INTRODUCING OBJECTS TO A HORSE (PART 2)

Welcome. Today we're going to be talking about part two of desensitizing our horse. If you haven't seen part one, you can check it out in the link below. When we're working on desensitizing our horses, there's three different types of desensitizing we can do. We can work on touching our horse. This could be with a plastic bag, with a flag, or even with our rope. We can work on going over an object, whether that's a tarp or some logs we put out. Or we can work on going through an object, whether this is a squeeze or a curtain. Today I'm going to be working with Dixie and I'm going to be working on getting her comfortable with a plastic bag around her. I've not worked with her before, so I'm going to take her into the arena here and we're going to see how this goes. So I've got my plastic bag here. We're going to get started. And as I work with Dixie today on this plastic bag, my big goal is to get her comfortable with movement around her. And this is going to help her out when riding under saddle, if we're moving our legs around, you know, in the stirrups, or if she's out on trail and she's encountering, you know, maybe some deer or some movement around her. We're just helping her to get relaxed and look to me in that situation that's more pressured instead of panicking. As I go through and work with her with the bag, I'm going to be doing it in stages. So I'm going to start off with really light pressure, maybe having her follow that bag, and then I'm going to build up to more intense pressure as we go along. So what do you think, Dixie? You ready to start with us? Don't worry, it's going to be fun. So my first stage with the plastic bag is building some curiosity with Dixie here and getting her to follow it. And my goal is for her to approach it on her own and then be able to rub her on her face there and her to be really relaxed. And she did a great job with that first stage, really successful with it. So now we're going to move to the second stage, which is touching her all over. I'm going to do this on one side and then I'm going to move to the other side. So what do you think, pretty girl? You ready to go to the next step? Doing a great job. So Dixie's done a wonderful job completing stage two. And in stage two, I'm getting her comfortable with rubbing that bag all over her body. I'm starting at her shoulder here because it puts me in the safest position possible, outside of a kick zone, outside of the strike zone. I work from her waist to her shoulders, And if she were to move at all during that process, I just keep rubbing her until she stops and relaxes and then take that bag away. Once she's confident with me rubbing her all over her back and standing quietly, I work my way down over her legs and rub her in her back legs. Same thing if she were to kick out or move at all, I just keep rubbing her till she stands. And then once she's good on one side, did that on the other side So she was comfortable on both. Now we can move to our third stage. Our third stage is going to be taking that plastic bag and moving it a little bit more quickly over her head and then up above her back and forth and getting her more comfortable with that sound and that movement until she's really confident and completely relaxed. So you ready for our final stage, Dixie? Good girl. So now that we've completed our third stage, Dixie's standing relaxed while I move that bag back and forth and in front of her. We can end our session for today. And right there was really cool. Dixie went and checked out the bag. She was a little bit, you know, kind of curious about it. And that's what our goal is when we're doing desensitizing. We're working on replacing fear with curiosity. And when we have our horses, our horse gets curious about something. They're in a thinking state of mind and the more that we can get them into that thinking state of mind, the more we're developing a horse that is going to be more confident and looking to us more as opposed to being reactive. So as you go out and you work with your horses on desensitizing, keep working on, you know, building the stages progressively. So start off slow. Have them follow the object if you can. If you're doing an object like this with like a plastic bag. And promote that curiosity and that relaxation in your horses. I hope this video was a help to you as you work on desensitizing your horses. You know, keep enjoying this process as you work on it. Keep growing and learning and I look forward to seeing you in the next video. You did a great job, Dixie. You ready to go in?