So I met with the owner of the kicking horse yesterday and things went really well! I showed her how to teach her horse to target and then we moved on to body handling. Apparently the mare is sensitive to being brushed on her belly and hips, as well as not tolerating her feet being handled. I began with just placing my hand on her shoulder. I would feel her tense, she even "fly twitched" her skin and then would relax at which point I would click and treat her. I proceeded to do this all over her body. When that was no big deal I would add short strokes and built up to circular movements with my fingertips.
When all of this was no big deal I proceeded to touch her legs. She had no problem with me touching her legs, only asking for her feet to be lifted. I began to touch her leg and then lean my shoulder into her body so she would shift her weight, and I would click her for that. It was not long before she was lifting the foot. She did snap it up a few times, but I was already away and clicking her. My only criteria was a lift.
She would most definitely kick out if a handler was persistent, but I was not holding out for that much. My goal was for her to get some muscle movement practice at separating the lift from the full kick.
The first time she did do a lift I clicked just as I heard her owner gasp loudly. She thought for sure I had asked the mare to lift her foot and I was about to get kicked. I turned to her and she immediately apologized! She said she would need as much retraining as the horse to relax!
The cool thing was that she had been receiving a lot of advice that had been making me cringe, advice that in the "regular horse world" is normal and accepted, but I know how poorly it can go. She mentioned a few of the things that she was going to try until now. She proudly held up her new clicker and said "I like this much better!", she then proceeded to tell me all of the things she planned to work on using it!
She is a work in progress, but she seemed to like this new thing we were doing together. I get the feeling that she is a horse that was always told "do it or else". She is much like my horse in that she will take the "or else" when confronted. I am anxiously awaiting updates! As I was leaving she asked if she could pay me for my time today. I told her no. I've been there, I know how hard it is. This one was for Missy.
