July 29th...
Serenity again...Puddin' is out on the road. Encore is struggling with the fly spray and Puddin' doesn't have much time to work with him so I decided to step in and help him out.
Horses are scared of anything that moves or makes a noise. Well a fly spray bottle moves, and it makes noise! Holy cow you have a horse eater! I have put a lot of thought into this as Puddin' has made every attempt to help Encore overcome his fear of the fly spray. He has tried desensitizing him to the bottle, slowly trying to spray him, praise him, etc. He has tried tying him up so he can't get away, he's tried letting him move around freely. Nothing seemed to get the job done, though he could eventually spray him while tied after a few minutes.
My idea was to desensitize Encore to the stick & string and the rope before attempting the fly spray.
On with the rope halter, grab the stick and head up to the arena. Encore was scared at first, ran in circles as I smacked the string on the ground. I rewarded any little effort to stand still. Within 15 minutes I was smacking the ground right next to his butt without a problem. Charlie stepped in - he was good for her as well. She continued to work him on it.
Then I lunged him. Encore has the basic concept that he is supposed to go in circles around you, but to truly lunge he needs to know the cues for a left or right departure and whoa...cueing for particular gaits comes later.
It took awhile to get Encore confident in the departures, but he would go around me quietly, no pulling or dragging me around.
Of course as we lunged Encore got very very sweaty. I desensitized him again to the stick & string... but the bugs were just loving him.
I sent Charlie off for a bottle of fly spray, and a bottle of just plain water.
Encore still doesn't love the bit, so while Charlie was fetching the spray bottles, I went on to desensitize Encore's muzzle/mouth and work on bridling.
I started by rubbing his muzzle, playing with his lips. Rewarding him by removing my hand everytime he stopped moving his head. Soon I was putting the rope by his lips and eventually in his mouth. I made a loop with the rope to mock a bridle, and put that on him several times before the fly spray arrived...all of maybe 5 minutes.
Now to the spraying... first things first, horses hate to be chased, but gain confidence if they are doing the chasing! So I gave Encore a few feet of rope, and walked backwards away from him, leading him along, spraying the water with every step. His ears were pricked forward, he was definitely concerned but not flighty or defensive.
I would spray and spray and spray, all the while letting Encore follow it, then I would stop walking and stop spraying. So Encore is learning...stopping means the spray goes away!
Encore is actually afraid of the bottle itself, not just the spraying, so I held the bottle in one hand, rubbed him with the other hand. Then worked to shaking the bottle near him, rubbing him, repeating, until I was rubbing the bottle on him. Once he was comfortable with that, I sprayed him, starting on his shoulder, then his back, ribs, chest, neck, hip, and legs. He never moved.
That was just the left side, so I had to repeat on the right side. But we only used water, so now I had to get the actual fly spray and spray him again...of course at this point he didn't care which bottle it was. He stood fine.
Once he had some bug relief, I took the halter off his head, put it around his neck, picked up the bridle and let him feel the bit on his lips. When he'd quit moving, I took the bit away. In a few minutes he was taking the bit quietly.
Time to spray again - no problem!
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