JUNE 2018 THE RIDER /39 ^Between The Ears^ - Fear to Focus Part 2
scared them if no harm or stress occurs in those expe- riences. A horse that is flooded with the stimuli that triggered its fear, can learn to become helpless. Learned helplessness is the saddest state of existence. The next factor to con-
By Ellie Ross What exactly is fear?
According to Ethologists, fear is defined as a motiva- tional state aroused by spe- cific stimuli that give rise to defensive behavior or es- cape Ref. McFarland D. The Oxford Companion to Ani- mal Behaviour. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 1987. The response to the source of what scares them, could be a learned re- sponse based on past history of experiencing pain and/or stress or stimuli that stems from their natural survival skills.
Fear is so much more
than behavioral. It not only causes changes of functions in the brain but also the or- gans in the body. The body changes to be more efficient and prepared to respond. Heart rate and blood pres- sure rise. Respiration accel- erates. Pupils dilate. The brain is on hyper alert. Glu- cose levels increase in the blood flow to the muscles and gastrointestinal system slows down. That is a lot of changes in the body both psychologically and physio- logically, which ultimately results in the undesired be- haviours. Through repeated exposure, a horse can be- come habituated to what
sider is anxiety. What is anxiety? Some would argue that fear and anxiety are the same and others would claim each is a distinct emo- tional state that sometimes overlaps. Anxiety stems from internal thoughts and Fear from external threats. What matters most is that we recognize that a horse that is nervous, anxious, afraid or whatever other label is applied in this con- text, is a horse that has the potential to overcome this. Anything learned can be- come unlearned. Far too often that scary
corner of the arena is one that not only has a horse in a fearful state but then the rider learns to fear this as well. Anxiety builds in both and many would agree that the rider could be the trigger for it, based on their past ex- periences or the rider could be escalating it because the horse’s prior reactivity has caused fear in the rider. It all boils down to association.
For example -The rider
and/or the horse, have anxi- ety about the corner, where perhaps the jumps are stored. The horse perceives something as a threat there like an arena monster and the rider anticipates a reac- tion from the horse, but its the horse’s reaction that the rider fears. Often this leads to evasive behaviors from horses and riders. Horses don’t want to be near that corner and riders often ride at the other end of the arena. A lot of energy seems to get used in evading that corner vs. teaching the horse that the corner is not a host to a monster. So if the corner is associated with a perception of something scary there and that something scary causes an undesirable re- sponse,
then why not
change the association? If the approach is to
force the horse (and rider for that matter) to keep riding deep into that scary corner, can the horse learn that there is nothing to fear? The an- swer to that is yes and no. Each is an individual and the thresholds, sensitivities etc. vary. So yes, for some horses they will become ha- bituated to it but the rider cannot be anxious. Another approach I often hear train-
ers state is to make the work easy near that corner and hard away from it. This can work as well for some horses but not so much in others. Why? Again it is be- cause each animal is unique but also, because they fail to acknowledge the threshold. An important factor to
keep in mind is, if you keep doing what you are doing, you are likely to keep get- ting what you are getting. If the fear and responses are are not improving or esca- lating, this only compounds the horse and rider’s fear and anxiety. When in a fearful state,
been exceeded,
the door to learning is essen- tially closed and the only thing that reinforces fear, is fear. So don’t add to it! Could you imagine trying to learn Calculus if you were sitting trapped in a burning car fearing for your life? Ex- treme example I know but lend it some thought. If the threshold has learning
cannot occur. That would be the horses that run over peo- ple and or bolt. A horse or any being, pushed past its threshold cannot learn. So, step one- we must identify what the threshold limit is. Is it at 20 feet from the
corner? 5 feet? Once you
identify it, you can now begin to effectively teach the horse to not fear it. Recognizing
that
choices will be the key to the success but what is suc- cess? Is it a horse willing, trusting and motivated to ride past that corner or is it a horse that has been per- haps bullied into it? Some would argue that the results are the same. I would dis- agree. Results should be more than the horse just rid- ing the corner. A horse that trusts you is a horse that will have less reason to have fear and anxiety in the future with other stimuli that they could fear and be happy. It should always be a choice not force. If you were afraid of
snakes and I forced you to sit in a snake pit, what would you learn from this? My assumption would be that you would learn not to trust me. You likely wouldn’t want to be around me and I’d guess you likely didn’t learn to not be afraid of snakes because the anxi- ety would still exist not to mention that the threshold was breached. However, if I gave the choice to sit within say 100feet (because at 100feet you told me you have no fear) of the snake
pit and once you were com- fortable at 100feet, could you consider 99.5 feet and so on. You making the choices along the way as well as knowing you could go back to 100feet at any time, knowing that choice exists, you would have com- fort in this. So let’s identify the
threshold and work on a plan to overcome the fear but also build the trust and motivation between you and your horse. Coming up in the July edition of The Rider.
Author Bio: Ellie Ross is a professional animal trainer that specializes in behav- iour. She has 30 years expe- rience including being a wrangler in the film and tel- evision industry. Ellie resided in Los Angeles and was in charge of Interna- tional Large Animal Air Transport. Ellie was the Pet Expert for CTV, Reader’s Digest,
Local,Satellite
Radio and Rogers Televi- sion. Formerly an Even- ter/Dressage/Endurance rider, she is now active in Extreme Cowboy, Western Dressage and Cowboy Mounted Shooting.
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