Desensitizing Your Horse

Why are ground obstacles and groundwork important for a young horse and training? Teaching a horse to maneuver an obstacle from the ground gives it the opportunity to think through the situation and keeps you and your horse safe. He can carefully pick his way over and through the obstacle the first few times until he learns to pay attention to where he is putting his hooves. Here are a few items to use as the obstacles:

1. Ground poles

2. Pool noodles and thin rope

3. A kiddy pool filled with water

4. A kiddy pool filled with some sand, shavings, or straw

5. Bags of shavings

6. Big wooden box

7. A tarp and rope

8. A tarp and ground poles

9. Old milk jugs and some rope

10. Big tires

11. Bubble wrap

12. Broken tree branches that have leaves and PVC pipe

13. Balloons

14. Big tarps

There are way more items you can use as well but we will just stick with these few.

So I'm sure that now that you know all of the items above you might be thinking, “What the heck is this for!” Well, let me tell you...

Ground poles:

You can arrange them in a big square on the ground and walk your horse in a circle. You would want to use this method to allow your horse to move more fluently on his or her haunches or shoulders. We are doing this with my baby horse Ladybug because she is not too great at moving her shoulder in any certain direction.

Pool noodles and rope:

You will want to run your rope through the top of the pool noodles then hang it up high enough that your horse can walk through them, like a curtain. This helps with desensitizing touching on the horse's face, back, neck and butt.

Water:

So you'll want to fill a decent-sized kiddy pool to the top with water and walk your horse through it. The first time I did this with my horse she turned into a Grand Prix jumper going over it so we worked on it a lot and eventually she got better. This helps if you plan on doing trails in the future or water jumps etc.

Kiddy Pool with Debris:

For this, you will need a decent-sized kiddy pool and some sort of material like sand or shavings. Once you have your pool place it on the ground and put the designated material in it. This helps with desensitizing your horse to odd feelings on the hoof and leg area.

Bag of Shavings:

For this, you will need a few bags of shaving and your horse of course! Take one bag of shavings and lay it on the ground leading the horse over or on it. Once your horse does this add one more bag of shavings to the first one and repeat. See how high your horse can step. This helps with trail training for stepping onto and getting over ledges.

Solid Wood Box:

This is just like above but you can't make it go higher.

Tarp and a Rope:

You will need a tarp and rope for this obstacle. First, hang your rope up high enough for your horse to walk under then hang the tarp over it. This helps with desensitization to loud noises and odd feelings on the body.

Tarp with Ground Poles:

You will need a tarp, ground poles, and water. First, arrange your poles on the ground in a large square. Then lay your tarp on the ground and roll the sides underneath the ground poles. Fill it with a thin layer of water or mud. This helps with desensitizing your horse to stuff that might be on the trail or in their natural environment.

Milk Jugs and Rope:

Old milk jugs and some rope...I know it sounds odd right but it works. Trust me it does work. To do this take some old jugs and lead rope through them and then hang it up on a high spot and lead your horse through it. This will help with desensitization to large items touching the head and body.

Big Tires:

For this, you will need a few tires. Take the tires and lay them down flat on the ground and have your horse walk through them. This helps with desensitizing your horse to odd feelings on their pasterns and cannon bone area/legs.

Bubble Wrap:

Take the bubble wrap and pop it near your horse. This will help with desensitization to loud abrupt noises.

Broken Tree Limbs and PVC Pipes:

For this, you will need PVC pipes, a drill, and some tree branches with leaves on them. Take the PVC pipes and make an arch large enough to walk your horse and you under. After that's done, take your drill and make a few holes going down the sides of the PVC pipes then take your branches and stick them in. This helps with getting your horse used to tree branches and leaves touching them for things such as trails and trail classes.

Balloons:

Blow up some balloons and pop them near your horse. Again this helps with desensitizing your horse to loud and abrupt noises.

Large Blue Tarp:

Simply lay the tarp on the ground and walk your horse around, on, and over it. This helps with desensitizing them to all sorts of things like loud noises, large colorful scary things, etc.

Well, I sincerely hope this gave you a few ideas on how to desensitize your mighty steed in training. And I hope you decide to read more about my journey! Enjoy the video and pictures! We will show a lot of the above in action with two different horses. Click the link https://youtu.be/ANzzUgmsmVM to get to our YouTube Channel and see the video of us working our two horses thru our own version of a challenge course.