|
Author
|
Topic: Afraid of Water
|
Cavalli Di Amore
Junior Member
Member # 2481
|
posted May 13, 2004 02:25 PM
I ride a horse that is afraid of water. She's gray, and so I needed to bath her for all our shows. It would take hours to clean her! ![[Flaming Mad]](graemlins/flamingmad.gif)
Then she would roll, so I used dry shampoo on a cloth. Problem is, she's also scared of sprays! ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
What can I do to keep her clean? Any soap or brush that will help?
--------------------
-->I'll avoid cleaning my room at all costs
-->but I'll bike for half an hour just to groom a big sweaty horse
...sometimes my family just doesn't understand me ;)
Posts: 2 | From: Ottawa | Registered: May 2004
|
|
roanie
Junior Member
Member # 1920
|
posted May 14, 2004 09:11 AM
Check out Clinton Anderson. He has tape available that show both of these and they work. I have a gelding that was afraid of water for all the 12 years I have owned him. He walks right though now. I use his techique on my babies and they stand for a bath after one lesson. He has a web site www.clintonanderson.com or .net
Posts: 18 | Registered: Mar 2004
|
|
MissBandit
Member
Member # 1377
|
posted May 14, 2004 09:30 AM
I had a horse that was deathly afraid of the hose, I turned him around in about a week. He was drinking out of it in the end.
It's pretty basic stuff, but there is no fancy way to do it.
I started by teaching him that the hose alone would not hurt him. He was afraid of the hose even if it was turned off, so I kept the hose unrolled and laying outside where we groomed (didn't have a barn then). I let him sniff it and I touched it all over his body. I had to go VERY slowly, but after a day or two I could at least bend over and pickup the hose w/o him running for the hills.
Next step I would turn the water on at a trickle, while I groomed him, I held the hose between my feet. I would raise the hose slightly with my feet until the water was just trickling on his front hooves. I did it so slowly and gradually that he didn't hardly flinch. Every single day I would increase the flow of the water (had it hooked up to the house so it was luke warm water, don't want to freeze his legs) until it was a fairly decent spray. Once he was desitized to the water splashing his feet, I then again turned the water down to a trickle and began to desentize the rest of his body. Because he was no longer afraid of the image of the hose, and becuase he now knew the water would not actually hurt him, this process went pretty quickly. By the end of the grooming session that day I was able to trickle water over his entire body. Again, every day I turned up the water level a bit. Before he knew it, he was taking drinks out of the hose. I even desensitized him to the point that I could run the water over his head. My horse was so horribly afraid of the hose, those who knew him could not believe their eyes when I finally showed them what we had accomplished.
BTW, I did this when I was 12 yrs old and used my own common sense. It's not a fancy training technique, just plain old PATIENCE.
[ May 14, 2004, 09:32 AM: Message edited by: MissBandit ]
--------------------
You know you are a horse person when...
...You pull change from your pocket , and hay falls out.
...you yell at the kids, and the horse's name pops out.
...you actually get to a point where flies don't bother you so much.
Posts: 2292 | From: BC, Canada | Registered: Jan 2004
|
|
|
