How does Warwick Schiller approach a horse that is genuinely fearful of being touched in certain areas?

Warwick Schiller's approach to a horse that is genuinely fearful of being touched in certain areas — the ears, the belly, the flank, the hind legs — is different from his approach to a horse that simply lacks training in that area, and he teaches that distinguishing between fear and inexperience is the critical first step. A horse that is inexperienced with being touched in a certain area will typically show mild resistance, move away, or flinch but settle quickly when contact continues. This horse needs patient systematic desensitization — working the area progressively until the horse accepts touch without concern. The nervous system activation is low and settles quickly. A horse that is genuinely fearful of being touched in a specific area shows a qualitatively different response: rapid escalation, high head, dilated eye, held breath, and resistance that does not diminish with continued contact but escalates. These horses often have a history — a painful veterinary procedure, an abusive handling experience, or a traumatic injury in that area. Schiller's position is that applying the same progressive desensitization technique to this horse that works for the inexperienced horse can make things significantly worse, because the horse's nervous system is already past the threshold where learning happens. For the genuinely fearful horse, Schiller recommends working at the edge of the fear rather than in it. If the horse is fearful of its flank being touched, begin by touching somewhere the horse is completely comfortable — the neck, the shoulder — and gradually work toward the flank over multiple sessions, stopping each session before the horse shows any fear response. The goal is to build a history of comfortable touch that slowly extends toward the fearful area without the horse ever going past its threshold. This approach, which Schiller acknowledges can take weeks rather than minutes, produces genuine desensitization rather than suppression of the fear response.