I was part of an immensely cool discussion with @pantherflows and @r_eflectiveequine, among others, about what we do when a horse is stuck in freeze mode, staring at something. I shared an idea I use either for crisis management or for taking the opportunity to experiment with nervous system down regulation, but not a total overload (hopefully that’s obvious - if you’re over threshold, abort mission if you can).
There were some different ideas on whether to click or not, which was awesome because I spent the next week thinking about it. I click, and came to that conclusion after that week because yes, I do want to “train” this behavior. I’m fairly certain my (and my clients’) horses are not conflicted about the food, it’s not playing a distractionary role (there’s a place for that, too), they have all the time they want to look at the thing, I don’t ask for their attention unless I can see they’re close to offering it, and they can go back to looking at the thing if they want to. I don’t need their attention 100% of the time. If I do need it for some reason, I can try a target and see if that works. Most often there comes a point where they’re ready to reengage.
A bulleted list of my idea:
- Click/feed when horse checks in with you
- Wait for the horse, don’t ask for their attention
- Opportunity to learn subtle body language and develop your timing
- Move away if you need to
This has sort of an ethical component to it. One could argue that it’s not ethical to directly manipulate the emotions of another being. Since I am rewarding the horse for bringing their attention back to me, I am prioritizing - putting a higher value on - the horse’s shift away from freeze. I am prioritizing the emotion I want over what the horse may need to feel in that moment. I would argue that horses living in domestication do have to change their lives in order to accommodate people, and this is a comparatively non-invasive way to condition a safety stop-gap that will work to a certain point (your mileage may vary). But yeah, it’s a little ambiguous, even if from a more philosophical perspective.
Anyhow, I’ve had pretty good success, even in some more intense situations.
