One of my favorite foundation behaviors is teaching a horse to touch their nose to an object. Animal trainers call this behavior “targeting.” Targeting is a practical and fun behavior that can be used later on to teach many other behaviors.
For example, a horse could follow a target onto a trailer, stand at a stationary target during a hoof trim, or even learn conceptual tasks, such as how to select the smaller target or the larger target on cue.
In the photo above, I am holding an orange water bottle slightly below Chewie’s nose. She lowers her nose to touch the target.
Can you touch a ________ ?
One fun game to play with targeting is to use lots of different objects as targets.
You can ask your horse, “Can you touch a horse brush?”
“Can you touch a cardboard box?”
“Can you touch a small traffic cone?”
Alexandra Kurland calls this game Touch the Goblins, because you can eventually progress to “goblin” items that your horse might be hesitant or worried about.
However, I think it’s really important to play this game first with lots and lots and lots of “easy” objects.
That is, with objects that your horse will not have any issue approaching and touching. I like to dig through my tack locker and find objects with which my horse is already familiar, such as a hoof pick, an extra lead rope, or a water bottle.
If you are playing this game at the right level, you should be able to hold out a new object and your horse should approach it confidently and touch it without hesitation!
Building curiosity and confidence
The “Can you touch a ______?” game is a great way to build your horse’s curiosity and confidence.
Horses are often afraid of novel objects. Maybe that egg carton is really, secretly, a horse-eating monster! If a horse is unsure about what to do in a new situation, their first response is often to leave the situation.
One reason why the horse leaves is that the horse doesn’t know what else to do and doesn’t know what might happen next. Think about your own past experiences. A situation that is potentially scary becomes even more scary if you don’t know what is going to happen.
Instead, targeting gives the horse something TO DO. And, if you’ve played the targeting game with lots and lots of familiar objects, the horse will know what happens next — touch this new thing, and you’ll get a reward!
In the photo below, you can see my Arabian, Apollo, targeting some bags of shavings in the barn aisle. The bags had not been there the day before, and Apollo was initially not sure he wanted to go near them. So, I didn’t force him.
However, pretty quickly, he changed his mind. He approached the bags, sniffed them, and targeted them with his nose. Click! He got some hay pellets as a treat.
Chewie plays the “Can you touch a ________?” game
Chewie and I have been having fun recently playing the “Can you touch a ______?” game.
On a recent day, Chewie practiced touching a blue water bottle, an orange water bottle, a clear water bottle, a toothpaste box, a sunscreen bottle, and an egg carton. That’s a lot of different objects!
She was happy and curious about all of these objects.
However, I also purposefully did not select any objects that might potentially be scary. My goal was to work within her comfort zone and to help her be confident about each object.
We are also building the general rule — if I hold something in front of your face, you can touch it!
And, when you touch it, you’ll get some hay pellets or some scratches.
Here’s a short video from one of our recent sessions.
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