allow more space under the belly before making contact. Then a shorter one. Then I replaced the saddle pad with a saddle, first with the bandage and then with a girth.
Now we have a saddle with girth and Blondie’s behaviour did not change since we started with the rolled leg wrap.
Preparing for the final environment
My goal was to saddle Blondie in our grooming area where she is tied with halter and lead rope.
Therefore, I put a halter on Blondie and integrated a “tying station” into the lesson. This is also a good strategy to teach a young horse being tied, in addition to giving to pressure, which I presented in earlier emails (this could also be a potential “dive-in” email series).
When all steps worked smoothly in the paddock, I took the entire routine to the final environment.
The result
For comparison, let me bring back the baseline video from before starting the training.
And this is the result after the five week training programme.
The beauty of this constructional approach is that I did not try to change Blondie’s BEFORE behaviour. I obviously did not punish the swiping but I also did not “click over” the BEFORE behaviour.
I assume that her baseline behaviour was guided by a negative reinforcement contingency., i.e. Blondie’s behaviour functioned to avoid the saddling. Had my approach been to e.g., click for standing with the neck straight while I put the saddle on without changing anything else, I would have superimposed a positive reinforcement contingency over a negative reinforcement contingency without resolving the underlying problem and it may have created a conflict.
Instead, I trained a new behaviour chain that is guided by a positive reinforcement contingency. This new chain looks similar to baseline, both could be labelled “saddling”, but it is a new behaviour. And the old one is still there.
Once behaviour is acquired, it will always remain. It may not occur for long time but as soon as the conditions that control this behaviour re-occur, the behaviour comes back.
So when I saddle Blondie, I make sure that I stick to the new routine. She will remind me in case I forget 😅
For fun
I continued the training, taking the saddling to the arena.
At this point, I decided that Blondie was ready for ridden work.
Wouldn’t you agree?
Michaela