On
Good Behaviour… Fear Fixes
Using systematic desensitization and counter conditioning to reduce
fearful behaviour.
By:
Karin Apfel
In
the horse that has specific fears or phobias, or whose fearful behaviour
is overwhelming, it is necessary to apply some specific retraining
techniques if you wish to make significant changes. Some examples
of these types of phobias might include panicky behaviour around the
trailer after a shipping accident; extreme sound sensitivity; fear
of the vet after a painful procedure; fear of entering water; claustrophobia;
and many more.
Forcing the horse to accept the situation that frightens it by restraint
or other more severe techniques almost always results in increased
fear and more violent resistance. Compare the situation that your
horse fears to someone who is afraid of heights being forced to climb
onto a bungee jumping tower. The harder the phobic person is pushed
and the closer to the end of the platform he gets, the more that person
would resist and the less able they would be to deal rationally with
the situation.
Two avenues often taken with a fearful horse are to avoid triggering
the situation if possible (no more bungee jumping), or sell the horse.
If, however, you wish to keep the horse and retrain it, two techniques
combined offer the best results. These are exposure to the frightening
situation in a specific manner until it no longer produces a fearful
reaction (desensitization) and linking the frightening situation with
something pleasant to change the horse's response to it (counter conditioning).
Desensitization can work without counter conditioning (as in the book
"Black Beauty" when Beauty is turned out as a young horse
in a field near train tracks), but it may take more time and can often
be dangerous. For example, if Beauty had already had a strong fear
of loud noises, he may have had such a panicked reaction to the passing
of the train that he may have run into the fence or otherwise injured
himself attempting to escape.
In response to the brain's perception of 'danger', an animal's flight
or fight response kicks in, including a rapid increase in heart rate,
respiration rate, and blood pressure and a mobilization of energy
reserves - the adrenalin rush. This physical response is regulated
by the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which is not under conscious
control. There are two parts of the ANS, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic,
and they are antagonistic. That is, one cannot operate while the other
is operating. Under normal conditions, the sympathetic nervous system
(SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) act to create balance
in the body. When an animal is anxious, the SNS is activated and when
it is in a relaxed state the PNS is operational. The activation of
one turns off the other. Under acute stress the SNS in effect "locks
out" the PNS.
If you can get a frightened horse's PNS to turn on under the conditions
in which the animal usually gets stressed, the animal should relax.
If this occurs a number of times, the horse's anxiety response to
certain stimuli could become reconditioned. That is, the horse would
learn to relax in the situation that frightens it.
In order to manipulate the horse to relax under aversive conditions,
one must utilize those activities which are incompatible with anxiety
and are mediated by the PNS. Sex is one (but not really practical
for training purposes), a deep state of relaxation another and also
eating. The crucial caveat is that the intensity of the response to
these calming activities must be of greater intensity than the anxiety
response in order to inhibit the anxiety.
Owners can reduce their horse's fear by first targeting anxiety producing
stimuli that only elicit low levels of stress. Generally, these are
stimuli that are similar enough to the primary anxiety-producing stimulus
to cause the horse to become afraid, but not as fearful as it would
be if the primary stimulus were present. By pairing the mild anxiety
producing stimulus with an activity mediated by the PNS, the latter
should be able to override the former.
In the case of the horse afraid of the trailer, the owner would need
to analyze which are the primary triggers of the horse's fear. It
may be approaching the trailer or even the donning of shipping boots
and head bumper. If it is the trailer, then the owner must set up
a situation in which the trailer is present, but at enough distance
that the horse's anxiety is low enough so that it is able to graze
or eat from a bucket. If necessary, a different type of trailer or
a different loading location could be used, differing even more from
the primary stimulus. The frightening stimulus must be present while
the relaxing stimulus is added to the situation; namely, the horse
would need to be massaged or fed (whatever creates relaxation) once
the owner has brought the horse as near the trailer as necessary to
cause mild anxiety. Once the horse has become completely relaxed at
this distance (this may take minutes or days depending on the horse),
then he can be moved closer and the process continued.
It is extremely important that the anxiety-inhibiting stimulus (the
food or massage) is strong enough to counter condition the anxiety-producing
stimulus. Similarly, the anxiety-inhibiting stimulus must be paired
with very low levels of anxiety. The third critical factor is that
the anxiety-inhibiting stimulus must be paired contiguously with the
stressful stimulus. That is, they must occur near one another so that
the two become linked in the horse's mind. Another factor (one that
many people tend to forget) is that the trainer must not advance to
the next level until the horse is completely comfortable with the
preceding step. If, at any time, the horse becomes highly anxious,
it should be taken out of the situation immediately for at least 24
hours. It takes that much time (some belive it can take as long as
several days) for the residual physical reactions of the strong SNS
activation to leave the body. The next day the horse should be returned
to the previous step in the plan.
Finally, it is best to actually have a plan. (For example: session
one - stand and graze 50' from trailer; session two - stand and graze
40' from trailer, etc. Continue in this vein until your horse is happily
eating grain out of a bucket in the trailer.) This will decrease the
chances of 'skipping ahead' and having to return to the beginning.
You will also need to have a clear sense of the triggers that frighten
the horse and deal with each one separately. If shipping boots also
cause a fearful reaction, that problem would need to be resolved separately
from the 'approaching the trailer' problem before the two could be
combined. The sessions could run once a week or several per day. It
depends on the horse and the time the trainer has available. In severe
cases, you may wish to consider sedating the horse in the beginning,
but this should be discontinued as soon as possible. Lastly, it is
important that the trainer stay calm throughout the process. As a
herd animal, horses take cues from their herd mates. If your horse's
reaction frightens you, find someone else to do the retraining. You
must set the example by remaining calm in the presence of the vet
or trailer or horse-eating creek before the horse can 'retrain' his
own responses.
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