Determining Aggression

Whew ... that's a scary mouthful for a title when talking about horses! Rarely does one find a truly aggressive horse. 99 3/4% of them are true to their design of gentleness, curious, gregarious animals. Determining organic reasoning behind aggression is rarely thought of with horses.

I find it most rewarding to work with horses, though especially ones with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). There are far too many horses out there with this condition; some severely impacted and others not so affected.

One horse comes to mind with whom I was not able to continue as the owners became intense "roadblocks" ... they wanted the final results NOW! In other words, they wanted to take a horse that was extremely aggressive (read that fearful and would attack at the INSTANT of feeling fear) and get her undersaddle instantly. Wife was intimidated by the horse and would react with backing away and running; husband was intimidated and reacted with counter-aggression; teenaged boy was intimitadated and took 'control' over the horse with repeated acts of fear/aggression instigation that would cause the horse to rake its teeth over the bars trying to get at the boy, rear and subsequently attack anyone who opened the stall door. Nice, huh? Not.

The photo above shows the 2nd session I had with this horse. The first session was spent trying to dodge its hooves in the paddock for an indeterminant time. Second session I started with positive reinforcement and targeting while standing in the stall door then incremently made my way into the stall then outdoors in the paddock. The second session involved showing all sorts of scary objects to the horse and having her target them. In the photo I'm using a tambourine. What I DIDN'T do with this horse was first teach it to calm down on cue. Now, I know better! *grin* her rapid fire response to rear up then come down and trample whatever the scary object was, had diminished somewhat through a couple of exercises but I know, now, that teaching her a 'calm down cue' would have exponentially reinforced the positive behaviors that were brewing underneath all the turmoil of PTSD. Unfortunately, my sessions with this beautious black gal were only once weekly and in the time between visits all sorts of incongruent and inconsistent attitudinal humans were working with her.

We progressed tremendously in each session but I could, literally, tell who handled her in between session simply by her attitude each week when I arrived. One person would "desensitize" her to whatever it was that was scaring her - "flooding" her with the object over and over and over again with no retained results except further ingrained aggression. Finally, after she very deliberately kicked the husband in the chest (he's lucky he's alive) I suggested that perhaps the horse have a full veterinary exam to rule out any organic "misfiring" in the brain. I was replaced after that. *grin* The horse, from brief account, attacked the subsequent trainer and although she had some positive results with this horse she, too, was dismissed. I feel confident and good about the progression I made with her but am very dismayed at the results due to faulty human decisions. Where this horse is now I have no idea. But I always will remember the little triumphs with this gal that we reached each week.

Rule of thumb for aggressive animals: Is the aggression predictable? If so, continue on with the perception modification through positive reinforcement teaching. If not, get the animal to the vet asap for a thorough, in-depth exam.

The mare I was working on was both predictable and unpredictable ... she was predictably unpredictable! She needed to be examined. However, whether that did or did not happen I don't know. I learned from her; she learned from me and what is, is. *grin*