My horse is scared of drains, help please?

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I have a 6 year old cob, who really enjoys his hacking, but when we go out on the roads, he really dislikes the drains.
Most are fine, and I can walk him past them, whilst still on him, just with a bit of persistance, but there is one area in particular that I just can't persuade him!

There are 4 drains, about a metre wide each, as soon as he see them he freezes, luckily it is a quiet area and there aren't many cars around.

Before, I could get him past them, but now it has got to the stage where I am having to get off and walk him past them by hand as there is no persuading him that they aren't going to eat him.

It's obviously not practical to keep getting on and off, but if I stay on he sometimes rears. He is still young so don't want to encourage the rearing, but also want to stop this drain phobia before he gets to old to change his mind!



Any ideas much appreciated, how can I get him used to the drains and stop this behaviour?

Thankyou!
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think it just needs persistant positive riding. Keep hacking the route with the drains every day until its not an issue!! Mine takes a quick side steps away from drains and used to make herself as skinny as possible when she went past 20s plenty in circles that were newly painted on the road!! It just took regular riding past.
 
Drains are the only thing my mare is guaranteed to spook at, she refuses to walk across them/ beside them and has to give them a very wide berth. Most of our roads are really quiet so not a prob, but on the busier roads I know I have to makesure I stop well in advance if a car is coming towards us as she will jump to the other side of the road to get round them.
I have always assumed she has slipped on one before I had her?
I don't make too much of an issue of it as she will go past them, jsut with a rather large gap between it and her.
As it's a quiet area, could you ride the other side of the road? Is he worse in one direction?
maybe get off before he can see them - then you are not getting off because you can't get past the scary drains, but you are passing the drains on your walk out? might gain his confidence a bit?
 
Not sure if you could do this with drains, but we had a welsh a we were getting used to things on the road. He was scared of everything, so we took a bag full of apples and placed them on all scary things, black bin bags, wheelie bins, bonnet of OH car engine running and not running. It was amazing how quickly he was not bothered by any of it, now a bomb proof childs pony!!
 
Is there running water under these drain covers? My mare was awful with some drains, worked out it was the ones with the sound of running water, got her better used to running water and she is much better with drains now
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