The key to teaching your horse to navigate any obstacle, including water, is to give him enough practice so that he gains confidence. Go over a stream or through a pond a hundred times. Go over it again and again, from different angles, at different speeds, and from all sides. At the ranch, we end every horse’s training session by putting him on a big, loose rein and letting him walk in the shallow perimeter of one of the ponds on the property. At that point in the ride, the horse is sweaty and he’s a little tired. Splashing through water doesn’t sound like a bad deal to him. If the horse wants to stop and drink water, we let him. If he wants to stop and stand for a few minutes, we let him. We rub on him and don’t make him feel wrong for relaxing. We make the pond seem like the best part of the ride for the horse, and it doesn’t take long for him to look forward to getting his feet wet.
You can teach your horse to crave getting in water, too, even if you don’t have a pond on your property. Hustle the horse’s feet on the shoreline, constantly asking him to change directions so that he works up a bit of sweat, then offer him the chance to rest and relax in the water. After letting him rest in the water for five minutes, take him back to the shoreline and hustle his feet. It’s the same concept we use when trailer loading a horse: It’s hard work outside the trailer and rest and reward inside the trailer.
The bottom line is horses learn by doing, so let your horse do water. Spend the time to teach him that water is nothing to fear and how to go through it. Then, when you encounter any water hazard on the trail, he will be able to cross it with ease. Repetition, repetition, repetition!
