06/20/2025
Some food for thought.
Practical experience changes our understanding.
I used to use counter-conditioning (particularly open/closed bar) as my go-to when working with fearful horses. Scary thing appears, food follows, repeat until the horse starts to feel better about the scary thing. A simple process apparently grounded in good behavioural science. And I do still use it but not always in quite the same way I used to.
Over the years, I started to wonder whether what we’re seeing in some of these sessions is true counter-conditioning, as in, a genuine change in how the horse feels about the scary thing, or whether we’re seeing something else. Maybe blocking or overshadowing, where the presence of food or a well-practised learned response masks what the horse is really feeling. Or where the horse is focused on the reinforcer or handler cues to the point where they’re not really processing the scary thing at all.
It can certainly help horses during the session but does it actually change the emotional response? Being able to eat near a stimulus isn’t the same as feeling safe around it. It gets the job done but does it change emotions?
Of course there may well be, over time, a change in the horse's perception as nothing 'awful' happened during the process but this seems to take longer, perhaps because it is primarily a masking process. Do note that this can be an exceptional way to 'get the job done' in emergency situations.
I don’t want to throw out counter-conditioning. It absolutely has a place, and I’ve seen it work well, especially when the horse is already in a place where they can think, engage, and process.
But more usually now I rely on introducing a CAT (Constructional Approach Training) protocol that gives the horse more agency, more control over proximity and timing. Using this I see more lasting changes that don’t depend on whether I have food in my hand. It gives me clearer feedback about how the horse is feeling.
Sometimes I start with CAT, build safety and choice into the environment, and then bring in food later, when it’s likely to support rather than suppress behaviour.
I’m really saying...what we think of as counter-conditioning isn’t always doing what we think it’s doing. And that’s not a reason to abandon it, it’s a reason to understand it better. We need to keep asking whether our horses are actually feeling safer, or just appearing to cope. Whether we’re changing emotional responses, or just layering learned behaviours over top.
If you need help with this I'd ask a behaviour professional. Whilst I don't have time for more clients at the moment, I'm happy to try and link people up with the right professionals- drop me a message. Or join vet Gabriel Lencioni and I later in the year for our 4 week co-operative care course at the IAABC Foundation
