# Help Make A List of to Desensitize



## ModernDayCowgirl (Jun 12, 2009)

I need a list of things to desensitize a horse to, I realize you can do it with anything but I'd like a list so I can go out and buy, or find the items. Just give me as many items as you can think of, and try not to repeat items. I plan on starting out young with Romeo and getting him past anything he might decide is going to "eat him" and it's been awhile since I've done alot of desensitizing with a horse, as normally I am saddle breaking them. I will start out with what I was able to think up: 

* Fly Spray/Water Hose 
* Tarps 
* Banners/Flags 
* Squeaky Toys 
* Plastic Bags 
* Dogs 
* Brooms/Pitchforks 
* Banging Doors/Loud Sudden Noises 
* Filling Water in a Bucket 
* Picking Stall with Horse In It 
* Clippers 

I want to start working at them while he is home before I move him up to a barn to start working on lunge line, Romeo is 5 months old tomorrow.


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## nldiaz66 (Jul 27, 2008)

riding helmet,cars, also good to walk him on hard surfaces wood, concrete...thats all I can think of now


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## rosie9r (Dec 1, 2008)

I like to go to a Dolllar Tree or a 99 cent store and get my desensitizing stuff there, so you dont spend a ton of money. I got a bunch of party noise makers, balloons, and an umbrella there. Oh and a flag. I also use a tarp, clippers, make loud noises......my horse was super sensitive to loud sudden noises, so that is what we are working on.


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## BackInTheSaddleAgain (Apr 20, 2009)

someone riding a bicycle
balloons
cap gun
umbrella
blown up beach ball
walking on a matress
wind chimes
drums


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## sandy2u1 (May 7, 2008)

good idea rosy about going to the dollar store and getting stuff. How about chaps, a coat or people wearing hats? pretty smart coming up with a list like this...I think I will use it on my horse too.


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

Crackly measuring tapes! Things appearing out of no where...


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

I ride our mares a lot through neighborhoods where there are tons of horse monsters. Try anything a horse wouldn't see in a pasture.. besides the banner, balloons, etc, try mailboxes, bikes, grates, manhole covers, skateboards, strollers, joggers, any beach/pool toys, basketballs, tennis balls, swings, walking on wood, asphalt, concrete (different colors and feels)...the list endless. Try lots of different colors, too... yellow, red, and black seem to bother some horses, while other colors seem to be attractive to them (one of our mares loves anything pink, even pink horse monsters).


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## boxer (Feb 20, 2009)

rugs, pets, whips


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## LadyDreamer (Jan 25, 2008)

Can't do it all. I'd say take your horse for a walk around the block. Everything he shies at, add to your list. Even if you can't see what the heck it was that your horse is freaking out about(the invisible boogymonster) add it to your list. LOL


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## jody111 (May 14, 2008)

Prams, Letterboxes, cars, trucks, motorbikes, skateboards (hmm all mine have wheels)

washing on a line

Kites (Ahh yes kites - thats a good one)

Bouncing balls....

Hoola hoops (Cause that would be fun  )

Raincoats going on and off while on his back

Children

small animals (Chickens sheep etc)

Dog kennels with dos in it....

lawnmowers (Ride on and push)

Hmmmm (And most of the above are from experience LOL)


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## Walkamile (Dec 29, 2008)

All great suggestions to the list. But dang if the neighbor doesn't go and buy an alpaca! :shock::lol:

As long as they are paying attention to you, they will take each new thing in stride if you stay consistent with them. 

Walka has a HUGE fear of horse eating rocks! He always lets me know when he sees one, besides the ears snapping in the direction, he shortens and tenses his body.I just keep him focused on the task at hand. And I breathe very deeply to stay relaxed so he doesn't get any "vibes" from me.


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## ann15603 (Jun 14, 2009)

the crackling sound of water bottles especially when you are on the horse


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## HalfPass (Jun 12, 2009)

Hello ModerDayCowGirl!
Desensitizing a horse is actually something I like to do even though it is sometimes really hard work.
One if the first things i do with yonger horses or even just spooky horese is start by working on the ground.
The first things i desensitize the horse too are the tools and equipment that I use on a daily basis, halters, lead ropes, equipment with velcro, whips brushes, bandages bell boots excercise boots etc... and then on up the line with some of the other things mentioned.
One thing i really work on and try to stongy encourage is getting a horse desensitized to a long lead rope and a whip of any size.
I will first start with things like touching a horse all over with whatever equipment that i will or could ever possibily think of using on or around my horse. Noise is another thing. Wraps and boots and other thigs come with velcro straps...they moake noise and i simply will make have the horse sniff the equipment and slowly start with the scary noise (like velcrow peeling) I will continualy do this with the velcrow until the horse is quiet. With young horses this process can be very slow and one may need an assistant in the begining.
So I will with a long cotton type lead line start by touching the animal all over with this rope and then gradually expand outward and throw the rope over the horse and around the horse from as many positions as possible.
I will eventually get to the point that I can have the horse standing quietly while I toss/throw this rope over the various areas of the horse's body parts.
Usually I will start by working and tossing the rope over the top line of the horse. I use a long 10-114 ft cotton rope for this but what ever you have around works just as well.
When accomplishments have been made with the rope going over the top line I will then gt to focusing on the legs. To me it is important to have my horse be comfortable with a ropes winding or dangling around its legs so that if there is ever a situation that the animal gets caught up in pope or something else it will be less likely to freak out due to the desensitization work.
There is just not full prrof way to desensitize live stock in my opinion. They are a flight or fight animal and I always consider them to be liable to "get scared or freaked" at anytime...
Learing to get that rope throwing thing down and have it curl arond the legs takes time but works really well once the horse and yourself become more confident in the exercise.
One other tool I use is a lounge whip with a plastic grocery bag on the end. I start this out the same way. Letting the horse see and sniff the bag and hear that it does make a scary noise. Also what ever I do on the left side I do again on the opposite side...The reason for this is because the horse has a right side and a left side of its brain and what is done and desensitized on the left side may be seen to your horse as completley freaky! So I desensitize the same objects the same way on both sides of the horse.
Rubbing the horse with the bag is good too. paper is another thing I have used to desensitize with.
One of the key things is to have consistency in what your doing! Repeating the same things over and over the same way and on each side of the horse.
Little steps at a time is all that can be made sometimes, and I always try to end the session on a good note. When the horse has done things calmly and correctly them I can end and do something different such as letting them eat grass or turning them out or jsut something simple that may be seen to the horse as reward or "treat" I try not to use food to bribe or calm horses...In my opinion it sends out the wrond message.
I also try to make the wrong things or reactions difficult and the right responses easy..When My horse say for instence want to rear up whil we are walkng I will abck him up and keep his feet moving until I see he is relaxed...Once he hs relaxed I the imediatley relax and go on with the exercise we are working on as if the incident did not just happen.
Since my horse has been in pasture for 5 yrs and he is 8 his manors are a bt to be desired at the moment. So I try to keep him moving and thinkin as much as I can so that he will think about what is going on rather than disinterested...If he becomes disinterested and disrespectful on the ground I can only imagine what he will be like while in the saddle. SO establishing leadership and respect on the gound is very important to me. 
I want my horse to Want to be with me...not turn away when I come to get him from his paddock.
I knw this was a long response but I hope it helps some for you!
Half Pass...


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## sandsarita (Jan 20, 2008)

I really don't work on desensitizing my horses to much of anything - I work on making them confident in me as their leader, that anything I put them towards shouldn't affect them. No matter how much you try, you will never desensitize them to everything. New things pop up all the time. Instead, get them to trust you, that if you say it's nothing to be worried about, then they don't care about it. 

Example: my trainer has a couple of the big orange traffic construction barrels, and hung them on the jump standards on a 9 foot wide fence. Most horses had no problems with them, even blowing around in the wind because they trusted us. Yeah, they looked, but they took the fence because we told them too.

Eh, I don't know if that made sense in writing (it does in my head, I promise :shock: )


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## mom2pride (May 5, 2009)

Anything and everything...literally...if you can think it up, or the horse spooks at it and you can pick it up, or buy it...use it to desensitize him to it


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## Juniper (May 4, 2007)

a feather boa. cheap from Walmart in the toy section. Our horses thought that was pretty "interesting" at first and now they stick their noses in it. Dragging a tarp. Be sure to start out slow though. With the tarp in front of the horse by quite a distance, and eventually get closer and then to the side and then by bits to the rear of the horse. One of our horses seems to love to drag a tire. Digs in and pulls it around. It seems like it is his job. Hang a white sheet on the fence. Way scary.


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## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

OK, here is my list after I was in Trail Competition (with obstacles). (BTW, I'm sorry if someone already mentioned any of these - I didn't go thru all posts). Of course tarps, plastic bags, noodles, and all is assumed, but in addition

1) Mail box with the big paper in it. You won't believe but ALL horses I've seen run bananas on that one. All you had to do is ride to the box, open it, take the big newspaper out, ride with it 10 ft or so and drop it to the box. 

2) Big bag with bunch of really noisy jars and plastic bottles in it with the long rope attached. You had to drag it behind the horse. Again, ALL horses I've seen went nuts (you can imagine the sound - ha-ha-ha!). 

3) It's kinda funny, but crossing rail road track was impossible for number of horses. 

4) Plastic rain coat: ride to it take it from a barrel or post and put it over horse's withers. Then after a minute put it back on barrel. 

I'm trying to add all those (well, except the rail road  ) to my occasional "Desensitizing training". So far the bag is the worst. I didn't even try it from saddle yet - just on ground.


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## ModernDayCowgirl (Jun 12, 2009)

I do have to say I realize TRUST is a huge thing to have, I do work with horses everyday of my life. I'm a trainer, I know what it takes to build trust but there are other aspects of it other then just having a horse trust you.

Desensitizing them is a good way to get them use to things, while building confidence in themselves and in you. They learn that with you there that scary object is just another object, I thank you for everyones input I have my list and will work down on it! Alot of great ideas/thoughts.


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## FlitterBug (May 28, 2009)

I'm with sandsarita on this one. I've found that the easiest way to make a calm horse is to make one that places its trust in you. All of our horses are used to bull whips cracking off their backs and ropes over their heads, they have dogs constantly underfoot and sometimes we even have a 300 lb trail pig crashing through the bushes with us. If I'm hungry or thirsty, we carry something in the saddle. But thats just it, thats all it is, its just living with the horse instead of around it. You don't have to take extra time to desensitize if you don't make anything special. Horses give us exactly what we expect of them. I see most people "desensitizing" with the mind frame of "I need to get the horse so it isn't scared of this plastic bag". Think about this for a second, its a plastic bag, how scary can it possibly be unless you have it wrapped around your head. You see it as something the horse needs to overcome, I see it as something that isn't worth being scared over in the first place.

Now, does doing different obstacles build trust with your horse, sure, but there is a huge difference in the horses frame of mind that people are missing out on. Will the horse be obedient, and do what you asked because it learned the routine, or is the horse genuinely calm and comfortable with what is being asked of it? I see many horses that people say "oh yes, they are calm" and a deeper look at the horses body signs will show you that they are the furthest thing from it, they have just learned how to respond from the person giving the pressure. These horses are always looking for the next boogey man to jump out of the bushes, the next thing they need to be desensitized to.

The horse that has found true relaxation and trust through their handlers leadership abilities is more like "Hey boogeyman! Wassup?" These leadership abilities aren't provent to the horse by how many scary things you can wave around him, but how you deal with the the things that confront him and you. If you went to boot camp and had a fear of gunfire, what would you think if your superior started shooting all over the place like a madman saying "you'll get used to it eventually!" No, its the training to understand who you can trust on your team and the understanding of how the things around you actually work that would would get you through your fear. Once you begin trusting and understanding, you would become more daring, you would know you aren't alone and that someone you trust would not mislead you. This is through knowledge and understanding, not just exposure.


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## MaieuticManege (Mar 2, 2009)

so far there are a lot of great responses! I would like to add a few though. Cell phone noises for one! Both sound and vibrate, but if you do the vibrate after the clippers it isn't quite as bad.

Also the sound of velcro. I never had a problem with it until I was on a BLM mustang who lost it when I opened a little piece of velcro.

And for other loud noises you can always take a pot or pan out with a spoon and keep making noise. Then there are always bullwhips but those are kinda tricky to get the hang of. A good substitute is to fold a paper in a special fashion that makes it a noise maker. 

here's a link to find out how to make one, but I doubt it has the best instructions so when in doubt google is there for you 

The First Fold

The one thing I know is that the stiffer the paper the better it works, so maybe go out and buy some card stock or a paper file folder. 

Oh, and if you want to go all out on the desensitization you can get strobe lights, disco balls, sirens (with noise too), flashing signs, smoke bombs (these are fun), fire crackers, big fire works (but be very careful, this can go bad fast), "strobes" aka "flashers" (the fireworks that flash really bright really fast), and whacky inflatible arm flailing tube men (or just get a fan and put a long kite like tube on the end so it will move around all crazy like).

Another good thing is to get him used to all the crazy noises a hose can make, a lot of horses go nuts when they hear weird hose noises. Oh and power tools, especially when neither of you are expecting it. Another idea is a big canvas tent (especially if it has bright colors or something is waving in the wind).

Hopefully some of that helps, I'm pretty much out of ideas now


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## Piper182 (Jun 18, 2009)

I don't know if anyone said this, but popping balloons (can be huge at horse shows at fairgrounds) and moving tarps. run around with it. it makes a weird noise and its big. Also, other horses freaking out. You don't want your horse to spook because someone else did, or someone else bucks.


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## Walkamile (Dec 29, 2008)

We have a lot of hunters in the area, so we shoot off rounds around the horses often. Now they could care less and don't even flinch. Also rode them while hubby target practiced to see how they'd do in saddle.

I was caught once years ago on a horse I was leasing when someone starting shooting. Vowed on that day to get any horse I owned accustomed to that loud bang, bang, bang. Cap guns are good to start with, but they don't pack the same "punch" as the real thing. We even fire our black powder gun around them. Boy, you can feel the bang on that one!


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## goldilockz (Aug 1, 2008)

Has anyone mentioned lawn mowers yet?


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## rider (Jun 7, 2009)

i agree with sandsarita and flitterbug i do use a few horse eating monsters mostly an 8x10 blue plastic tarp, a few milk jugs on a peice of baling twine and a plastic grocery bag on the end of a stick my colts all learn that these monsters will not hurt them and that i am a safe place to be then learn to trust me when i tell them its ok so all the time it am using the horse eating monsters i am telling them its ok its ok and the learn to trust me when i tell them its ok while riding one of my two year old colts on her first out9ing moving cows a rabbit ran out of the brush my moms older well behaved horse jumped aabout 6 feet but my colts just moved her ears at the rabbit so if horse trusts you the monsters cant get him


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## HorseSavvy (Mar 15, 2009)

Anyone say crops/whips? There's this horse at our barn that is afraid of riding crops or so I've heard


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## EPMhorse (Jun 14, 2009)

anything that moves in the wind can be placed in the paddock for desnsatizing. Trash cans, plastic grocery bags, beach balls. I attach plastic bags to jump stands, and place them in the paddock on windy days.

EPMhorse


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## Brighteyes (Mar 8, 2009)

Don't forget the black rubber mat of doom! I swear they think that it's a hole in the ground...


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