Introducing New Things to Your Horse

Do you introduce new things to your horse and get a big reaction ?

Learning to read your horse and stay below their threshold can help new things be much less of a big deal.

If your horse goes into a reaction: fright, flight, OR fight — that’s okay!

Take a step back and simplify what you’re asking.

Other than your horses natural ways of communicating that you’ve reached their fear threshold, you can teach them to tell us that they’re reaching it before they actually do.

First: Allow the horse to go into the reaction.

Second: Teach the horse to go into natural relaxation mode.

Third: Remove the object or the horse away from the unwanted object.

Example: lowering their head. When a horse is out grazing in a herd, they are relaxed, head down. When a predator may be around, they are going to go into that fright, flight, or fight mode.

Taking away the scary object, such as fly spray, when your horse goes into relaxation mode allows the horse to tell you that you are pushing their threshold and to back off instead of going into fear reaction.

We are thankful that our horses don’t spook when applying things like fly spray! It seems so simple but could easily cause a horse to spook! Luckily with a few simple steps, your horse will continue grazing and relaxing when they get fly protection sprayed on them.