Hey!
So i need ideas for desensitizing. My Arab/saddle-bred is spooky. So i basically I need ideas of how to scare the crap out of him lol. Which is really easy:shock:. I have done the trash bag and tarp thing but he is not scared of that any more. He normally is not too spooky but i was not able to ride for a while ( a couple months)and he is really spooky now. I would really appreciate any help!!
I cringe every time I hear the word desensitizing. I want a very sensitive horse, so why would I wan to desensitize him? What I try and do is gain the respect and trust of my horse. They need to be able to trust that if I throw a tarp over there back it won't hurt them. They need to trust that if I ask them to walk across a 30' river they will be safe. This comes from time in the saddle and experience. But they also need to be able to respect the signals coming from there back in a calm manner. You don't want to scare the crap out of your horse, in the end you will just have a mess :wink: ( sorry for the lame joke ) It comes down to having a horse comfortable and looking to your for signals.
A comment for you... I like desensitizing horses for 1 reason. I totally agree with you about the respect and trust thing, BUT that horse may not spook with you, if it comes by something 'scary', but what happens when somebody else handles the horse... somebody that the horse does not trust or even respect? It will freak out, because it knows that YOU will protect him, but he doesn't know this other guy so how is the horse suppose to know what will happen. He won't, for all he knows that thing that was safe with you, is no longer safe!
Horses need to be desensitized to different things in order for them to learn. Yes, they need to respect and trust you, but I would say try getting him use to ropes, balls, tarps, farm equipment, etc. Anything he spooks at, desensitize him to.
Anything and everything you come across. I bought my horse new boots the other day, and he was scared of the packaging... so I taught him not to be afraid even when I was walking circles around him clapping the packaging together. Same with a plastic bag from the feed store, and the empty water bottle after our ride, pebbles in a can (that's a good one), flailing a lunge whip around him... etc. The key, however, is not to persay "scare the crap" out of them, but to be very rhythmic and consistent. Don't sneak up, rustle your bag and yell boo-- talk calmly and smoothly while consistently rustling the bag to let your horse know that even though there is a terrifying scary thing in your hands, he can trust you to stay calm and keep him safe.
If my gelding acts like he's going to be afraid of something, I make him investigate it. We've actually made it into a game. I pat/touch whatever is freaking him out and say "What is this? Show me what this is." Once he touches it, I praise the bajeezus out if him. That's how I have an almost 4yo who loves trash cans and mailboxes and has yet to seriously spook at anything. Posted via Mobile Device
I never let my horses investigate things, as soon as you do this you are rewarding them ignoring you. You are teaching it to stop and look at things. I want my horses to ignore or go past things without stopping. When you allow them to look at things you are teaching them to be afraid of, or look for things that are new or different. When they start to investigate there mind is taken off of you as a rider. I need my horses to be looking for me at all times. When he starts to look at these things you are essentially telling him ignore me, you know better take your time. I want my horses to believe that I know better, I am the leader and I know where we are headed, they then look to me for directions.
If you scare the crap out of him, you'll get a spookier horse. Desensitizing is elevating the horse's emotions and getting him to learn humans can be trusted because they WON'T put him into fear mode. When he learns that his emotions can be raised but the human will deal with things and not let him be terrorized, he stops getting so emotional about various stimuli. Once you push him into fear mode, learning shuts down and all he remembers is that humans like to scare horses...and that does NOT make a confident horse.
Yeah, it’s not so much desensitising your horse to anything and everything that they may come across, its your attitude while riding it. If it respects you and you continue to give it good reason to respect you it will be calm if you are. I have two examples; the first was a horse I rode on one of the places I worked on in the NT. He belonged to the school teacher and wasn’t a station horse, but she let me ride him for the exercise. The trouble is he would spook at his own shadow; and we did helicopter mustering on the place. The first few days of riding him for work was pretty hair raising. As the helicopters would fly about working the cattle he was all over the place, he took a bit of sticking to. After a few hours each day though, when he started to figure out that I wasn’t worried by anything and we had a job to do, he stopped worrying and got on with the job. Only took a week and he was fine. The second example is of one of the fillies I have recently gotten going, I had ridden her out of the yard quite a few times, maybe 6 or 7 short rides, she was going good so I decided to take her for a good long slow ride and went up the road from my uncle’s farm. In my eagerness at riding her out I forgot about the railway line that runs along the front of my uncle’s place, and the 2.5 kilometre long diesel and electric coal trains that thunder past every hour or so. I rode her out and was coming down to the rail crossing when a train came along. The horse just pricked her ears up, had a look at it and I asked her to keep walking like it was nothing, and she did. So much about horses is giving them calm leadership and someone who has their respect, if they have that they don’t really need “desensitising” to every little thing they might spook at. In many ways horses are a mirror for the feelings and so on of their riders. If they appear to need a lot of desensitising, it could well be that its actually the rider that needs to chill the hell out.
I also don't spend a lot of time desensitizing to things I prefer my horse to trust my judgement first over its own. The only things that I "desensitize" my horses to is whips so that they understand its and extension of my hand and Flags because occasionally I have to carry one. I do lots of ground work with all my horses and build as much trust as I can from the ground up. I think the best way to bomb proof a horse is to have a calm confident rider and to teach the horse to rely on that rider. When something scares my young horses I ignore it and stay calm and keep moving they aren't aloud to stop and investigate thats telling them it's ok to be scared. I want them to think she's not worried so I guess I don't need to be worried either. I took a 3 year old Thoroughbred stud colt to a rodeo with me after only riding him for a month you would of never know he was a stud or that I'd been on his back for 30 days unless I told you. I think he slightly jittered once but he just kept walking on cause thats what he had learned to do.
My theory on desensitizing.....and note I HAVE been hanging of the side of my saddle on a spooking horse .......this is what I have learned work best:
Ignore the scary monster and your horse will too....look forward and ride on....even if it's sideways!!! As long as he's going forward to some degree and paying attention to YOU!!
There are some exercises you can do on the ground, but the point isn't so much to get the horse used to a specific boogeyman, but to teach the horse to remain calm and trust you.
The other posters that said a confident rider is the key are correct. When you're riding, are you looking for things that you think might spook your horse? Try to remain confident and calm, and ignore the boogeymen on the trail. Don't even look at them. Keep your eyes on the place you want to go.
I would rather my horse trust me, and not even bother to be concerned about something irrelevant to what we are doing. When there is a person in his area, he is to keep his eyes on them, and always know where they are at. This is because my children play in the yard and he is in the yard eating grass. He won't accidentally step on them if they are running underneath him. I am always supervising them when he is out, but they can get stepped on quicker than I can stop it. He knows that this can happen, so he is alert to them being around him. The issue I have with him is when we are trail riding, or working in an arena, he will spook at something I have no idea what he is spooking at! I can't even desensitize him to this issue except by making it uncomfortable for him to act that way. But he is 5 years old, he is young and full of himself.
I've desensitized my horse to scary things like the rope swinging around him, the rope smacking all over his body, my hands patting all over him, things running up to his face or body, etc. I've sensitized him to giving to pressure, not leaning on steady pressure, listening to cues, etc. Desensitize, then sensitize.
When the Amish break their horses, two people are holding ropes tied to his bridle. They rev a car, shoot a gun, whatever makes the horse spook. When the horse has nowhere to go but straight up because he is feared for his life, one guy pulls his rope and the horse falls on it's side, the other guy runs up and stands on his head, they continue to rev the car, soot the gun, do scary things! When the horse relaxes, they let him up and he is no longer spooked by these things. A horse is in his most vulnerable state while laying down. I have never done this with my horse, never will do this, but it is extremely effective for the Amish.
Elizabethan I just want to mention that laying a horse down should ONLY be done by very experienced hands. Laying a horse down wrong can possibly do more harm than good but also cause injury. Also I think in this case is not needed. I doubt this horse needs to be dominated into submission just needs a confident rider to ride them past the scary stuff and get teach them they should rely on the rider. Posted via Mobile Device
Peppy, this is an Amish method. This is how the Amish break their horses from spooking. It requires two heavy, strong, and experienced men to accomplish this. Where I am from, everyone sends their horses to the Amish to be broke. I can account that they produce very well trained horses, if you find a reputable Amish trainer. Of course just because the trainer is Amish, doesn't mean the horse will be well trained. I've seen people get their horse back missing one eye, but this can happen with any fly by night trainer. I trained my horse to lay down by tying one leg up and pulling the reins backwards into a bow, then nudge him over on his side, then I sit on him and pet his ears and rub his face. I would never recommend someone to be brutal in these methods. Always remember, the soft hand makes the soft horse.
Exactly I was just saying that way of making a horse lay down is a bit rough they lay down method you used is safer but if done wrong can also be dangerous. Just pointing out laying down has to be done very carefully. We have Amish and Mennonite communities here in Oklahoma as well and I'm sure they have to do desensitizing as the Amish community uses horse and buggy and those horses need to be on highways noises and car so I can understand desensitizing in that situation I just didn't want people reading this to think about laying down without being very careful is all Posted via Mobile Device
Yes you are exactly right! I didn't even consider that someone might take that as more than just interesting information! Yes, it's a very dangerous method for both horse and human! Posted via Mobile Device
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