Doing silly things with your horse can be a good thing

Shantara

Shantara

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Since Ned got his abscess, I've been having to wrap it up and put a boot on it.

Not so long ago, I couldn't even get his hoof off the ground to pick it out and now he stands for as long as I need to sort the boot and poultice out.

I don't put his good behaviour down to training or good horsemanship. I put it down to me being an ass with him and treating it like everyday :P
Even though it may look ridiculous, I truly believe each of these things have massive benefits and help him trust me in situations he may not understand.

Do you do silly things with your horse? If so, post pictures :D

I put christmas lights on his face
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I put jingle bells on him
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Mess about with flags
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Jump scary stuff
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Admire modern art
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Play with beach balls
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We even have painting sessions!
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Fire arrows over his back!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152099938877888&set=vb.516957887&type=3&theater

Dress him up in jingly things
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152079060077888&set=vb.516957887&type=3&theater
 
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Brilliant! I have always been one for dressing mine up in all manner of things and generally being silly with them, and as a result I have ponies that will deal with pretty much anything with a look of "and..?"
 
When hacking with the little ditches they've dug to drain water into big ditches i go on the grass and hop over every single one of them, helps her calm down as she gets very anxious hacking.
 
I think just spending time with your horse is good. And so many horses must see nothing but a school, never even hacked out! I'm on a DIY yard and I cannot understand the people who have horses and don't even come up in the holidays for more than 15 minutes to feed them.
 
Someone after my own heart. I loved messing about with mine, and you're right , it certainly helped with the bonding, as well as the huge benefits of desensitising her to scary situations. I would more often than not ride off ''piste'', I loved to explore and so did my beautiful girl. Happy days!!! The photos are great, thanks for sharing.
 
Glad to hear other people mess about with their horses too :D

At my old yard, people would often look at me funny whenever I did anything like this...but I'm the one that can hack out alone and do all sorts with my horse :D
 
Why is it silly? It's pretty standard bombproofing/despooking - start with the basic stuff and then use your imagination! Done with a bit of sense, it's based on basic scientific principles about how horses learn and adapt.

Plus, it's fun! Love the lights. :)
 
TarrSteps said:
Why is it silly?
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It's because of how others treated it on my old yard. They thought I was nuts! Although he's far from perfect, he's such a good boy and a pleasure to own :)
Except for YO, she was thoroughly impressed and loved a "Scary lesson" every now and then! (Which included bringing out the scariest fillers and building jumps in odd ways to test both horse and rider!)
Whenever I got my stuff out at the old yard, it was "Oh dear, what's she doing to that poor horse now!!"
 
We do all sorts of daft stuff with our girls. A suggestion for a new one.. get a long length of blue water pipe, join the ends so its like a huge hoop and have him walk through it (you can support it on jump wings) When he walks through no problem start hanging things from the top.

Great fun, but still nothing stops the spook at the killer blade of grass!!
 
Ladyinred said:
We do all sorts of daft stuff with our girls. A suggestion for a new one.. get a long length of blue water pipe, join the ends so its like a huge hoop and have him walk through it (you can support it on jump wings) When he walks through no problem start hanging things from the top.

Great fun, but still nothing stops the spook at the killer blade of grass!!
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Good idea!! I'll be doing that when I get some cash :D

Haha! Yes, he'll deal with me acting like an absolute moron...but a cat running across the road? No, that's deadly.
 
Brilliant! Great to see other people having fun too. I'm forever jumping single barrels and have fun whizzing around cones in the school. It's helped hugely with bomb proofing, keeping schooling sessions interesting and XC skinny fences!! :D x
 
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