Hillbilly Horse Desensitation

[Gabe Ayers]

This is a funny story from our front yard and my lazy Sunday afternoon antics…written to the owner of a pair of mares we are training.

As you know the place is called Ridgewind Farm and if you stay around here a while you will see why, the wind – she do blow here most of the time… and last week was one of those times. Well there is plenty of stuff to blow about a farm and in this case a feed bag came out of the barn and on a south wind blew down through their paddock and it could have been a grizzly bear and not scared them any more…it was amusing to observe, yet they respect the electric fence and never get out thankfully. Well this lead me to think that this time passing was missing an opportunity to desensitize them to all sorts of things, like white bags blowing around and plastic stuff in general. I went into the paddock to pick the bag up that has lodged against the fence and it freaked them out again, but it is a funny fear, although no less of a horse eating bugger potential to the mares. Every time the bag moved they moved, all unnecessary reactions really. So given the calm warm Sunday afternoon and an early showing of PBR I had the occasion to use what was at hand to provide some training for the girls. I took the white plastic feed bag and tied it into the lilac bush beside the steps coming down into the house and put couple of cans and a rock in it. Then resourcefully found some baling twine….(plentiful discard around here) and tied it to the bottom of the bag and strung several pieces together so they could reach into the house all the way to the couch where I sat was watch Bullriding….then I fed the mares (read the eatingest horses I have ever fed) right below the bag on the other side of the fence from the lilac. Well the fun started. Every time they would come to eat the hay I would pull the string and wiggle the bag and they would bolt off like their lives were in serious threat. It was hilarious. It was a combo of horse whisperer/Appalachian white trash training if you have ever seen it and the fact that they were acting so afraid was truly amusing….Given their efficiency at their primary occupation of eating, they were compelled to come back after each wiggle quite quickly, so the entertainment we pretty steady during all the commercial breaks during bullriding. Since then the entire household had enjoyed desensitizing these big mares from the bag bugger. We are tying other bags around their paddock so they will get over this silly reactionary stuff and grow up to understand that a bag is a bag and not a bugger. These days they barely flinch and don’t run off like their lives depended on it through fear flight response. They are silly girls sometimes and an interesting part for me is that now the younger mare is the bravest about the wiggling plastic and she is finally teaching her mother that it is not really worth moving when the bag moves…So hope you appreciate how easily we are entertained around here on a sunny Sunday afternoon….bullriding and bag wiggling….meanwhile the mares are getting braver and less spooky over little things.

I will add at this time that this is not a patented training technique and anyone that can get a baling twine to reach all the way to their couch is welcome to use it….ha!

Happy Sunday folks, this is a true story….and is still funny – particularly when now the barely raise their heads when the bag wiggles…. The Lilac really wants to bloom and provide a fragrant scent to be carried through the house, but the weather continues to delay real spring and the entire natural world is waking very slowly this year. Maybe this will help us get a better blossom set and some fruit this year.

Detailed photos and directions on tying twine together available upon request…

[jen judkins]

:D:D:D I love it…training from the couch!

[ngcmcn]

Jason,

We like grain bags too. A colt that i handle nightly didn’t like them so we kepted adding them to where he was feeding till he was knee deep in them, He doesn;t mind much any more. Have you tried the running chainsaw(safety break on) in the round pen, Thats fun. Or over the back(of the horse) rifle sighting in?

Neal

[whoamule]

That reminds me of a muledeer hide, with head still attached, that I draped over the fence a few years back. I would feed close to the fence and stand way down the fenceline. As my fence wires are loose I could just press on the top strand of barb wire and the ‘buck’ would do a little dance. The mules got the joke soon enough but the mustang gelding always kept a keen eye on the ‘danger’.
ed

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