“My horse spooks at the strangest things. I know he was desensitized as a colt. How do I get him over this spooky behavior?” It’s easy for us to forget that sometimes we need to go back to the beginning with our horses. Horses are never too old or too trained for desensitizing work, even if they don’t seem spooky.
Using a tarp is a great desensitizing trick if your horse is spooky. It helps the horse learn to deal with different pressures, and different intents. He can learn that the tarp can go over him, around him, bang him, etc, and that he can take that, because it’snot going to hurt him. Further, he can learn that moving from it is acceptable when done quietly. But, the horse you are going to watch in the video seems to have figured it out himself and now wants to ‘desensitize’ his friend in the pen.
He holds the tarp in his mouth and runs after his friend around the pen probably showing him that he doesn’t need to be afraid. It looks like he is just saying, “Look at me! Don’t be afraid! It’s just a tarp.” Have a look at the following video and let us know your thoughts.