# Parade Preparation



## Falcor74 (May 28, 2013)

The things we have had around us in parades are things such as flags, bikes, car horns and sirens and flashing lights.


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## TrailDustMelody (Jun 23, 2013)

Well, she's good with bikes and flags. We live near a road and cars seem fine. I'll see about getting my dad to drive by and make a ton of noise with his sports car when I'm walking my mare. Maybe we'll do a fake parade in the yard...hmm, that could be fun.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Just be confident yourself and keep your attention on your horse, not the crowd. Take a pail of soapy water and one with rinse water. It seems that with all the activity before the parade starts the horse gets the desire to unload and it's often runny and splashes the legs. I think it's the horse getting back at us.


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## Shoebox (Apr 18, 2012)

Get her used to firecrackers. I've been in hundreds of parades (was with a marching band) and a lot of young teens think it's funny to throw firecrackers and smoke bombs under the horse's feet.


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## TrailDustMelody (Jun 23, 2013)

Good grief, people are that annoying? Well, the marching band purposely spooked my friends' horse once...sent her rearing and everything. The crowd thought it was great. =P I'll have to get some stuff like that and practice with my horse.


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## GreySorrel (Mar 5, 2012)

I hate parades and have done a few with the draft horse and carriage.....NEVER EVER again...

So I suggest to you, and hope, that you have great insurance. I am not trying to be rude or snarky, but with how today's society is and how people just do not think, rather safe than sorry. When I did parades I had coverage for a million dollars....


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## Endiku (Dec 6, 2010)

^ during my mini mare's first parade I had her under cart, and she was still fairly green (had about 6 months of driving done, but only 4 years old) some crazy woman decided that it would be a great idea to run up to us in the middle of the parade and plop her 5-6 year old child on my mare's back...while walking, while attached to the cart- with no warning at all! I couldn't believe it! Thankfully my mare is quite used to kids and didn't do much more than flatten her ears (she's NEVER had a person on her back before and I'd hoped to keep it that way ) but it could have been a big mess.

So just make sure your mare is used to relying on you in scary situations. Theres no way you can desensitize her to every possible scenario in a parade, so be sure she knows to look to you when something scares her. Parades can be fun, but not if your horse doesn't know how to react.


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## flytobecat (Mar 28, 2010)

Best of luck. I did my 1st parade last year and the marching band nearly did me in.
We were pretty good up until then, even with the popping balloons, and sirens.
My suggestion desensitize your horse, ride her everywhere and ride her alone. It will help build up the trust between the two of you.
Oh & don't change your tack the day before. I made that mistake also.


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## Incitatus32 (Jan 5, 2013)

I agree with getting her used to cars, and loud noises, also: clapping. That set a couple of horses off at their first parade. Luckily we only do one a year but when my mare went to her first one (and she doesn't really get worked up at all) we went with a group (the same one now we go with every year lol) an dthat really helped her. She was prancy and a bit uppity but after doing this once a year for a couple of years she now just plods along. Thankfully I've not had anything crazy really happen. Just be prepared to handle her if she acts up and I would suggest going in a group if you can to help her out, other then the desensitizing work it should go okay. I've found that you can prepare all you want but there's always that unexpected twist. haha good luck! They really can be a lot of fun!


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## TrailDustMelody (Jun 23, 2013)

The nice thing about my mare is that she has NEVER bucked, reared, or done anything worse than stop dead in her tracks, or jump to the side at something. So I'm pretty confident that she won't kill me, haha. But I'll still be super careful. I'm going to ride her along the road and by the school, maybe get my neighbor to zoom by on his motorcycle a few times. We'll have to find ways of working on clapping, bands, and popping noises. Thanks, everyone!


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## Roux (Aug 23, 2013)

> some crazy woman decided that it would be a great idea to run up to us in the middle of the parade and plop her 5-6 year old child on my mare's back


WOW!!! That is insane! And if something bad were to happen she probably would have sued you ... :-x Some people really don't think sometimes!! 

I would also get your mare used to having things thrown at her. During the parades here people throw candy and it gets a little crazy. I have had foam footballs thrown at me also. 

The worst is the water guns that people spray horses with. I have been lucky enough that my horses didn't overreact to that but its not a good thing either. 

As long as you are in a group though you should be fine, I hope you have fun!!!


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## Endiku (Dec 6, 2010)

It was unexpected to say the least! I'm not sure what was going through her mind. She's lucky my mare reacted as little as she did though. That was her first time driving on a road with huge amounts of distractions, first time in a parade, and she's super young too...If she had reacted I don't know what would have happened with me being in that cart behind her o.o


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## JustDressageIt (Oct 4, 2007)

One word: Earplugs. Yes, for the horse.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## TrailDustMelody (Jun 23, 2013)

Like these? EquiFit T-Foam Equine Earplugs


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

Ear pom poms are definitely a good idea. I've never ridden in a parade before--have fun!


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## Oldhorselady (Feb 7, 2012)

My four year old has now done four parades this year. We started off with a parade where the road was wide, wasn't too long and was a small town. There was also a lot of space between each thing in the parade and they tried not to put the spookiest of all things in front or following horses. HOWEVER, it was the staging area (the area where you wait to line up at the start of the parade) that was INSANE!!! We had to squeeze in between floats with loud music and flags and streamers flailing in the wind, lots of flags, clowns, old steam tractors (they make a very loud 'popping' noise) and also had to squeeze around cars and tons of people and other horses.

The second parade was a less wide of a street, but still pretty 'chill'....if you can call ANY parade 'chill'...lol.

Third parade was INSANE!!!! It was 4th of July, on a small island, where 12,000 people packed on BOTH sides of the two lane road to watch the parade. It was like doing crowd control through Mardi Gras. Plus, everyone had umbrellas or easy-ups....and, of course, LOTS of American flags. Kids drew chalk circles on the road where if a horse pooped in their circle, they won a prize.....so the kids were all over the side of the road screaming and waiting. Buildings that were more than one story had people hanging out of the windows shouting and on balconys. The group in front of us was a chinese marching band with those huge flag team and hula hoop girls. Behind us was an army tank with their speakers aiming right behind us with gunshot noises and music. VERY tight quarters.

Last Saturday I did a fourth parade. The parade itself was in the middle, as far as scary. The scary part was that we had to walk through the city to get back to our trailer.....through a park with people not expecting to see us and kids running at us screaming and scary swingsets. Then we had to ride through neighborhoods with a couple huge dogs barking while we hoped they wouldn't get loose. Finally had to ride down some busy streets with traffic lights and traffic that didn't seem to want us there and ended up in our parking lot where the trailer was with the streets sweepers whizzing around!!!

While you can't prepare for everything, just going out of your way in a controlled situation to scare your horse can help. Get your horse to what your reaction will be when he does decided to get scared. My horse is what I would consider pretty bomb proof and we do all these crazy parades where I don't have any trouble with her.....but we went on a trail ride the other day and came upon a pee spot where another horse went pee and she about lost her mind. We proceeded past the pee spot a mile and a half to the beach and then on the beach with the ocean waves and she was fine. So, you just never know. And yes, have insurance.


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## Oldhorselady (Feb 7, 2012)

Here's the parade we did last Saturday.....We are at 3:44 into the video. You can see much of the chaos that you will see in a parade in this video. This was a pretty mild parade.


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