Hidden meaning behind your pony’s behaviour

When training your pony, it’s very likely that you’ll face a problem at some point and, quite often, this is usually in the form of undesirable behaviour, such as spooking or fidgeting.

Often viewed as a training issue, lots of people quickly book a session with their instructor to help resolve the problem. But every behaviour a pony displays has a purpose, so it’s important to consider all the different factors contributing to that behaviour, as well as their welfare, to help you understand the cause rather than just treating the symptoms.

Examine the evidence

Your pony can’t talk and only communicates through their behaviour and body language, so it’s important to listen carefully to what they’re telling you. For example, if your pony used to stand happily at the mounting block but suddenly starts fidgeting or trying to walk away, consider what might have changed to cause this altered behaviour…

• Are they feeling anxious about something?
• Could their saddle need an adjustment?
• Are they in pain, generally or when being ridden?

TOP TIP

For complex behavioural issues, contact your vet or a qualified animal behaviourist before your trainer.

Did you know?

Undesirable behaviour is often resolved once the root cause is addressed. For example, if a pony is getting very limited turnout and is difficult to handle, giving them more field time may be enough to stop the stress-related behaviours.

The effect of force

When dealing with a common problem, such as hoof handling, loading or mounting issues, it can be confusing to know what’s best when there are different kinds of training that appear to help. However, many techniques – such as negative reinforcement (using pressure), positive punishment (adding something the pony doesn’t like after a behaviour) and using food – may decrease the behaviour but won’t address the reason it’s happening.

For example, shaking treats to get a pony to load onto the trailer might work to begin with, but it doesn’t mean he’s happy walking up the ramp. If we start to force ponies to do something they don’t want to do, it can negatively impact their welfare and cause more issues in the long-term.

Did you know?

As prey animals, ponies have evolved to disguise pain as much as they can. Predators always go for the weakest animal in the herd, so ponies compensate for as long as possible before showing any lameness.

Know the signs

Always watch out for the signs of stress, fear and anxiety. These might include…

• wrinkles around the eye
• showing the whites of the eye
• licking and chewing
• repeated yawning
• turning the head away
• fidgeting behaviour

TOP TIP

Before looking at training techniques, make sure you’ve had experts assess the whole picture, including your pony’s health and medical history, current management routine, environment, nutrition and training history.

Training for life

Sometimes, it really is a training issue. Maybe your pony has never been taught to pick up his legs or stand at the mounting block. If this is the case, once their history has been taken and they’ve been assessed, training can begin.

Let’s take the mounting example and find out how you could teach your pony to stand at a mounting block. The key is to make sure they have lots of positive experiences with the mounting block – that might include a scratch in their fave itchy spot or providing a small portion of their feed while standing next to the block. This process is known as classical conditioning. It means your pony is learning to associate standing at the mounting block with nice things, such as eating a tasty meal!

If your pony is worried about the mounting block itself, you may need to start a little further back in the process and use a process known as counterconditioning (where you aim to change the negative association). This might be achieved by hiding treats on the block so they’re encouraged to explore or breaking it down into even smaller steps, such as using a small step which is less scary for them.

Next steps

A technique called clicker training can also be used to help build confidence. An instructor who specialises in this can be sooo helpful (plus, it’s super fun!) but make sure you’re always watching your pony’s body language and looking out for behaviours that indicate they’re stressed or uncomfortable during training.