Two Year Old vs. Tarp

Last week I decided to finally get off my butt and work with my filly, Lux. She's been sitting all winter because I don't have an indoor to work her in, and the rain and mud we've had all spring hasn't helped with conditions in my outdoor either. She's a very calm, easy going horse naturally, but given the fact this was her first time EVER going into the outdoor (we're at a new barn since I last worked with her) and I hadn't done any ground work with her since August, I expected her to be a bit of a nut.

Well, to even my suprise, she was great. A little lazy about going off on a circle, and she was distracted by the turkeys in the swamp next to the ring, but all in all she far exceeded my expectations. I had brought a tarp out to teach her to walk over it, and my friend Joel was folding it up when we decided to see what she thought of it. Luckily I had my phone on me and took a video. She'd never been near a tarp before that day, not that you'd know. I swear it's like she was born broke. (Also, in the video, yes she is wearing a rope halter. She's NEVER turned out in it, I use it for training and let her off the line for 5 minutes to eat grass while I put everything in the ring back where I found it.) This video was taken a week before she turned 2. Enjoy!

**To anyone who's sensitive to "mature language", I hadn't planned on posting this on HF and unintentionally swore in the video. If you're not okay with that, best to not watch it.

LOL.....doesnt seem to care one bit does she?? I expected my yearling to have a reaction to a plastic bag, to my surprise, he too could care less....tarp is next :)

Very neat to see such a calm youngster. Please, please please do not let her loose with that halter though - so very easy for her to step through the too-big noseband and have a big wreck. I personally would put a leadrope on and have her pay attention to me throughout the exercise with grazing as a reward. Some horses don't care at all while eating but decide it isn't so cool once they're made to pay attention.
Her attitude sure would catch my eye if I were a buyer though!
Posted via Mobile Device

JDI...the OP said this:

which kinda covered what you ended up saying.


What a lovely 2 year old! It's great that she is so calm about everything.

It only takes one second for a foot to get caught up ;) with such a willing, cute filly, it would be such a shame for something so simple to possibly cause a wreck.
Posted via Mobile Device

Like I said, I don't ever turn her out with a rope halter on (or any halter, for that matter). On this particular day, I just let her off the lead line while in the arena with me so she could eat while my friend and I were 10 feet away stacking ground poles. If any thing were to happen to her, Joel and I were right there, and as you may be able to guess, she's not the type to panic anyway. For desensitizing I usually would have her on a lead line, but this was a spur of the moment thing when we realized while making a lot of noise folding the tarp that she didn't even seem to notice it. I understand your concern though, JDI.

That seems to be her reaction to everything, a great, big, "No big deal!". I was kind of hoping for something a little more fiery (she's supposed to be my next barrel racer when she's old enough), but I'm starting to enjoy her temperament. It's gotten to the point of everyday going to the barn and trying to find something new I can scare her with (I follow the Clinton Anderson method of 'heart attacks are free - let them have one!') to further desensitize her and every day it's just "oh wow, a giant bouquet of balloons? Can I eat them? Oh, no, well then no interest to me. Carry on waving them around!".

That's so cute :) Good luck & have fun the two of you!

Very cute baby!! Enjoy her temperment!

Beautiful filly and a temperament to match. Good Luck!