Advanced Tarp Training (and an Umbrella!)
Advanced Bombproofing Horses
Seriously?? You want me to do what?
(Before reading this, you may want to read about Horse Bombproofing Basics)
In the ever increasing indignities forced upon her, the mean owner has asked the nice horsey to wear a tarp.
In fairness to Ms Zahra, today was very windy and most horses would find tarp wearing a chore under the best of circumstances.
Zahra had some experience with tarps going back years, but that was mostly limited to walking across tarps that were flat on the ground on calm days.
Advanced tarp walk includes horse walking on crumpled up tarps and then being under one.
As always in clicker training and most especially bombproofing….fast is slow. I didn’t just whip out a tarp and throw it on her.
But after a bit of time, she looked like she was falling asleep while the tarp was flapping around on her.
Bombproofing Horses with Clicker Training: A Few General Notes
In my continuing quest to have this blog be a resource for any who may choose to clicker train their horse, I’m adding more details here.
Horses are prey animals and when training for bombproofing, we can never ever lose sight of this. Horses spend their lives worrying that something is going to eat them.
Tarps and umbrellas as well as a myriad of other things can terrify horses. And if we don’t have that front and center, we can end up making our horses more afraid of things rather than less.
When clicker training for bombproofing, you need to be able to read horse body language because you need to be sure you’re clicking relaxation, not stress.
Once you have the basic behavior, calmly, then you can shape it to be a relaxed behavior. After all, what good is wearing a tarp if Zahra is quivering with fear? Reward for progressively calmer states, and be sure to remove the tarp when the horse is relaxed.
What will happen if you remove the tarp when the horse is still nervous, and why?
Well, you saw that she is almost asleep in the second tarp picture, right?
But if anyone is reading this and terrorizing their horse with a tarp, they could be making their horse more, rather than less fearful.
I will add some more details to the post!
Quiz:
OK, but why would removing the tarp, when the horse is still nervous, make the horse MORE fearful? What aspects of training are involved?
😉