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Re: [RC] Traffic Training - Maryanne Stroud GabbaniI should be mowing my lawn, but I'd rather chat instead. As Steph can testify (remember the dump truck traffic jam?), I think that I can safely say that I know how to train horses for traffic, whether it is donkey carts, 16 wheelers, dump trucks, or bulldozers. This is not something that can be done quickly and if you have some stone-steady, solid know it all horse who can accompany you, it will help a lot. Start with hand-walking her along the road in a field if you can. Stop, let her graze, have a carrot on hand for just as a truck passes to distract her and let her see that it's harmless. Then practice walking by hand along a road, or even better in areas where there are lots of cars but you can predict what they are going to do. I like the Egyptian villages for this, but they are hard to export. I start my babies through the village on my dirt road and after a month or three of that, they've seen bicycles, motorcycles, pickups and dump trucks, along with the usual livestock and weird wagons.Once she doesn't freak when handwalking, start under saddle, but what I usually do is to make sure that there is a steady older horse along and let the younger one walk along the road with the older slightly outside of the younger. That way the young horses see clearly that there is nothing to be alarmed about and they can't freak INTO the road because the way is blocked. But as with all things equine, a major ingredient in the magic potion is tincture of time. You can't explain to a horse that all these loud vehicles are harmless and not intending to hurt her, so she has to get enough experience to generalise for herself. Throughout all of this, YOU must remain the stalwart, fearless leader whether on foot or in the saddle. If you start getting nervous or jumpy, start singing, do the multiplication tables, tell your horse dirty jokes, anything at all to keep your mind from wandering into the fear zone. The absolute belief that your filly can do this well is invaluable. Three is very young yet. I raise my own horses so I have them from 20+ years down to about 18 months. For my money, they only begin to ripen at about 7 or so. Lots of time for patience there. Maryanne Stroud Gabbani Cairo, Egypt www.alsorat.com "The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for" Louis L'Amour On Tuesday, Aug 31, 2004, at 16:50 Africa/Cairo, Ridecamp Guest wrote: Please Reply to: Belinda Romanuski bj3romanuski@xxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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