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Whether "laying a horse down" works as a positive behaviour modification
depends very much on the association that the horse makes at the time
that it is laid down.  If the horse makes the association of the person
"saving" it by letting/helping it get up, then great.  If the horse
makes the association of "I was doing something stupid and not listening
to you and fell down so next time I better listen to you," then this is
also great.

If, however, the horse makes the association, "You put me down." Then
not great, that horse is gonna be worried everytime you are around it
that you might do the same thing again.  If the horse makes the
association, "the last time the farrier came to try to do something with
my back feet, I ended up on the ground" or "every time I go to a show, I
end up on the ground." then this is just goign to make the horse MORE
nervous about the farrier or going to a show because it is going to
anticipate (and therefore worry about) ending up on the ground.

MY experience is with horses that laying them down DIDN'T work on them,
it just made the horse more frantic...and now worried about its handler
too.  However, that is because people bring me horses that are
"difficult."  The ones that it does work on...I never see.

And the biggest problem with trying it to see if it might work for any
particular horse is, if it doesn't, you have compounded your problem and
now have two problems to fix instead of just one; and this new problem
is even harder to fix.

The old "cowboy" way of dealing with the horses that it doesn't work on
is to say, "That horse is no good (because it is too stupid to learn)"
and throw that horse away (or eat it) and get one that isn't so stupid.

It is more likely to work if, when you do it, you take great care in
ensuring that the horse doesn't figure out that you were the one that
put it on the ground.  You need to be really careful about what
associations the horse makes when it goes down.  It's works best if you
can do it in such a way that the horse thinks he did it to himself
because he wasn't listening to you.

kat
Orange County, Calif.



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