We do all kinds of odd desensitizing exercises here at Bit of Honey Training. Most recently we took a field trip to Amy and Sue's barn. Amy's husband (legally and with a permit) got an elk last weekend and had skinned it for the meat for their family, then thoroughly cleaned the hide for use as a training tool for the horses. Amy had worked with Zora in hand the day before with the hide draped over the round pen wall. While fairly brave, as a four year old Zora had never seen anything quite like this before and was understandably nervous.
The elk hide still had a slightly pungent odor to it, and as prey animals it makes sense that horses would be anxious about a hide. If there's a dead animal, there could be predators close by!
After arriving, we got ourselves parked in the driveway and I unloaded the horses.
I took Dewey over to the round pen first, since he's had the most desensitizing over the years. He's been to a million horse shows, horse expos, done freestyle performances in costumes with the dogs, and generally trusts me even in odd circumstances. I first took him into the round pen and we merely walked past it, with me between him and the elk hide. We did several laps of the round pen this way, both directions, always with me between him and the hide.
Each time Dewey walked past without paying much attention to the hide I'd give him a cookie from my yellow bucket. Once he was familiar with it but not concerned at all, I let him get a bit closer to inspect, continuing to reward his approaches to the hide with treats.
In general Dewey wasn't worried about it. This is a great illustration of how over many years of doing weird things with him (hula hoops, mattresses, tinsel, costumes...) he has learned to be brave in the face of new things. I don't care if a horse never walks across a tarp, what matters to me is that they learn how to be brave when presented with new things, and to look to me for direction and comfort if they're concerned. Dewey's nonchalant reaction to the elk hide, a totally novel stimulus, is the perfect example of how he's learned to be brave over the years and to look to me as to how to handle himself in the face of something potentially scary.
Eventually Dewey did even touch it with his nose! I then turned him loose in the round pen with the hide draped over the wall. He pranced around a little, then returned to the hide to touch it with his nose and get a cookie.
After investigating it at liberty, he decided the hide was no threat, but he should be on alert for whatever predator dispatched the animal. The neighbor's barn had a few horses working in the arena, but the lay of the land was such that Dewey could only see the horse and human's head periodically as they popped up over the hilltop. This intermittent movement on the horizon was of some concern, so Dewey spent time staring at it in an effort to determine if that was the predator. He also looked the other direction at the other neighbor's goats, who were also lurking ominously at the property line.
Definitely a huge success, though, as Dewey was in general alert but really calm. Love that Super Dew!
Ferriana went with us, too. She had similar unexciting reactions to the hide, with similar inspections of the neighbors. I did handle her a bit differently than Dewey, as her mind works differently than his. She's a hotter and smarter horse, so I needed to give her something to focus on to redirect her attention back to me. If I just puttered around like with Dewey, she would have taken charge of the situation herself and ignored me. So we did some in-hand work over the obstacles Amy had set up in the arena, like the small jumps (which Ferriana loves).
We did address the hide, but she didn't care much.
I did turn her loose in the round pen with me and she wandered around eating weeds and generally being sociable.
Lastly I took the dogs out on their leashes and we watched Amy and Zora work with the hide. It actually helped a lot to have Zora watch both Dewey and Ferriana. Neither one of them was very concerned about the hide, so when Zora had her turn in the round pen she wasn't too concerned either.
Rizzo was very attentive, just in case Amy needed her help. We were sitting just outside the round pen, so Rizzo could watch everything and she definitely thought she should intervene once or twice!
Pascal was more nonchalant about offering assistance. He was more interested in digging a series of small holes at my feet in search of tree roots to chew on. He does this at home occasionally too, we always say he's setting booby traps. Pascal is always willing to pause for snuggles, though.
