Do you have a spooky reactive horse?

Are you trying to find a way to get them less sensitive but recognise that you don't want them to be flooded by stimuli and shut down in the desensitisation process?

It is very rare for us at Equestrian Movement to use desensitisation with our horses - and when we do it is after we have opened the pathway for communication and established consent.

We will typically do this for a tool we want to use for our horses like a halter. We teach the cue of stand with relaxation first and then stand with relaxation while we touch you with the tool after we have asked for consent. We also then stay well tuned to the horse to allow them to tell us if they need us to back off or take a break.

Aside from tools that we need our horses to accept with relaxation our horses still need to know how to manage their flight response from scary things like bags.... water bottles.... balloons..... bubble machines..... all the scary things that can make our horses drop their lolly. And it is inevitable that we can't desensitise them to every experience. We also will hit that point where they can no longer cope when we're teaching them to just stand still. This is why we teach relaxation and consent first and combine it with the scary object.

Second to that, we teach them confidence through curiousity.

We teach them what to do with that fear. Ie. be confident in themselves and investigate the scary object.

It takes a little bit of time, especially depending on the horses unique character, but once we support them through this process a really magical thing happens. When our horses see something that's scary they literally drag us over to it to investigate it!!! We have had so much feedback from our students who have implemented confidence through curiousity telling us there once highly strung, spooky, kite on a string horse now takes them around new environments or changes in their environment to investigate and boop the scary things.

Far cry from what I got taught when I started out which was to be bigger, badder, stronger and scarier than the thing they are scared of so the are more scared of you than the thing they are scared of! It also is another great way to build relationships and establish yourself as a leader worth following.

Want to see it in action? Check out phoenix getting to know he's new paddock mate, Ella the pig.

Are you interested in working with your horse to create curiosity, confidence, connection and trust?