[ChieflaStables]

Anyone have any cool ideas, or set ups for de-spooking

I know the basic -

Tarp on the ground

Huge Horse Ball

but I'm not very creative and could use some ideas!

Or pictures of some things you've used before.

I'm looking for some cheap thing to buy, or maybe ideas of things that I probobly have around the house that I could use.

Thanks :-D

[hoofs_in_motion]

Plastic bag on a stick, wave it around the horse

loud noises, we take our horses in training to our pasture and fire off a round out of my fiances 12 guage, in the air of course, eventually they get use to it

traffic, get the horse use to sounds of traffic

[myhorsethunder6]

MM..earlier this summer we set up an entire course because my gaming mare was so skittish. I don't have any pictures but here is what the course looked like:

We took 2 poles and one of those swimming noodles and put the noodle across the top, so we had to walk between the poles and under the colorful noodle.

Then we bought 2 medium sized cheap flags and stuck them in the ground about 2 1/2 feet apart and walked through em when they were flapping.

Then we took plastic bags and stuck them onto 2 barells that were really close together( when i went through my legs were about an inch from the barrels)

Then () we took more brightly colored noodes and laid them on the ground betweed 2 poles to make a small jump (maybe a total of 6 inches high) We didnt really have to jump it just for the horse to go over it. And on the top of one of the poles we had a noodle that wasnt' connected to the second pole so it waved around as you go over the jump

All of the poles that were used has long pink ribbons tied around them so they fluttered. And then, just for the heck of it for every horse we rode out in the arena, we tied plastic bags loosley to about every other post (the posts are, i want to say, about 5-6 feet apart)

And i think that is everything, i am going to get my pencil and paper and see if i can draw it out so it will help describe it!

Britt

[myhorsethunder6]

I donno why i tried..If you can understand (or even read) this then you deserve a cookie



Britt

[MommaKayc]

Some of the things we've done is the plastic sack on the stick but also on each post of the round pen to catch the breeze when they were ok with the stick sack.

Empty soda cans tied together at first away from them then near them and eventually hanging off the saddle horn.

Clinton Anderson's rope throwing all over their body and head.

Tarp training

Throwing my old jacket all over them including their faces. Also flapping it around while in the saddle once they understand that it won't hurt them.

Whips all around their body around and over their heads and eventually around them (1 side them swinging over to the other side repeatedly) while riding.

Walking along the barn wall banging every once in a while to "scare" them (sorry no guns here although July 4th works very well too they hardly jump anymore).

Flags waved all around them and over them.

Umbrella's flapping around them.

I have more but I'm hungry and gotta convince youngun that he needs to take his bath.

Good luck

[MyhorseAnnie]

My BO has this thing..Let's see if I can explain it. Its two poles (each in a bucket filled with sand or something,i forgot, but so the poles don't move around and it's heavy enough so it doesn't get tipped over. And on the inside of the poles (the poles need to be spaced enough for a horse to fit through them.) And on the insides of the poles there's like a row of swimming noodles (I don't remember how they're attached, but they move if you push them.) That's on both of the inside of the poles, so then when your horse walks through it, they get poked by the noodles.

That probably didn't make any sense, lol. But this is kind of how it looks-

l l
l-------- -------l
l-------- -------l It helps to get the horses used to things going along
l-------- -------l their sides. ((Okay for some reason the first and last lines won't go over
l l to the right side..))

[MommaKayc]

We've also run remote control cars around them and on them. Curly thought it was a messager

We have a plastic coffee can with a few rocks in it taped shut that we toss around. We got to the point that we were kicking it under them back and forth and throwing it over them to each other.

We've also crushed soda cans around them especially their feet and making them walk through the cans on the ground.

Feed sacks snapped and swung around them.

wrapping ropes around them especially their legs

walking under clothes lines, through swing sets, and around a trampoline with kids playing on it.

Introducing them to tractors, pickups, tractors pulling things like the trailer and some tires pulled by the tractor.

Chain saws, construction (hammering nails in, pulling nails, etc), drills, weed eater, shredder (tree one), lawn mowers, etc.

plastic soda bottles thrown around them and walking them through a pile of them.

We eventually plan on building a box filled with water and plastic soda bottles for them to walk through.


Hope that helps. Good luck

[ChieflaStables]

haha. thaanks guys! great ideas!

[Appy-Girl]

I am impressed with these ideas and suggestions - my mare seems to hate the sound of a soda can when you open it or a bottle of soda that is new - the "woosh" sound when you open them bothers her - it is funny - I am working on putting a day together for her and will video tape it - anyone looked on You Tube for demo videos?

[Dreamsrbig]

I think the only thing I can add is poping up an Umbrella. I did this about 100 times with my last horse after a kid at a show poped on up and spooked him pretty bad. I think I also did blowing up belloons and then letting the air out.