IMPULSE CONTROL - CHAI
HORSE: Chai, 18mths, Mustang filly gathered in 2022 at 3mths old from Pancake, NV.
SITUATION: Chai is was separated from her mother at very young age, leading to boundary issues with humans and other horses.
GOAL: Chai is able to think through situations and listen to cues from her handler before acting on her first impulse.-
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Step 1: Establishing Baseline
Chai is distracted by and interested in anything new or anything that moves. She has moments of relaxation walking next to me but will suddenly plant or try to pull me in a different direction because something catches her interest. That could be a novel object like a plastic bag, others horses or people that she wants to pull me toward, or it could be weeds and grass that she wants dive her head to eat.
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Step 2. Novel Objects
We worked first on on impulse control with novel objects by setting up a series of items, including a big ball, small ball, teddy bear, bag, and a bucket of food. These are all items that that she would want to pull me toward to investigate. I alternated between asking her to stay with me which was rewarded with high value food, and allowing her to explore the objects with no food rewards. We used the lead rope combined with targeting to help teach this behavior.
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Step 3. Head Up
Next we taught the “head up” cue, also commonly used for grass training. Using a feed bucket full of chopped hay, I asked her to respond to a verbal cue of “head up” when she dives into the bucket, rewarding her heavily for leaving the bucket. We started with the help of the lead rope as a tactile cue and then quickly transferred to voice and hand cue at liberty.
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Step 4. Pawing & Feet Control
Using a pole, I worked on controlling her impulse to paw and strike at objects with her feet, which she loves to do. I taught her this by rewarding for the incompatible behavior of stepping over a pole, mirroring me, and rewarding her for keeping her feet quiet.
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Step 5. Relaxation with a Bike
The bike was very stimulating for Chai so I needed to put it and myself into protected contact! She loves anything with wheels, including the wheelbarrow. She crashed the barricade down about 3 times to get to the bike to try to bite the wheels. So we worked on reducing her impulse to attack the bike and get her to be relaxed with the bike moving next to her.
Summary & Conclusion
To help a boisterous filly be more relaxed and responsive when leading out of the year, I needed to teach her impulse control. We worked on two new verbal cues, and also desensitization with a bike in motion. To test the “head up” and “stay with me” cues, I wanted to see if she could stay connected to me at liberty while she was at her favorite tub. Her tub has a high reinforcement history as it’s where she gets her morning pellets and her jackpots. There was chopped hay in the tub (same as was in my pouch) that she was eager to drop her head and eat. She was able to respond to her new cues and resist her impulse to dive her head into the the tub and stay connected to me. She was even able to walk away from the tub and come to me. These new cues have been extremely effective at keeping her connected to me while leading outside of the yard.