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Am I scared of Swagger???
A lot of people have watched some of my training videos with Swagger and have assumed that I am scared of him.
Why else would I feed him food? Why else would I move slowly around him? (both questions are rhetorical)
I am not scared of Swagger. Just watch my body language when he spooks away from me. I stay still and calm.
I move slowly around Swagger because, for now, if I were to move faster, he would move away, he would spook. This would not be building trust.
I’m trying to build trust by being trustworthy. I’m trying to be trustworthy by being consistent and not scary.
What you might not see is how far we’ve come! In the early training with Swagger I couldn’t face toward him or he would move away. I couldn’t feed by hand because I wasn’t close enough to him. Then when I was close enough, it was because I was sitting down. It took months for Swagger to be consistently comfortable with me standing and hand feeding.
I also couldn’t talk or say anything when I was close to him or he would spook away. I couldn’t reach up to my face to brush a fly away or scratch an itch.
For months, I couldn’t consistently touch him or get close enough to hand feed right away.
For months, it would take him a while to come up to engage with the training.
For a year, I couldn’t touch his left side, only his right side.
Now? Now I can talk while being right next to him. I can brush flies from my face. I can touch both sides of him. He comes up every day now right away and engages with me. I can hand feed while standing up.
Do I move slowly when working on things that are hard for him? Yes!
Do I heavily reinforce things on days he is more scared? Yes!
Am I building trust by not pushing past his boundaries? Yes!
Will I eventually be able to move around him like I would a domestic horse? Yes!
Swagger will continue to be more brave and more confident.
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𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐧-𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 $𝟐𝟓 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞: https://gofund.me/909cd1ad
𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐝.
• Swagger is a very unique, feral horse.
• Please resist the urge to offer suggestions. I know there are many techniques that work well for wild/feral horses, but this is the path I have chosen for myself and Swagger.
I have worked with Swagger for 200 hours over the 15 months I’ve had him.
• I am NOT looking for help, unless you are willing to come to Fort Worth and work with me in person and/or you have been following our journey since Summer 2023.
• Please do NOT recommend a trainer I should follow unless you are offering to help pay for training.
• This is a WILD horse. He may look calm because I work to keep him under threshold, but he is NOT a tame horse! He only accepts touch on his body in certain places and on certain days.
• I do not own the property and am limited to changes that I can make to the space.
• I am working with a professional and am a professional myself.
• I welcome ideas and suggestions from people who have followed our progress in its entirety (since May or June 2023), and understand the restrictions and time limitations we are under.
• I pay over $800/month for board and feed and professional training (virtual lessons).
• He is a feral horse, but not a mustang. He is gaited.
• He’s a 6 year old Appalachian brumby gelding.
• He is getting a mixture of hay stretcher and sweet feed.
• I pay Michelle Martiya to work with me and Swagger virtually. We have been working together for over 14 months. She is an amazing animal trainer!
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#clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #positivereinforcement #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #forcefreehorsetraining #fearfreehorsetraining #happyhorses #horsetraining #positivereinforcementhorses #wildSwagger
Is Ivy scared of Swagger
