SHORT REINING - KODA

HORSE: Koda, 9yrs, Mustang gelding gathered in 2020 at 7yrs old from Eagle, NV.
SITUATION: Highly sensitive and reactive, fearful of humans, avoids physical touch. Can be explosive.
GOAL: Build Koda’s comfort with the proximity of the handler, steady physical contact, and rein cues from the saddle position to achieve calm, relaxed, and connected short reining.

  • Step 1: Establishing Baseline

    Koda is extremely sensitive to touch and reactive to pressure. Close-proximity exercises like short-reining are quite challenging for him and the tension is evident in the photo above. He is especially sensitive to me being on his left side. This baseline session was challenging for him and afterwards he began showing avoidance behaviors when I would approach him with the halter and reins. So I decided to strip back the layers and start over completely by building his confidence with close proximity and steady physical contact.

  • Step 2. Touch in Motion Right

    Our next several sessions were at liberty using the target square working progressively on building up to being able to walk around the target square with my hand on his withers. Initially he would not walk while being touched, he would simply disconnect, so we started with no contact, then contact with the crop on his withers and me at a distance (see above photo), then gradually getting closer until I could put my hand on his withers while we walked from cone to cone. We started on his right side which was easier for him.

  • Step 3. Body Targeting Left

    To generalize to his left side, which is much harder for him, we used the reverse round pen to give him more separation from me to help with his confidence. I started by asking him to body target the crop with his ribs and then holding the crop there as we walked to safely simulate what it would feel like for him to have my arm, body, or leg against him. I also used repetitive motions like stroking the crop along his back, loin and croup while he was walking to desensitize him to the feeling of movement on his skin.

  • Step 4. Hug-Walking Right

    After several weeks of daily sessions with the crop and my hand, we were able to progress to "hug-walking" on his right (easy) side, using the target square to guide his movement. My goal was for him to walk calmly without tension, at my pace, while I hugged him in the saddle position, making full body contact. He had to be very comfortable with me being in close physical contact and with being cued to walk on and turn from the saddle position. We accomplished this on his right side first.

  • Hand Contact - Left

    Step 5. Hand-Contact Left

    On his left side, we worked with the same target square set up but I relaxed criteria. My goal for these sessions was for him to allow me to walk alongside him with my hand on his withers, back, ribs, and croup. We achieved our goal when he was relaxed at the walk, stayed connected to me, and made no attempts to disconnect from the contact.

  • Step 6. Body Contact Grooming

    Our final step was to use classical conditioning to associate full body contact on both sides with the positive experience of eating from his tub and being groomed. Being groomed while eating from his tub was a daily favorite behavior for him so I wanted to blend in the physical contact with the grooming. This allowed us to get over the final challenge of full contact on the left side.

Summary & Conclusion

The first short-reining session with Koda revealed how much tension he was still expressing with close contact. So I went back to the beginning and find ways to improve his comfort with proximity and touch, especially while he was in movement.

We did this through body targeting at halt and while moving, first with a crop, then my hand, then arm, then shoulder, then the side of my body (hugs) and finally using classical conditioning to positively associate leaning on him with eating.

The video shows me short reining with him again for the first time after 6 weeks. I offered him frequent jackpot breaks and allowed him decide to come back to the exercise voluntarily.

Koda was relaxed and I was able to lay my arm over him and lean into him on both sides in the last few repetitions. It always pays to unravel and go backwards to deal with foundational causes of tension. Continuing to do more short-reining was not the answer in this situation.

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Mazama - Overarousal