Bombproofing Ned!

Shantara

Shantara

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 August 2009
Messages
7,428
Location
Milton Keynes
Visit site
I was planning on trying to hack Ned out completely alone, without even Mother's help. It was far too windy and it would have been asking for trouble. I was a bit stumped at what to do, so I went to get his grooming kit, while I thought of something.
Then, I saw Mr. Stick and thought "I could use this wind to my advantage!" so I grabbed Mr. Stick and the tarpaulin.

I won't bother explaining, I'll let the pictures do the talking ;)


Bombproofing008.jpg

Bombproofing006.jpg

Bombproofing009.jpg

Bombproofing011.jpg

Bombproofing012.jpg

Bombproofing015.jpg

Bombproofing020.jpg

Bombproofing024.jpg

Bombproofing033.jpg

Bombproofing035.jpg

Bombproofing032.jpg


And my favourite
Bombproofing031.jpg


Video to follow :)
 
Lovely pics and video! He's so cute!

Just making me giggle imagining somebody non-horsey walking past and seeing somebody with a stick with a plastic bag on the end waving it at there horse, hehe. They'd definatley think we're even more mad than they thought! ;)
 
caitlineloise said:
Lovely pics and video! He's so cute!

Just making me giggle imagining somebody non-horsey walking past and seeing somebody with a stick with a plastic bag on the end waving it at there horse, hehe. They'd definatley think we're even more mad than they thought! ;)
Click to expand...

Funny you should say that...
Part of the yard is a public footpath, but that's not widely known and we very rarely get anyone walking through. I was in the field with Ned and was trying to get him used to the lunge line (as you can see, it worked!)
I was saying very loudly "GOOOOOOOOD BOOOOY!! WELLLLL DOOONNEEE" as I waved the line in his face and rubbed it all over him.
Ned suddenly looked to the side and stared, so I turned too...to see a Chinese father and son looking at me. I turned bright red and nodded "Heyup" at them. They stared for a moment longer before walking off. They kept looking back at me with such a puzzled expression on their faces XD haha!
 
Love it!

How old is he?

Reminds me when i was doing mine with the tarp, unbrella etc. One of the best things ive done and you'll definately reap rewards in the long term!

Excellant :D
 
rosie-ellie said:
Love it!

How old is he?

Reminds me when i was doing mine with the tarp, unbrella etc. One of the best things ive done and you'll definately reap rewards in the long term!

Excellant :D
Click to expand...

He must be about 11 now. I've been saying he's 10 for about a year, haha!

I bought some balloons too (forgot them today) so I hope I can start using them too :D
 
Haha I do this with mine too. I march round the yard with umbrellas, banging saucepans, rustling bags etc. My 4 year old and the 3 year old find it very interesting and love to investigate! My 4 year old is very confident ridden and nothing fazes her anything new she marches up to and investigates and I put that down to her 'police horse' training! Anyone watching me would think I was totally bonkers!! I run out of ideas of things to do haven't tried the blow up dolphin yet like one of the posters!!
 
Aww bless you look like you're having such fun together :)

I dont quite understand though why people use bags on sticks and wave umbrellas around in their horses face - maybe its just me but I've never encountered anyone taking their carrier bags on sticks out for a walk, nor has a walker decided to come up to me and put up a brolly (pah, more likely that you wont catch me riding in the rain lol).

I see bombproof as not reacting to big trucks/lorries/tractors, low flying aircraft, cows, pheasants etc, and you cant really recreate that artificially can you?

Lucky for me our yard is currently looking like a massive building site so ours think nothing of munching dinner right next to a 6ft cube of bricks swinging around off a crane whilst a forklift truck trundles behind their bums :D it's amazing what they'll tolerate once they've had a little looksie!
 
Where we ride there are often bin bags and wheelie bins outside houses, people washing their cars with hosepipes etc. We also sometimes cross a golf course with scary caddies and people hitting golf balls and we often meet people carrying umbrellas. The other day, there was an abandoned space hopper in the hedge. It all makes sense to me!
 
I have had a horse freak out at walking past someone with an umbrella and I now meet them on the golf course ride all the time so it's important that mine are fine with things like this, golf trollies, pushchairs etc etc and the noise they all make
 
I guess it's partly geography isn't it, im in no way knocking it though - looks like fun regardless of if it would be beneficial in terms of our hacking etc or not!
 
oh yes, and there's a house that has had building going on for years and regularly has a flapping bright blue tarpaulin outside, and another house with yapping dogs at the fence, and another where chickens stick their head out of the hedge as you go past.
 
Even if you don't meet any of that stuff out hacking, it stands you in good stead to have a horse who trusts you enough to go past anything really scary. I've never done actual bomproofing sessions as we have real life ones all around where we are :D
 
I think it’s a good idea to do things like (even if folk think it looks a bit silly) and despite that fact that you might never have someone waiving a brolly or bag on a stick in there faces when out hacking, the point is you are testing to see what reaction you get and how to deal with it in safe surroundings while the horse has the comfort and leadership of their owner being on the ground.

I have come across many a time people walking past me when out hacking using a large brolly, also you get the little ones on prams and often when it’s windy you may come across the odd plastic bag, crisp packet or tarpaulin which blows up in front of you, yes they will often re-act differently (not was well) than in the school and you being on the ground but it’s all good education I think, teaching them not to panic quiet as much. I can walk into my field with a brolly up and my horse will come over to inspect what it is and can catch and lead him back while the other horses in the fields freak out and go galloping off in the opposite direction, a bit of conditioning never did a horse any harm.

Good on you I say.
 
AprilBlossom said:
nor has a walker decided to come up to me and put up a brolly
Click to expand...

HA! My own mother poked poor Fergs in the eye with her brolly the other day :mad: Worse of all, he was loose in the corralling field at an event and sodded off across the field! He's fine with them in principle, but being attacked by one was a step too far :mad:


Ned doesn't look remotely interested :p
 
The only thing I seem to have a problem with spooking at are those blasted field mice carrying mini machine guns (or other weapon). I've never actually seen one so I can't recreate the experience in the school but I'm earnestly *snigger* informed by G that they pose a real threat to his (and therefore my) life when we're out and about...the big buffoon!

I did once take feeds out to field of my old horse on a bright red plastic sledge...because it was food he refrained from sodding off in fright as I whizzed down the hill at lightspeed to him with his dinner! His field mates pooed their pants and cleared off sharpish :D
 
I do think this kind of thing really helps your horse to trust you when there is something they are worried about. It doesn't matter what particular weird and wonderful things you play with, it is more about asking them to trust that if you say it is ok, then it is ok.

I have done a lot with my boy and he is very rarely scared of anything we see out hacking. Sometimes I think I may have done too much - he once stopped at an old tyre the others had spooked. He sniffed it, put his nose right in and then went to put his foot in!:rolleyes:
 
I think it looks great fun village I used to hack through used to have an annual scarecow contests ... very good for bombproofing as everyones garden had one in varying colours :p
 
AprilBlossom said:
Aww bless you look like you're having such fun together :)

I dont quite understand though why people use bags on sticks and wave umbrellas around in their horses face - maybe its just me but I've never encountered anyone taking their carrier bags on sticks out for a walk, nor has a walker decided to come up to me and put up a brolly (pah, more likely that you wont catch me riding in the rain lol).

I see bombproof as not reacting to big trucks/lorries/tractors, low flying aircraft, cows, pheasants etc, and you cant really recreate that artificially can you?

Lucky for me our yard is currently looking like a massive building site so ours think nothing of munching dinner right next to a 6ft cube of bricks swinging around off a crane whilst a forklift truck trundles behind their bums :D it's amazing what they'll tolerate once they've had a little looksie!
Click to expand...

I don't know if you saw my recent thread about riding to my house on May Day?
We got chased by a kid on a skateboard with an umbrella :P I thought I'd get him used to them before it sinks in toooo deep that they're out to get him :) We also had a few people put up a brolly right next to us!

Also, when I was riding alone with the late Archie, a bag decided to fly out of the bush and grab his face :O Thankfully Archie was a saint and just stepped to the side a bit until I fished it off with my whip.

Ned's pretty much bombproof with heavy traffic/large lorries. When I was hacking alone (with mother) we came across one of those MASSIVE combine thingies and he barely looked at it!


@Cloball: We have that too! I'm hoping I can ride over to my house again to experience that :P haha!
 
JFTD said:
HA! My own mother poked poor Fergs in the eye with her brolly the other day :mad: Worse of all, he was loose in the corralling field at an event and sodded off across the field! He's fine with them in principle, but being attacked by one was a step too far :mad:


Ned doesn't look remotely interested :p
Click to expand...

OUCH! Poor Fergs :(
Yea, I think he was a bit bored by the whole thing :P He only had one little spook when I was trying to figure out how to open the brolly and it went WOOSH without warning :P
 
When I got my horse back last summer he hadn't seen traffic so I went out and bought Bombproof your Horse by Rick Pelicano - a great book, but in its section on traffic it just says that it';s rare for horses not to be exposed to traffic so he wouldn't bother saying stuff about it.... very good general ideas in it though
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top