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Saturday, March 3, 2012

Snakes, ducks, and more, oh my!

What are snakes and ducks?? Snakes are cut up garden hose and ducks are rubber ducks that squeak from the dollars store! Just another thing for my horses to walk through and build confidence with! Sometimes they step on the pieces of garden hose a certain way and it can flig up and touch the back of their legs, and the ducks can squeak when they're stepped on. Really helps with horses who are funny with their feet as well. I had the barrels on the wall to play Parelli squeeze game. Lots of horses are claustrophobic and don't like to squeeze through things. Kaspin hates the squeeze game and as you can see he is mastering it pretty well with the barrels now.

Next, was the red turtle. Inside the turtle there is a weasels that rolls around. But unfortunately before I taped, my batterise went dead in the weasel. I'll try to show it better on next post. But horses usually don't like furry things rolling around! Kaspin today thought things looked pretty safe and he had to check the furry weasel out. If you want your own rolling weasel go to ebay(about 8 dollars). And you can use a garbage can top for it to roll in. Or a child's round sled to roll in. I just happened to garbage pick this child's old turtle sand box and used that. 

Lastly, was the scary black bag of returnables(plastic milk jugs and pop cans) that made lots of noise. I always walk away from Kaspin when I show him NEW scary items. It builds a horses confidence to follow something at first. Later, I will progress to touching Kaspin with the returnables on his body.

All three of these obstacles were totally brand new to Kaspin and this was the very first time he had seen them. I went really slow and I think Kaspin did awesome!



Here is a video of Enzo playing with the snakes and ducks. Enzo has seen this obstacle 2 other times in his life. So this time I asked him to trot through the snakes and ducks. You can actually hear one of the ducks squeak! How funny! What creative things to you expose your horses to?

Keep it fun! Janine~Enzo~Kaspin!

10 comments:

  1. oh wow Janine, you are so creative! that´s so awesome!! i will try to find some here as well and try it with Milva :)

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  2. Very cool!
    I do all kinds of exposure exercises with Shy, but I haven't tried ducks or snakes. Something new to do!
    I am pretty sure the other boarders at my barn call me the crazy lady with all the things I do with Shy, haha.

    So awesome, love the videos!

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    1. LOL, I currently am at a private place so I have nobody ever seeing me. But at my old barns, I am sure all my other boarders also thought I was crazy, LOL! Thanks!!!!

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  3. I have just begun riding at a new arena. They have a program for handicapped kids, so there are often small balls all over the arena. Pippin isn't too sure about then... although he did pick one up to taste it the other day!
    They also have "Easy" buttons from Staples that they taped to jump standards. So, every once in a while I'll hit the button as we ride by.

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  4. Looks like Camryn is going to have some rubber duckies in her life soon!!! Awesome idea. I'll have to check out the weasel thing as well. I do know one thing for sure, Camryn will be picking the ducks up to give me! Some things I've done are hang helium balloons along fence line, kick balls under her, pull a sled all around the paddock, have her chase empty bedding bags, blow bubbles, and of course play basket ball.
    Loved your videos, both boys just did awesome.

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    1. I should teach Enzo to pick things up:) Love your ideas! Thanks!!!

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  5. Thanks for stopping by and commenting about Doc's gorgeous picture.
    I did find the tire (not the one that sticks out above the waistband of my pants) and I did have Pippin drag it around the arena! He pulled it like a champ, but on the 2nd lap he was concerned about the smooth line on the ground - the smooth line made by his dragging the tire! He didn't want to step on it! Maybe he didn't want to mess it up!

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    1. Oh gosh, how funny!!!!! Horses make me laugh:)

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  6. Awesome!! I never thought of using either of those things. :) You're so creative. I need to start doing more of this kind of thing with Chrome since he's going to be a competitive trail horse.

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