Desensitizing to something scary

A few days ago, the maker of an off-road wheelchair came out to the farm to let me try out what is likely the most powerful all terrain wheelchair on the market. I generally have to sit in one spot and teach my horses from that one spot, or I hobble painfully around them for a few steps or try to manage a bit of training without tangling lead ropes in my crutches. This can only get us so far in our partnership. Their brains need more stimulation and so does mine.


The chair is HUGE. It's got these large tank-like tracks on either side which allows it to travel easily across the softest deepest sand, finest river silt, and loosest gravel. It goes through mud, water and up 45 degree slopes without blinking a battery light. Did I mention it's HUGE? The treads on the tracks are meant to dig in and crawl over rough terrain, on paved surfaces however, there's nothing to dig into so the treads thwap and rattle against hard surfaces. And, it's HUGE. 


When we find something that our horses are uneasy about, we work with them to help them overcome their fears. We don't avoid things that might be frightening to them unless we just simply don't have the time it takes to deal with the situation fully. We'll make a note to work on it and come back to that as soon as possible. As a result, I have a barn full of horses that really don't spook and bolt at much.


When I drove the Tank Chair (yup, that's what it's called), into the barn aisle that morning, most of the horses glanced up then went back to eating. A couple came over to their gates to check it out, but two of them totally freaked and wanted to climb out the back side of their stalls. Those two felt cornered by this evil sounding, obvious horse eating monster. They had no escape. They were trapped in their stalls and terrified.


A horse must be able to feel like it has the choice to leave and get away from something that makes it uneasy before you can begin to get it's brain in gear. Thus, the first thing I did, was take the Tank Chair out into the largest paddock and unlocked the first panic stricken horse's stall. He was so frightened of being stuck in the stall with that "monster" loose in the paddock that he raced out of the stall right in front of me and ran to the farthest fence line. As soon as he knew he had the option of escape he was able to gather the scattered chickens in his head and became more open to learning.


I drove the chair around in a few circles as far away from him as possible, then drove it toward him. When he moved away I'd move along with him while his butt was turned toward me, if he turned to face me, even if he was just trying to change directions in order to shake me off, I'd move away from him a bit.  Within less than 2 minutes he would follow me for a few seconds before he chickened out. If he stopped moving, I'd stop moving. 


In less than 3 minutes he understood that the monster stopped when he did, so it might not be so bad. Plus "Granny is riding the thing!" With a slightly worried expression, he approached me and I rubbed his forehead and then moved away from him. He followed for a few steps and we began "the dance" again, until he followed me for 5 or 6 steps, I stopped and he came right up to me for his head rub. I drove away again, he walked calmly over to the stalls and stood. This time, I approached him and he stood still and relaxed even as the monster approached. I was able to pull right up to him, stop and rub his head. His worried expression was gone and he was totally relaxed. 


Training session time was under 4 minutes and we progressed from absolute panic and trying to climb stall walls, to completely relaxed and accepting of the scary object. See YouTube video of the session below: