Anxiety or Trained Pacing?

The 12 year old Anglo-Arabian that I mentioned in a previous post arrived today, named Sparky.  The first thing to notice about her today was that she has an interesting odd behavior of pacing the fence line.  Of course the logical and regular assumption is that she is tense or anxious, and is performing a self-soothing behavior.  Most of the time that is what's going on with a horse who arrives and is nervous in a new environment.  Another good guess would be that she is herd-bound, and upset about being separated from the other mares.  However, if she were nervous about being with the herd, she would pace the fence line that she shares with the other mares in an effort to join them, but she runs the opposite fence.  She also only runs the fence line if she notices a human observing her, and more so when she sees her owner.  After unloading her from the trailer I put her in her paddock and allowed her a few minutes to investigate her new accommodations.  About an hour later I gave her the requisite distractions, like the cleaned-out milk jugs with horse treats in them tied to the fence that she paces, as well as tying a hay bag for her in the very middle of her route to distract her every time she passes them and interrupt the stereotypic behavior.  With horses who truly have developed this behavior as a stress-coping mechanism this often works.   

Then I went into the house to return phone calls and do some office work.  Periodically I would peek out the door and watch to see what Sparky was up to.  If I was sneaky enough and she didn't see me, I would find her standing quietly, munching her hay or playing in the water tank.  As soon as she noticed me watching her, though, she would begin to run the fence again.  If I approached her or walked away from her it became faster, and if I held still she would periodically freeze and stare at me.  As I went about my business in the afternoon with the other horses she would be calm if I ignored her, but as soon as she thought any attention might be coming her way she would get fast again.  I could almost program a treadmill for her speeds, her antics were so predictable based on how much attention I was giving her.  Even me looking in her direction would influence her. 

This fits with the information I have about her lifestyle before she came to Bit of Honey.  In an attempt to be kind and supportive, her owner has given her treats and praise whenever Sparky looks stressed.  I suspect that Sparky (an incredibly fast thinking and logical horse) had interpreted that to mean, "If I run I can get praise from my human, and if I run FAST I get a treat as well."  This has carried over into many of this horse's dealings with humans, and she has inadvertently been rewarded for even quite dangerous behaviors, such as kicking, hitting people with her head, and running into people.  I suspect that we can solve the behavior problems by making Super Smart Sparky see they are not desirable to us humans, and she will not be rewarded for performing them.  Usually behaviors that are not rewarded are self-extinguishing after a period of increased activity.

This is a much more common issue than people think, having a horse that has inadvertently been trained to perform unwanted behaviors.  It's especially common in the smarter, quick thinking breeds because the timing of cues, rewards, and corrections is so important.  If you are standing three steps away when the horse does something good, and you walk up to her and tell her "good girl", she assumes that she is being praised, not for the behavior you intended, but for whatever she is doing when you arrive and whatever she is thinking when she hears the praise.

To use an example from the dog world, I had a husky mix that was brilliant.  She was incredibly hard to train because it was so hard to catch her at just the right time to praise the behavior she was performing and also thinking about.  So if she sat down when meeting a new person, and the person bent over to pet her and tell her she was good, my dog would already be thinking about jumping on the lady or dashing out the door by the time she heard the words "good girl".  Therefore, while the human thought she was praising the "sit", the dog figured her thoughts about door dashing were being praised and were correct. 

The plan for Sparky is to retrain her by ignoring the poor behaviors (like running the fence), and praising at only the correct times.  A quick "yes" in a happy voice, followed by absolute silence is probably going to be sufficient.  However, if that is still too long a word and we find her misinterpreting the praise, we may incorporate the clicker (with which she is already familiar) into her training to isolate correct behaviors.  Conversely, if we can't accurately isolate and praise the right behavior, we will ignore her completely.  So if she pauses in her fence-running for just a moment and I know I'm not going to be able to praise her before she starts running again, it's better to ignore it all completely rather than try to praise her and risk reinforcing the wrong thing.  Intermittent reward is a powerful tool, so we don't have to catch EVERY correct behavior, even catching every correct third repetition is good.  It will be very important to ignore the bad behaviors, because a creature this smart will often interpret correction, the word "no", or even a slap, as attention and therefore reinforcement of the behavior.  Timing will be very important with this mare.

Exciting case, and I do love a horse that makes me think up new ways to communicate effectively.  I also love working with an owner who is so eager to learn, as Sparky has.  I'll keep posting as her training proceeds and her good behaviors develop!