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[RC] spraying bug spray - Andrea Daygetting a yearling to calmy accept being sprayed with bug spray? Just a suggestion: Get another spray bottle and fill it with water. If you have other horses, tie the yearling where he can see you spray them with fly spray. (as long as they're good about it) Then take your water sprayer while the other horses are standing nearby for reassurance and start to spray. Spray into the air, spray the ground, slowly work your way nearer till you can spray his legs and then slowly move up. If he's totally ballistic, stand back and spray at the yearling, and eventually work it so that the mist just barely touches him. The nice thing about using water is that you can spray the whole bottle out to desensitize him. When you do finally get to the point where you can spray him without him coming completely unglued, then spray him till you've used up a whole bottle. On a hot day most colts eventually don't mind it. It might help to identify what he's goofing on. Most horses don't like the psssst psssst sound, but I had a thin skinned TB that was so ticklish that he ALWAYS squirmed unless the sprayer was set to a light mist. He was a truely thin-skinned horse, and he tried to do right, but I eventually gave up and used a wipe on him. You could do his legs with the sprayer, but anywhere on his body but his rump made him fuss. If it's the sound, you need to just spray till he gets used to the noise, if he's ticklish, you might be able to get him used to being sprayed on the legs and rump first, then slowly accustom him to other areas. One other thing, check your stance when you're spraying and make sure he doesn't think you're attacking him. I've seen people with young/goofy horses that stand back because the horse is faunching, and hold the sprayer out like a gun. Some horses feel like they're under attack in that position, whereas if the owner will stand with one hand on the horse and keep the sprayer low and near their body to begin with, then move it up while still keeping it in close to them, the horse will react much better. Anyway, good luck. Andrea _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail
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