I really want to do mounted shooting with my 4 year old mare, but she is still fairly spooky and I am not sure how to introduce a gun to her. There is nobody near where I live that does mounted shooting or that has introduced their horses to guns, so nobody is really sure what to do.
My plan was to put her in the round pen and give her a scoop of food in a bucket, so that she will associate the sound with a good thing-food. Then everybody step out of the round pen so that if she does freak out nobody will get hurt. Fire the gun- and see what happens. We will be using blanks, so they won't be as loud as normal.
Does anybody have any better suggestions? I don't think tying her up will be a good idea, in the round pen she will have some space to run or whatever she chooses to do.
My plan was to put her in the round pen and give her a scoop of food in a bucket, so that she will associate the sound with a good thing-food. Then everybody step out of the round pen so that if she does freak out nobody will get hurt. Fire the gun- and see what happens. We will be using blanks, so they won't be as loud as normal.
Does anybody have any better suggestions? I don't think tying her up will be a good idea, in the round pen she will have some space to run or whatever she chooses to do.