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I have inherited a mare that no one
wants because every once in a while she spooks and bolts, big time,
without warning. No one has ever been able to figure out for sure what
sets her off. But she can go from normal one second to a serious panic
the next. She spooks and takes off like she was shocked or stung by a
bee. It can happen any time, even in her pasture, at the cross ties, in
a trailer, or when you're riding.
Our vet was out last week and saw
her for the first time. He thought she was just a kind and gentle mare.
In fact she was at the time, as she is most of the time. I explained
that this is part of the problem, and probably why so many people have
tried before and why so many people have been scared or hurt trying to
be patient with her. She is just great until she freaks out. I told him
we were not sure if we could keep her, and we were thinking about
"putting her out of her misery."
He asked me if anyone had ever tried
"sacking her out." He has never seen the procedure done, but
thinks you just deliberately try to scare the horse until you wear it
down, until it gets used to everything imaginable and nothing at all
scares it. He suggested I talk to you about it. Can you explain how to
do it and if you think it would work for this mare? If you don't think
it will work, what would you do?
Genevieve
First, let me tell you what I know about
the term "sacking out" a horse. There are variations on how it
might be done. In fact, in different horse disciplines and regionally in
North America, "sacking out" can refer to procedures that boil
down to at least three distinct behavior modification methods. In its
simplest and maybe most popular meaning, "sacking out" is used
to refer to a single specific step in acclimating a horse to saddling
and having things on its back. A saddle blanket, cloth, or simply a
burlap sack is rubbed on the back, then moved and slung around the horse
as you might sling up a saddle onto the back of a horse. The objective
is to simulate saddling and get the horse used to it before putting on
the full weight of the saddle.
In behavior learning language this would
be called desensitization, or systematic desensitization.
The goal is not to scare the horse, just to gradually familiarize it
with the novel stimulus. The sack is presented gradually and
respectfully, below the animal's threshold for fear or panic. The horse
could be just standing in the aisle or on cross ties, or in its box
stall. You might limit restraint so that the horse can move a bit at
first, and so help keep the stimulus below the threshold for fear.
A variation of this procedure, also
called "sacking out," starts with a young horse, not
necessarily at saddling time, and is extended to all sorts of common
stimulation with all sorts of objects all over the horse, as well as
sounds and sights that you would like to get the horse to accept. Most
horses are very good at acclimating to just about anything by systematic
desensitization. In fact, it's how they acclimate on their own to the
world. And of course, systematic desensitization is the main tool we
rely upon to acclimate horses to our world and needs. It's just gradual
and repeated exposure of a novel or mildly aversive stimulus until they
get used to it.
What your veterinarian is likely
referring to is another quite different procedure that some horsemen
also know as "sacking out." It involves a major event in which
the horse is restrained while it is presented with stimuli specifically
designed to frighten and overwhelm it. The idea is that since the horse
cannot escape, it might eventually stop trying, stop struggling, and
maybe even stop responding at all (freezing).
This total lack of control of events on
the horse's part is supposed to lead to submission and eventual calm
compliance with all that man wants of him. In behavior modification
terminology, this procedure most closely approximates something called flooding.
In contrast to systematic desensitization, the goal in this procedure is
to deliberately present fearful stimuli that normally provoke a strong
reaction, even panic, with the animal unable to escape. So some people
talk about staying above the threshold for reaction in the case of
flooding, as opposed to below the reaction threshold in systematic
desensitization.
When they talk about "sacking out a
horse," many people talk about tying the horse to a stout pole and
hobbling or hog-tying him. Often though, the restraint does not just
inhibit escape, it applies punishment instead of simple inhibition of
responding. It makes perfect sense when people complain that the
struggle and injury delays the horse calming down and accepting the
state of helplessness. The horse seems to learn that the whole deal and
everybody associated with it is bad. So it not only doesn't work in
those cases, but the horse gets more frightened, gets ulcers, etc.
I've heard stories that to avoid this
scenario, there is a procedure for burying the horse in sand up to its
neck, so it is immediately helpless to respond and unable to hurt
itself. Some people talk about such total immediate and inescapable
restraint causing immediate submission and subsequent compliance, sort
of like a squeeze chute or a good hold on a cat. I have not seen the
burying myself either, but would love to critically evaluate it.
Next, let me say that based on only my
experience, I think that most horses with a history such as yours are
not likely to benefit from any of the "sacking out"
procedures. Your mare is used to all the usual things in her life, she
willingly complies with so many different things, and you don't know
what scares her. So the systematic desensitization type of sacking out
is not going to help with what spooks her because you don't know what to
desensitize to. I really don't know about the "flooding" type
of sacking out. I have never found anything in that direction very
useful. Flooding procedures can lead to an undesirable state of
depression, known as learned helplessness, in which the animal's
normal behavior becomes suppressed. All sorts of physiological and
behavioral stress can result.
Over the years I have adopted a few
animals such as your mare and have worked with them myself, as well as
sent them to people I considered the best. Some still have not been
rehabilitated -- they still had seriously dangerous periodic,
unpredictable episodes. These truly frightened bolting animals are among
the toughest equine behavior problems I know.
I agree with you that this type of
history makes you consider euthanasia as the best strategy. This is
particularly true for cases such as your mare, where the episodes can
happen when the horse is alone and otherwise undisturbed in a pasture. I
am always thinking there must be a precipitating problem that we are
unable to diagnose. I'm not sure most of these are behavior problems, in
the sense of a learned or simple psychological problem. Sometimes I
wonder if it is a sensory or pain perception problem. Unfortunately,
sensation and perception are very difficult to evaluate in humans, let
alone animals. Sometimes it looks like behavior associated with
hallucination or panic attacks in people.
But in any case, it can't be a
comfortable life for the animal, if even in pasture retirement it has to
go though such sincere panic from time to time. I have seen some run
into fences in what looks like a state of terror. Certainly, you can't
encourage anyone to keep putting people or the animal at risk by trying
to use the horse.
At the risk of being flooded with mail,
I'll also offer that I have become responsible for a few horses with
similar histories for which I have come to the decision that peaceful
euthanasia was warranted. In every case, one or more people have
expressed serious disappointment that we could not keep trying or would
not pursue finding another home. Some have offered to make personal
sacrifices to try to keep some of these sad sacks alive. I have thought
about it and discussed it a lot with trusted colleagues and animal
ethicists. My current thinking is that, even with today's societal
concerns for trying to do everything possible not to end the life of
certain animals, I'm still feeling that it's not only okay in most
instances to humanely euthanize such horses, but it is the best overall
decision at some point in many cases. Euthanasia can eliminate the
animal's suffering and end the worry and risk for the responsible and
innocent people -- even if someday, somehow that individual animal could
perhaps have been rehabilitated.
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