Context Specific Learning

[nikki]

Yay! I finally found my way back. Amazed I remembered my login details! Looks like I've got a lot of catching up to do.

I have a question about my daughters pony. He is an 8 year old 13.2 piebald cob. He came to us as a hacking pony, however since bringing him home (just over a year ago) it became clear that his previous owners hacking was basically down a quiet lane and through an even quieter hamlet. Here we need to hack for 10 minutes along a country road with various farm machinery passing us and sheep and cows everywhere!

He is really struggling with this. He is absolutely fine with big HGV's etc but not tractors and the like.

My problem is this: his learning is extremely context specific. For example, tractor trundling up the road past his field is absolutely fine and he will even hang his head over the wall and watch it pass. When the farmer came to harrow the winter field he was deeply uninterested. However, when I walk him out and he spots the same tractor in a field some distance away he has a complete meltdown. Same with sheep. The sheep that graze in the field next to his are extremely boring, but passing other sheep fields while we are out and about is really nerve wracking for him.

We haven't done a great deal with him as we had other issues to fix first (biting and kicking!) but now I really want to address these new issues and get hacking him out myself. I've started by walking him out in hand a short distance every day in the hope that it will all become boring to him but no luck yet!

So I have 2 questions:

1) Is their any value at all in doing any school based spook busting with a pony whose learning is so very context specific?

2) How would you tackle the daily walks? Keep doing the short walks until I see an improvement and then begin extend the walks, or take him for much longer, tiring walks as I've seen suggested by some trainers?

And to answer the question I'm sure you all want to ask, no I do not think he is in anyway suitable for my daughter and I've tried several times to persuade her to sell him but she loves the bones of him and says she is committed to improving her riding and helping him to be a more reliable pony. To be fair to her, he is pretty good in the school so she's going to have a go at some pony club stuff to see if that helps them become a better partnership.

Thanks and sorry for the lengthy post!

[kas]

Hi Nikki, sorry it's taken a while to reply, we are a bit quiet over here and could do with more members...

Yes, definitely learning is context specific... that's what I learned when I worked for Heather Simpson anyway.

But... Philip Nye talks about horses having patterns, sometimes the patterns are what we like, sometimes they aren't. But once they have practised a pattern 3 or 4 times they understand and remember it. So if you can work out something, some signals or movement, that you can do to bring the pony's attention back to you - that will be remembered. Then that is the thing that you use wherever they are when they start to get worried. Maybe think about that? Increase the walks, set up some little scary things while you are out and build up. Make a diary of how far you walk out together and see how you both feel after you've done 100 miles in a month. I'm doing this with new pony Beau. My friends stopped in her car the other day and we practised what to do when the car driver sounds the horn.

Spook busting in the arena? I think it's worth it. I've been talking to a lady who was lucky not to lose her horse recently because the horse hadn't practised stuff around it's hind legs... !

[snigsby]

Yes, sorry for the delay in responding. I have been quite subdued lately. Also trying to keep myself doing, rather than thinking, since

Like Kas,says, spook busting in the arena is useful - some things,ropes as mentioned, are essential. And I agree with the pattern idea, it canhelp to catch the horse's thinking and move away from simply reacting by giving him/her a known set of movements which in turn will help to calm them.

Also, I find spook busting in the arena helps ME!! LOL I can think through possible problems (in Khan's case,it was cows) and make a plan to deal with things we are probably going to encounter while out hacking.

Funny story - someone once suggested to me that I sing to calm and distract Khan when we were approaching cows (or "wocs" as he preferred to call them,backward animals that they are lol)................nqw, all I have to do is sing the first bars of "On Moonlight Bay" and his ears shoot forward,seeking the wocs

[kas]

You've conditioned him to something then Snigs! Remember Nikki in Italy? I told her to sing when we were out riding and she got nervous on her chesnut mare. Resulting in me trying to get as far behind her as possible because she kept singing Abba songs. I hate blooody Abba.

[nikki]

Thanks for the replies and apologies for taking so long to reply.

After a bit of a heart to heart Hannah has realised that Dash isn't the right pony for her to learn on as he still has a lot of learning to do himself. Not to mention the fact that she is rapidly out growing him!

So me and Chloe are going to spend the next few weeks working with him to give us every chance of finding him the very best new home.

Sad but absolutely the right decision for Hannah.