Kenner Ranch Horses in Competition

On October 28th 2006. I plan to take two horses to a 4-H event in Lakeside called, "The Halloween Play Day." For this event, I intend to prepare two Kenner Ranch horses named Ollie and Wally.

During this play day event, I know that there will be many scary things for horses: flapping signs or decorations, moving tarps on the ground, glittery objects, loud noises and screaming kids. As it turns out, one of my horses, Ollie is a "scared-horse". I think that his basic problem is that he fears that anything he hasn't seen before just might eat him. In order to ensure that Ollie doesn't get spooked at the Halloween Play Day, I decided to show him scary things here at the ranch, and help him learn lessons such as" plastic bags will NOT eat horses!" For my training tools, I selected some plastic bags, and a big blue tarp that had been folded up in one of the tack room cupboards. I thought

the tarp would be great: if he can stand quietly underneath a big, crackly, tarp that moves every time the breeze picks it up, then a little bag tossing about in the wind, or some glittery decorations should be no big deal. By the time I was done I wanted the horse to think of the tarp as a saddle pad rather than a "Big Scary Tarp. This lesson isn't great just for shows; this is great for trail readiness too. Imagine riding an unprepared horse-horse along a trail, and having him turn into a CRAZY horse, when a plastic bag floats by in the wind!

My first step was to simply show him the tarp; because you don't just want to throw something like this over a horse's back and expect them to be okay with it. He did not like this idea. He pinned his ears directly forward toward the tarp, showing that he was paying attention to the tarp and not me. He also stood in a way that if the tarp were to move the slightest bit he could bolt. He looked totally energized. If he did bolt, I would have been a goner. I was standing right in front of him; we call it the " Red Zone"! It took him a while, but he slowly relaxed his body posture. As I moved on to the next step, showing him the tarp and bringing it closer to him, he started to relax and think, "Ahh, it's not going to hurt me". I can tell that he was relaxed because his head was down and he had one ear directed toward me, rather than the tarp. That showed that he was paying attention to me as well as the tarp. From this point on, he became increasingly more accepting of anything I did with the tarp. He stood with a nice, loose lead rope, and did not try to get away from the tarp anymore. (If a horse raises its head, and takes up the slack in the rope, ya better move!) As I moved on to the next step, which was putting the tarp on him and moving it around, he stood there very nicely, not minding it.

He was not trying to bolt or move around, which was a very good sign. As I started to finish his lesson, I finally got to put the whole tarp on him. I got to put it around his legs and shake it and do everything I possibly could to try to scare him, but couldn't. Ollie was now fine with that " Big Scary Blue Tarp." Now this entire lesson might not have taken me as long as it did for you to read this article. It took me about thirty minutes to an hour, to be able to put the tarp on him. If you do this often with different objects such as pots or pans, your horse will be a safe horse. Your horse will also not be afraid to take a challenge every once in a while. Well, I have get off to prepare another horse so, BOO!!