Help! My Horse is Rushing To the Barn while Liberty Leading

Question from a Compassionate Horse Click Member: My horse is rushing while liberty leading in the direction of the barn. He acts like I don't exist. Why is this happening and what can I do?

1. Going in the direction of the barn creates an immediate change of context simply by changing direction that is heading toward a place where the horse has been reinforced repeatedly over time. 

2. The horse has experienced food, friends, familiarity and freedom at the barn toward which you are heading and he's found it to have a strong reinforcement history. This may be a strong contrast with going in the previous direction, where he may not know what lies ahead or may have head less reinforcing experiences. 

3. It may help to keep the horse's attention/focus by doing engaging activities. An example might include using object that the horse can focus on such as a target or playing a game or practicing a well known intrinsically reinforcing  behavior and/or including higher value food. 

4. Fewer steps between bridging and feeding can be helpful in keeping the horse's focus as it gives him less time to be distracted between immediate and valuable reinforcement.

5. Training strategies that can lead to success:

• only going a short distance away from the barn,
• or leaving for shorter amounts of time and distance as we train liberty leading toward the barn
• and using successive approximations in increasing both distance and duration.

6. Only go as far and as fast as the horse is likely to be successful with all of these strategies and slowly build on repeated successes. 

"Focus on creating quality and reliability in each small step of behaviors throughout the training process for best, lasting and happiest results!"

Melissa Deal