new horse hates water

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Just looking for ideas really. New horse will not walk through puddles. He'll go around them or leap them but will not walk through.

I've tried riding through them, following another horse and trying on the ground with a lunge line. Nothing. He just leaps it.

I've bought him to be my eventing horse.... Help!!
 
he might be okay with rivers, my boy was similar with puddles, can only put it down to the puddles being dark and he cant seem to see the bottom of them so he thinks there might be monsters in there! he happily goes into the local river though!

if I were you I would stand in the puddle and wait for him to follow you in! if he is new to you, he might not trust you yet, so might take a while but once he has some trust he might follow you in with a bit of persuasion
 
Start from basics - so hose his feet, gradually move up to his knees. Put a foot in a bucket of water. Get a tarp for him to walk over. Make a little puddle with a hose (clear puddle) and hose his legs and get him to take a step until he is stood in the puddle,keep hosing water at his legs and introduce proper puddles(dirty puddles), praise him for all the good things he does. Then take him through a stream, then a river :)
 
If I were you I wouldn't make an issue about puddles, the event horse I had here at livery hated walking through puddles yet jumped into water at events with great enthusiasm, I would go somewhere to school through a good safe water complex that is inviting, the problem with puddles is they tend to be in places where the ground drops away or is very unlevel so often a horse feels unsafe in the footing, it certainly would not make me think it will be an issue for eventing, many of mine creep round puddles but are happy to go through a stream or into proper water.
 
Don't try getting him to go through puddles, find an expanse of water, preferably a gentle ford or a xc water jump. Take a friend, make sure you are prepared to lead him through, you could also try reversing in if all else fails - but the puddle situation would not worry me :)
 
I had an Arab cross who was the same, I used to walk on a lunge line to an industrial estate locally that always had huge puddles after the rain, with a bucket and his feed in a rucksack and plonk the bucket of feed in the middle of a huge puddle, and wait.. and encourage... it took a while but the belly got the better of the phobia, after a while he'd walk through without and we worked up to streams. You could try the same with tarpaulin & water if there aren't any big shallow areas of water around.
 
Bob the notacob is absolutely fearless about open water that he can clearly see.He is like a German tourist trying to get his towel on the beach at a water complex ,yet he is mortally afraid of hidden boggy ground,or the smell of water when he cant see it ,eg after they have used the sprinklers on the racecourse. Basicly ,as an Irish horse ,he is afraid of the Bogs.
 
Yes I'm going to take him to our local xc as soon as possible which has a really inviting water complex. Will take a lunge line and just stand in it maybe and lunge him through it, in and out....
I'm trying not to make it a big deal but to get to the hacking we have to negotiate it.
Yesterday he leaped over one way and refused to move coming back. It was getting dark by that time so even more worrying for him I guess so I got off and lead him over it. He still leaped it.
Right thing to do?
 
My old horse hated puddles but would go through a stream quite happily.

My sister's horse also hates them, but if she takes him to the beach she has a serious job getting him out of the sea, he loves it!
 
Definitely right! My mare, who is an Arab, will not go through puddles and used to have a problem with the ford, I ended up getting off and jumping up and down in it so she could see it was safe, and followed me through it. I made her do this several times and then got back on facing home and rode her through it. Never bothered her again and she goes through water XC no problem. She still won't go through a puddle if she can go round, though, and if she can't, she will stamp one front foot in it several times to check it's safe if she can't see the bottom! I'd do the same myself so I don't blame her, it's good to have a horse with a sense of self preservation :)
 
My first horse never did accept the concept of going through a puddle, left , right or over was fine in her mind, just not through.
She was great at fords, rivers, and in the sea. Getting wet was not an issue.
I think it's the damp, not wet, feeling that she didn't like.
On the plus side every ride was a mental destresser as I had to fully concentrate on where we were actually heading rather than thinking about other things.
 
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