Who teaches their horse this?

[Tia]

When you are bringing your horse on, or even if you have one which is already trained.....do you teach it about you standing above it's height and head? I mean do you teach your horse to look up without being frightened? Or am I the only one who does strange stuff like this?

 

[CSYMolly]

Guess in some ways I have, Molly used to hate me being above her, ie standing on bucket to plait etc, but now she is pretty good with it. She doesn't really like tall people either, she's used to her midget mum!

 

[Sooty]

Funny you should say this, because it wouldn't have been something I would have thought of until I read JM7's post about her youngster being freaked out be things above it. The first time we put the measuring stick on Beano he reacted quite strongly, and as he is usually pretty mellow about anything new you try on him we reckoned it was because it was above his head. So we started doing stuff above him, standing on a bucket, using the stick more often etc etc. Don't want to come to back him and find he is worried by something sitting above him. We also put a hanging toy in his stable.

 

[Enfys]

I'd never really thought about actually going out to teach a horse that!

I'm a short arse with stiff hips so invariably I use a tree stump/rock/gate/mounting block (in my case the top of the well!) to get on by so all mine are used to me being above them, the UK ones were quite used to being put down a ditch so I could get on too! I always stand on something to plait/clip as well so I guess unconciously they WERE trained to be used to it. I also used to teach them to lower their heads for the same reason, short legs, short arms!

 

[sleepingdragon10]

Well,until I actually thought about it I was quite happily going to pronounce you insane

,but now I have thought about it I realised that yes,I do this also!

Probably looked rather mad the other day standing with SWUO in the field as I touched her all over with the lunge whip,letting the 'tail' of the whip pass over her head just to desensitise her to it(not sure if she'd ever been lunged before so was taking it pretty slowly with her).....she was only bothered for a moment or two,standing pretty rigid with her ears back til she realised it wasn't going to eat her......although she did give it a good chew to see if it was edible

 

[annie02]

I think it is a great thing to do. I love to do all that kind of stuff with my horses, it builds trust with you as well as desensitizes them. I do things like that with all the babies I work with. It is much easier with them than trying to start with an older horse who is set in their ways.

Have you guys ever done "imprinting" with babies, any thoughts on that?

 

[Chex]

I don't remember it actually teaching it, but Chex is used to it, when I'm clipping, cutting bridle paths, bathing etc I always stand on something so am much taller than him. He's not bothered but does find it fun to put his head down and shove my legs to make me fall off the box!

 

[brighteyes]

Not personally, but I have children who pull some very daft stunts and mine are all perfectly used to stuff going on above their heads. It helps if the horses are laid back or very inquisitive and friendly!

 

[tinker512]

Yep with all 4 youngsters I would sit and stand on the 6 bar gate, they would come and form a que while I take turns in brushing them all over from above and patting and massaging...they all loved it!

 

[siennamum]

yes esecially before backing and always from both sides.

 

[Theresa_F]

Yep before I sat on Chancer he got used to me standing on the mounting block way above him - actually used to do a little dance on it so he really was used to me doing daft things at height.

Being a short arse all my horses have to be used to me flinging aboard from anything from the top of a car bonnet, gate, wall, XC jump etc.

 

[vivhewe]

I usually spend loads of time standing on the gate tormenting the life out of my two - yep they pull faces when they see me coming and stand still in the hope that they will look invisible but I can do anything with them!

 

[Tia]

LOL!! See there's method in my madness.

I have a huge barn which has holes in the floor for throwing bales of hay down into the animal living area downstairs. When I first used to throw down the bales I think the horses thought they came from heaven, LOL!! I have taught them all to look up now but the first time they all realised they could do this, their eyes almost fell out on stalks! Now they are quite used to it.