Re: New horse help needed

["Karla Watson" <karla@pcez.com>]

I would lay a couple white poles in riding ring and work around them doing circles (bending) every time you work there. I would do that quite a few times and then get off and walk back and forth (yourself) over poles. Show him how NOT scary they are. Then I would lead him over pole giving him a yummy treat for crossing over it. I would expose him to the pole so much that it became nonchalant and boring to him.

 

My horse is intensely scared of moving paper or tarps. The ring I last boarded at had a big advertisement tarp on the side of the ring that would flap in the wind. He wouldn't even go within 20 feet of the thing! We worked in circles near it for weeks until finally we could work in small circles right up next to it. It only took about a month until he got very bored of it--even when it blew in the wind. It became something he saw all the time and the ONLY place in the ring we worked for that month. Eventually he never even looked at it. The small circles were fantastic work for bending and working at the pole. They were not lost hours of training.

 

Good luck,

Karla

Portland, Oregon