July 20th... May is the last time Journey had any ground work. I brought her in the roundpen today to desensitize her to a clear plastic tarp and a large American flag. First we did some backing and lungeing. She backs fine, lunges good, but not quite as well as she did last time I lunged her. That is to be expected and she wasn't bad at all - simply did not want to canter more than a couple strides without breaking back to a trot. She still changed directions, stopped, and walked and trotted without a problem.
As for the desensitizing itself, first I sent her between me and the fence over the plastic tarp. She did not care one wee little bit. Next I dragged the tarp along the ground walking circles around Journey, she followed, scared of it, but not trying to get away, just watching the plastic closely.
After walking circles around Journey, I asked Journey to walk around me. We did this on both sides, then I rubbed her down everywhere with it.
Once Journ was comfortable being around the plastic and being touched by it, I draped it over her back slightly and asked her to walk in circles. Then I draped it over her neck, then her butt...then switched sides. Sometimes the scary moment is when the plastic falls off the horse, so I continued to ask her to go in circles, then I would pull the plastic off of her while she was moving. None of this upset her. We practiced the same exercises while trotting.
The final step with the plastic was pulling it over her face. She does not love this, but she will tolerate it without getting excited. She raises her head or turns her head away, maybe steps back once or twice, but nothing crazy.
I also wanted to introduce Journey to a flag. If she's ever going to be a show horse she will encounter a flag more than once in her life. So I waved it around, she snorted, her eyes got huge and she backed up. That was about the end of it. We repeated similar exercises that we did with the plastic. I asked her to walk and trot in circles around me, both directions, while I waved the flag up above her and next to her. I draped the flag across her, rubbed her everywhere with it. Draped it over her head, on her butt, etc. Covered her eyes, let it flap around on her chest, on her back, next to her, above her, etc. She was not excited about any of it. Kept her ears perked forward and just did what I was asking her to do, totally ignoring the flag.
Today was a success. Tomorrow I hope to carry the flag and the plastic while riding her, weather permitting.
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