Horses are naturally cautious of the world around them. As a prey animal, their flight or fight instinct – their ability to flee a perceived danger or stay and fight for their lives – has served them well. It can make working around your horse tricky unless you know how to successfully communicate with him and build his confidence.
“Your job as a horse trainer is to desensitize your horse to as many objects as you can. Your horse classifies an object as anything that doesn’t live in his stall or pasture. It’s no longer an object if it lives in his stall or pasture because he’s already familiar with it; it’s become a part of his daily routine,” Clinton explains. “Horses especially hate objects that move and make a noise. So the more objects you desensitize your horse to, the quieter and more confident he’ll become.”
However, even if you spent every day introducing your horse to new objects, you’d never be able to desensitize him to everything in the world. There’s always going to be something that could potentially spook him. That’s why it’s important to know how to handle the situation when your horse does get startled. When it comes to confronting a spooky object or desensitizing a horse, it can be easy to wreck your horse’s confidence rather than build it.
In the detailed training guide, “Five Mistakes to Avoid When Dealing With Spooky Objects,” Clinton discusses the top mistakes to avoid when desensitizing your horse to unfamiliar objects. Read the article on the Downunder Horsemanship website.
