(gentle music)
- Welcome.
Today we're gonna be talking about part two
of desensitizing our horse.
If you haven't seen part one, you can check it out
in the link below.
When we're working on desensitizing our horses,
there's three different types of desensitizing we can do.
We can work on touching our horse,
this could be with a plastic bag, with a flag,
or even with our rope.
We can work on going over an object,
whether that's a tarp or some logs we've put out,
or we can work on going through an object,
whether this is a squeeze or curtain.
Today, I'm gonna be working with Dixie
and I'm gonna be working on getting her comfortable
with a plastic bag around her.
I've not worked with her before,
so I'm gonna take her into the arena here,
and we're gonna see how this goes.
(gentle music)
So I've got my plastic bag here, we're gonna get started.
And as I work with Dixie today on this plastic bag,
my big goal is to get her comfortable
with movement around her.
And this is gonna help her out when we're riding
on her saddle, if we're moving our legs around, you know,
in the stirrups, or if she's out on trail
and she's encountering, you know,
maybe some deer or some movement around her,
we're just helping her to get relaxed
and look to me in that situation
that's more pressured, instead of panicking.
As I go through and work with her, with the bag,
I'm gonna be doing it in stages.
So I'm gonna start off with really light pressure,
maybe having her follow that bag.
And I'm gonna build up to more intense pressure
as we go along.
So what do you think Dixie?
(popping sound)
You ready to start with us?
Don't worry, it's gonna be fun.
(gentle music)
So my first stage with the plastic bag is building
some curiosity with Dixie here and getting her to follow it.
And my goal is for her to approach it on her own
and then be able to rub her on her face there
and her to be really relaxed.
And she did a great job with that first stage.
Was really successful with it,
so now we're gonna move to the second stage,
which is touching her all over.
I'm gonna do this on one side
and then I'm gonna move to the other side.
So what do you think pretty girl?
Ready to go to the next step?
(popping sound)
Doing a great job.
(gentle music)
So Dixie's done a wonderful job completing stage two.
And in stage two, I'm getting her comfortable
with rubbing that bag all over her body.
I'm starting at her shoulder here,
'cause it puts me in the safest position possible
outside of a kick zone, outside of the strike zone.
I work from her wither, the highest point of her back,
back over her hindquarters.
And if she were to move at all during that process,
I just keep rubbing her until she stops and relaxes
and then take that bag away.
Once she's confident with me rubbing her all over her back
and standing quietly, I work my way down over her legs
and rub her in her back legs, same thing,
if she were to kick out or move at all,
I just keep rubbing her until she stands.
And then once she's good on one side did that
on the other side till she was comfortable on both
and now we can move to our third stage.
Our third stage is gonna be taking that plastic bag
and moving it a little bit more quickly over her head
and then up above her, back and forth
and getting her more comfortable with that sound
and that movement until she's really confident
and completely relaxed.
So you're ready for our final stage Dixie?
(popping sound)
(gentle music)
Good girl.
So now that we've completed our third stage,
Dixie's standing relaxed while I move that bag,
back and forth and in front of her.
We can end our session for today.
And right there, it was really cool,
Dixie went and checked out the bag, she was a little bit,
you know, kind of curious about it.
And that's what our goal is when we're doing desensitizing,
we're working on replacing fear with curiosity.
And when we have our horses,
our horse gets curious about something,
they're in a thinking state of mind and the more
that we can get them into that thinking state of mind,
the more we're developing a horse
that is gonna be more confident and looking to us more
as opposed to being reactive.
So as you go out and you work
with your horses on desensitizing, keep working
on building the stages progressively.
So start off slow, have them follow the object
if you can, if you're doing an object like this,
like a plastic bag and promote that curiosity
and that relaxation in your horses.
I hope this video was a help to you
as you work on desensitizing your horses,
you know, keep enjoying this process as you work on it,
keep growing and learning and I look forward
to seeing you in the next video.
Did a great job Dixie, you're ready to go in?
(gentle music)