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Sensitizing & Desensitizing
by Cheryl McNamee Sutor, MHG

It has been said many times by well-known horse trainers that every moment you interact with your horse, you are training him to either do something or not do anything in response to your interactions. This happens as a result of the horse being either desensitized or sensitized by your actions. This article will talk about each of these techniques, what they do, and how to use them to your advantage.

"The horse is always learning something, either to listen to me or not to listen to me. If I pick up the rein and the horse does not stop, then I have taught him not to pay attention to the rein."
- John Lyons

Signals and Cues

What is a "signal" or "cue"?

This is anything that puts pressure on the horse. A signal/cue is a stimulus; it's a motivator. Surprisingly, a signal does not have to be physical. You can have your horse respond to a stimulus without ever touching him. A signal can be applied to your horse by eye contact, the form of your body/stance, or physical pressure (ex. with your hand or lead rope). For more information about the types of signals/cues/stimulus you can provide, see the article Training Motivators.

Before you apply a cue, or stimulus, you'll need to first decide whether you want your horse to respond to that cue, or not to respond to that cue. If you want your horse to respond better, quicker, or with more effort to a cue, you would using Sensitizing techniques. However, if you want your horse not to respond, or to become more comfortable, relaxed and "dull" to a cue, you'd use Desensitizing techniques. You can read more about each technique below.

Sensitizing

What is Sensitizing?

This is when you continually apply a stimulus until you get a response. If you sensitize a horse correctly, he will respond immediately and 100% of the time - he will never not listen to the cue. Many people sensitize their horse "on accident"...this is how horses learn bad habits. Read below to learn how to desensitize and sensitize your horse properly so that you'll be less likely to "accidently" teach him a bad habit.

How do you properly Sensitize a horse to a specific cue?

Create a stimulus.
Wait for the correct response.
Immediately release the stimulus.
Wait 2-3 seconds and start at #1 again.

Important points when Sensitizing:

When creating a stimulus such as pressure from your hand, you MUST continue with that stimulus consistently until the horse gives you the correct response. If you remove the stimulus before the horse responds correctly, you will be desensitizing him (this is how bad habits form). He will believe that he doesn't have to respond to that stimulus since he got rewarded (release of pressure) when he either did nothing or responded with the incorrect answer to your request.

Here's an example:

You put pressure on his ribs with your finger. He feels this and notices that after a few seconds or few minutes it becomes annoying or irritating. He then tries everything he can to get you to take your finger away from his ribs. He may shake his head or swish his tail or move towards you (as if to push you out of the way), until finally he rocks his weight away from you. Once he moves away, you release the stimulus immediately (you can also follow the release of pressure with a soft rub and verbal praise). He soon realizes that you will stop pushing on his ribs when he steps away from you. With enough repetition of using the technique properly, the horse learns to move away from pressure on his ribs almost instinctively, never resisting.

When do you use Sensitizing techniques?

Sensitizing techniques work very well in any situation where a horse is under-responsive to a stimulus, cue, or pressure. Some of the more common ways riders/handlers use sensitizing techniques are: teaching horses to respond to halter pressure, rein/bit pressure, and leg pressure. Teaching horses to pick up their hooves on cue, to move over in the aisle so another horse can pass, and even to respond to specific cues to do tricks. Sensitizing can be used any time you want your horse to learn to respond to a specific stimulus or cue.

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Desensitizing

What is Desensitizing?

This is when you continually apply a stimulus until all response is eliminated. You are desensitizing your horse every time you repeatedly apply a stimulus. This stimulus can be your hand patting his neck, a brush on his belly, a halter on his face, a tail wrap on his tail, a saddle on his back, even your voice and body language. You have taught him that when you touch him with any of these things, he should give you NO response. You have desensitized him to those things.

How do you properly Desensitize a horse?

Create a stimulus.
Wait for NO response.
Release the stimulus and praise horse.
Wait 2-3 seconds and start at #1 again.

Important points when Desensitizing:

When creating a stimulus such as stroking or rubbing using your hand, you MUST continue with that stimulus consistently until the horse gives you NO response. If you remove the stimulus before the horse stops responding, you will be sensitizing him (this is how bad habits form). He will believe that whatever action he was taking (whether it was a swish of his tail or a stomp of his foot...or anything) is was the correct action. But, what you wanted was NO action, NO response.

Here's an example:

You want to teach a foal to accept various types of brushes and to allow you to groom him. So, you start with a soft, easily accepted brush such as a horse-hair brush. You begin stroking him with the soft brush even if he walks around or twitches his skin. Once he stands still and gives NO response, you remove the stimulus (the brushing).

When do you use Desensitizing techniques?

Desensitizing techniques work very well in any situation where a horse is over-reactive to a stimulus, pressure, or cue. Some of the more common ways riders/handlers use desensitizing techniques are when they are teaching a horse to stand still and tolerate a specific stimulus. Teaching a horse to tolerate grooming tools, bathing, hoof trimming and more are all desensitizing techniques. Another common way horse trainers use desensitizing techniques is in a process called "sacking out" or "spook proofing", where the horse becomes accustomed to "scary" objects and rather than fleeing when afraid, the horse learns to stand still and accept those "scary" objects.

Taking a Closer Look...

Desensitizing and Sensitizing methods work well on every horse. The reason they work so well is because horses use these methods on each other in their herds. If one horse wants to move another horse, he'll apply pressure/stimulus (sometimes a mean look, other times a bite or kick) and he'll keep applying that pressure/stimulus until the other horse moves away. This would be called Sensitizing. They also use Desensitizing techniques when they are mutually grooming each other.

Most of the "bad habits" we see when horse's are being handled by people is a direct result of the rider/handler using desensitizing and sensitizing techniques improperly.

For example: the rider puts pressure on the horse's mouth asking him to slow down. When the horse slows down slightly, the rider does not release the pressure on the horse's mouth and decides to turn, keeping pressure on the rein. What's the problem? Well, the horse never gets his release and he becomes confused about whether or not slowing down is the correct action to take when pressure is put on his mouth. Not to mention, the rider went from one signal to the next without a release...when the rider doesn't reward the horse in the form of a release, even a small one, for every action the horse makes correctly, the horse becomes confused and/or begins to ignore the signal (in this case, the horse would become "hard mouthed" over time).

All of us have used Desensitizing and Sensitizing techniques with our horses during our interactions with them. However, learning how to use these techniques efficiently (for example: learning the right time to apply and release pressure/stimulus) will help you to get quicker and clearer results from your horse, and will clear up a lot of confusion in the communication between you and your horse. The horse will begin to understand better what is expected of him in every situation.

You will see the patterns that are listed above in every lesson that is taught on this site, and also in all horse-to-horse interactions. It is the way herds behave, whether domesticated or wild.