Horses are frightened by the veterinarian's needle just like children are when they go to the doctor, be they in California or in Texas where most of my Texas Horse Talk Online readers reside.

Question:
My 6 year old Thoroughbred mare is 9 weeks in foal. She has all of a sudden developed a phobia to having injections. Now I can fully understand her predicament because they must hurt but this is a real problem as she has to have at least three more before she foals down. Is there a way to de-sensitise her or because there is pain involved can this not be done. Is there a pain free way to inject her that I do not know about? This little horse really thinks she is fighting for survival. She will rear, sit down and strike out. I have been on several of Kelly's courses and my mare adores and respects your Dually halter. She will work with me off the lead rope and stop and back up etc as I move my feet. The vet will resort to twitching her but they will only do it once to this little horse before they have to fight to get it on a second time. I have no problems with her leading, loading walking at my shoulder etc. Do you think you can advise me so I can help her?

Monty's Answer:

Thank you very much for your question. This problem exists for many horses and horse owners worldwide. I am asked to deal with the fear of injection at many of my demonstrations.

The fear of needles and syringes is apparent throughout the world of horses and children too. Pain is not the real issue here, that is to say pain that would come from the needle. When we deliver pain with the use of a twitch or twisting an ear, then we marry two or three psychological stress points. From the needle we get fear and the anticipation of pain because of the tiny sharp sting that is felt only as the needle enters the coetaneous tissues of the horse in question.

Children see a strange person dressed in unusual clothing and then feel the sting of the needle, and all put together it results in the production of great fear. Add to this scenario that the child is taken to an unfamiliar place and the offices and examination rooms are generally not very user-friendly. As the child gets older, rationalizes the need for injection, the fear of pain subsides and is replaced with a realization that there is practically no pain at all.

Horses remain children. They do not outgrow this insecure feeling and the fear of unfamiliar people, places and things. There is no realization on the part of a horse that the injection is good for them, so we need to utilize distractibility in order to remove the fear so that they can tolerate any minor pain that might be associated with an injection.

If we take the time to school the horse to the Dually Halter so that they understand fleeing is not an option, we have made great progress in solving this problem. With the Dually Halter in place, if we give our horse a bath we tend to create a situation that might cause some fear, but then we work through it. With the horse still wet, if we dry our subject with a hair dryer we are beginning to stimulate with a scary object and then, through repetition, generate a familiarity with the machine that will settle the horse and cause acceptance.

After our equine student is accepting of the hair dryer, one should begin to introduce the sight of a syringe without a needle. The syringe should be moved in such a way so that it follows the flow of air. Massage the horse with the syringe with air flowing all around it. The sound and the feel of the air will distract our subject to the extent that they become quite reasonable about the activity. One might borrow a white smock from the veterinarian or even put it on a friend of ours unfamiliar to the horse and repeat the process.

Adding the smell of alcohol to the area will increase the familiarity with those things veterinarians bring to the scenario. Once you have all of these elements well in place, and a complete acceptance by your horse, then call in your veterinarian, ask him or her to give the injection and do it right into the flow of air. Unless your animal is one of the phobic, extremely violent actors, against the needle, you will probably find that you have solved the problem at that point.

If your horse is phobic and ballistic, striking out at people or trying to savage them with his teeth, then I suggest the same process but with a set of stocks (an examination chute) available so that the horse would be hard pressed to injure anybody or himself. This type of horse might take significantly longer than one that is simply frightened of needles but not dangerous. It is advisable to train incrementally so that you take baby steps, increasing your request slow enough so that you are safe at all times.

Monty Roberts shows you how to benefit from his 65 years of training in his free weekly Ask Monty. This question and answer format allows readers to get inside the mind of the master trainer to problem solve. Sign up at www.montyroberts.com or call 888-U2-MONTY