Y
Yann
Guest
Rio has always been a fabulous horse, safe, kind and reliable, with one exception - booster time. Her previous owner didn't bother, and when the vets gave her her first shot after the vetting I found out why, she had a serious problem with it. At first we got round it using a twitch but as often happens she got wise to that and the vet resorted to jabbing her very fast by surprise with a large bore needle. We managed that way for several years, but he is now retiring. I've tried very hard to simulate things, but add a real vet and a real needle to the equation and we were always back to square one. Last time out, in February, he made it clear he wouldn't be coming back, and had been prepared to let me try and give the booster myself. I asked him for some needles, which he was happy to supply and have set about trying to implement a strategy I read about.
It basically involves using clicker training and simulating each stage of the injection process, all the way up to and including the actual injection, and clicking and treating to create a postive association with the process. I've been doing a few minutes every few days since February and it would appear that we're really starting to get somewhere. Rio knows the score with clicker training and enjoys it, I've also made it easier for both of us by working on her off side where there aren't any triggers to set her off. I did start by working on the shoulder muscle, but she did a lot of twitching when the needle touched her skin, so I've moved up to the neck and we've really made some progress. She now appears to be completely unconcerned at the touch of the needle and the other night she moved at the wrong moment and it went in. There was no reaction, just a look round for her treat I still have another 6 months to get this perfect
This is the last great challenge for us, if this is fixable then I would say almost anything is given enough time and the right approach
It basically involves using clicker training and simulating each stage of the injection process, all the way up to and including the actual injection, and clicking and treating to create a postive association with the process. I've been doing a few minutes every few days since February and it would appear that we're really starting to get somewhere. Rio knows the score with clicker training and enjoys it, I've also made it easier for both of us by working on her off side where there aren't any triggers to set her off. I did start by working on the shoulder muscle, but she did a lot of twitching when the needle touched her skin, so I've moved up to the neck and we've really made some progress. She now appears to be completely unconcerned at the touch of the needle and the other night she moved at the wrong moment and it went in. There was no reaction, just a look round for her treat I still have another 6 months to get this perfect
This is the last great challenge for us, if this is fixable then I would say almost anything is given enough time and the right approach