Despooking clinics
 

So the past two days I have participated in a despooking clinic with my arab and during it we rode through a "snakepit" of noodles on the ground, noodles that he went through that touched his side, a police car in the center of the ring with the lights and sirens on, smoke bombs, on top of a bridge, through strips of tarp hanging down from a stand, a dog barking in the ring and a whistle blowing, we also rode through fire, and we did it all at the same time. When we finished up my crazy little arab let the german sheppard jump up on his side and hand me a cone.......So have you done anything like this comment with what you've done and post any pics you have :happydance:

Wow what kind of liability insurance does this place carry? LOL! All I can picture in my head right now is a headache ;-P

Seriously that's kind of cool, never heard of that but it would be a good thing for both horse and rider - build confidence in them both really.

Dog jumped up on your Arab? That's wild. I think of all those things, THAT one would really be the test.

Reminds me of my dog training years, we would get the dogs to the point where "nothing" would get them to break the stay command. Then we would line them up on long lines in the driveway of the training facility, started by throwing tennis balls right past all of them, over them, rolled them, etc. Then we worked up to "the cat" who was fearless with dogs and he would let us throw him in front of the dogs, he'd walk up to them, rub on them and then we'd shoo him off and they had to stay. Those poor dogs would be SHAKING by the time we released them LOL.

I've heard of those types of clinics, I'd love to try one! Does your arab usually spook easily, or was he already fairly 'bombproof'?

He is the kind of horse that finds things to spook at and this was both Laddy and my first ever despooking clinic!! The thing that surprised me was the fact that in a lot of the things we did he was one of the better horses about doing it and not really spooky once he saw another horse do it and/or did it and saw it wouldn't eat him lol. The clinic was really teaching the rider to walk through the obstacles without freaking out. It is really good at building your horses confidence and also your horse trust you more because you got them through the obstacle. You should really try one they are so much fun!!! By the end you will not even notice the sirens or smoke bombs when your going through obstacles! Oh and all the horses at the camp made it to the end :)

Awh LOL!!!! poor guys hahaha!!!!

Laddy was great he was the only horse to let the dog jump on him and hand me a cone on the first try by the dog while some of the other horses had been to the camp before but one other let the dog do it on the second try. And who would have thought it would be the high strung crazy arab that let the dog jump on his side and not flinch a bit!! But the top mounted police horse three years running has been a crazy little arab lol who would have thought that the breed that gets a bad wrap on being spooky little boogers (they are but still lol) would be a top mounted police horse.. right?

I think in Lad's mind though the fire at first was scariest but once he went through it once I couldn't stop him by the end he was leading others through fire!!! :)

I did one about a month ago with my brand new OTTB. He did awesome, and it really helped me figure him out. I learned that he doesn't hide his fear at all, and there were a few times where I could feel him shaking, and once where I could even feel his heart pounding in my legs! But it wasn't for long and he did everything I asked him to do, gaining quite a bit of confidence. It was a super stressful experience for me, so not a lot of fun, but I really learned a lot about myself and him!

We did a lot of what you described (except the dog!!). They had a stuffed monkey in a stroller that they would walk up to the horse and using a string, pull it's arm up to 'pet' the horses. They also made a Tunnel of Death (as I called it haha) out of black trash bags, blocking all light out. The horses would have to walk through it and then they would add caution tape hung down from the top that would catch on you, the saddle, whatever, and touch the horses as they walked through it.

Ours was put on by a local PD's mounted unit as a fundraiser and had trainers and safety people almost 2 riders to 1 trainer, so we got lots of individual attention. Super cool

The Park Police in my area makes you go through that kind of bombproofing clinic when you want to volunteer with mounted patrol. It is a blast!

I did something similar not too long ago. Out of like 25 riders, only 3 (including me!!) were able to get their horse near the fire, and the 3 of us were also able to get our horses to trot and walk slowly between 2 rows of fire.

I bet the tunnel of death was fun but I bet that on a new horse was interesting! When we were getting warmed up doing drill and running into the instructor and the GS barking in the ring I was tense but as soon as we started the obstacles I relaxed and was smiling/breathinh and Laddy kept looking at things and I just kept walking and telling him to go like its just a thing and he figured out o its just a thing.

The one I participated in was done by a man that trains mounted police and their horses and also does civilian clinics and has been a mounted police officer. The place we now board our three horses at he comes for clinics. You can go to Mounted Police Training - Mounted Police Information and that's his website :)

We had 9/9 that were able to walk through fire and all the other distractions together. I agree the clinic I was in was awesome! So you volunteered as a mounted police officer?

Nope. We have Park Police and civilians can volunteer with the park police to do mounted patrol. You have no arrest power, but you're a set of eyes and ears on the trail. You're given a few pieces of "official" items - a colored baby pad (so you can put it over your own pad), a jacket and a hat. When you ride you sign up for 'events' which could be anything from helping with those classes to going for a trail ride. You get a little radio that you can use to report problems if you see any or if people approach you with one. Kind of like a neighborhood watch, but with your horse and on public bridle paths.

Edited to add: I'm just a plain old boring civilian!