In which Tama wears his halter like a pro and he makes Daisy-May's acquaintance

Well I have spent a total of about 2 hours with Tama over the last week or so - about the most he's had each day is hay thrown over the fence.  Not ideal, but what with work, study and my dad being really unwell, his training has taken a backseat.   (Which is a double shame because working with the horses really helps me to keep my stress levels down, as well as benefiting them).

However, I got an hour with him yesterday morning, and another hour or so this morning and we've made SUCH progress just in that much time!  I just wish I was able to work with him every day.

Most exciting is that I finally put a halter on him this morning.  It was easy as pie, and he wasn't in the least bit concerned.  He'll wear it in the paddock for a while, until I've done a bit more work with taking it off and putting it on again over the next few weeks.

One of the other things we've been practicing is 'happy faces'.  He has a tendency to put his ears back when I walk up to him, or reach out to brush him, which is just him being cautious and wanting to keep an eye on things I think, but it doesn't feel nice for either of us so I've been reinforcing him for putting his ears forward.

Putting this sort of behaviour on cue has a double-sided benefit, as what you reinforce (the ears forward) is so intrinsically linked to the emotional state that you ultimately reinforce the positive emotions as well.  It works in the same way as it does with people, in that it's very difficult to maintain negative emotions when we smile (even if at first it's a 'fake' smile).  Another behaviour which causes this effect in horses is the head-lower, which is calming and helps with emotional control.  If a horse has been taught to lower its  head on cue you can use that behaviour when it is stressed or over-excited to calm the animal down, and many horses then begin to spontaneously use it themselves when something has scared them. 

Anyway, he's definitely getting the idea of happy faces, and is progressing well with that.  Mike (my hubby) said Tama looked pretty funny, concentrating really hard and flicking his ears forward and back as he figured out what I was reinforcing him for.

He's also letting me touch all over his face, ears and poll now which is nice.  Here is Tama making the acquaintance of Daisy-May, our beautiful but thoroughly impractical-for-the-farm ragdoll cat.  He thought she was kinda interesting.

For anyone interested, here is a fantastic paper written by Dr Sue McDonnell about how (and why) to exclusively use positive reinforcement to solve problems with horses who are injection shy or otherwise "non-compliant" with veterinary procedures.  I like that she recommends training in an open paddock, rather than the tight confines of yards or pens.

What's more, the reasons described for using these methods are the same for any animal learning any new behaviour that might be considered stressful (such as putting a halter on a feral pony for the first time, for example!).

Dr McDonnell is the keynote speaker at the Bayer Lecture Series this year, and I'll be going to hear her speak.