Day 5 - SCEA Rescue Horse - Desensitizing to Spooky Objects

Second Chance Equine Association - In our training on day 5, we deal with developing a deeper trust by exposing Fancy to a variety of "SPOOKY" objects. The dreaded... plastic bag!

[@kanudoss]

Wonderful, no-nonsense, direct to the point videos. No commercials, no intro bs, no flashbacks, no idiotic testimonials. Thank you, sir, for respecting your viewers!

[@dondena21]

I can see why they call them Paint horses, no matter the breeding. These horses are truly a work of art! You never know what you're going to get.

[@Molly-sv2zg]

The dreaded "Horse eating" PLASTIC BAG oh my that is exactly the best description!

[@GGHumphrey0911]

I just wanted to thank you, Scott, for the amazing videos you placed on KZbin in regard to Fancy's rehabilitation. She is not only beautiful, but a very smart girl as well. Your instruction is wonderful for a beginner to the horse world who has just started educating herself in preparation for horse ownership within the next year. There's only one bad thing about your training.......you're not close enough to Alabama! :-) Thank you for blessing us through the Internet.

[@TrailPony]

I love that you actually use a horse that is reactive to the subject at hand. Not a horse that has been taken through these paces over and over again that they might as well be knitting while you go through the process. It helps those of us see how a horse could potentially react and the outcome of the exercise itself. Thank you, Scott. My mare tends to be incredibly sensitive to anything that resembles the sound (or look) of a plastic bag and/or tarp. This will certainly help.

[@nameofthepen]

Wow. Fastest 9 minutes I've spent all day. I really enjoyed watching you work. You have a lovely way about you; confident, cheerful, low-key, and friendly.

[@howshawthebrave]

Most people just wade in with the plastic bag & get it over with but I like the logic in your approach. Far less stress.

[@bellabelliboo]

I really like the methods this man uses. He's firm about what he wants, yet extremely gentle and understanding of the horse's fears.... Gorgeous mare, by the way!!

[@LittlePaso17]

I love it! "Dreaded horse eating bag" that is so true!! lol

[@nerolsalguod4649]

My mustang mare was severaly abused before I got her two years ago. I pull a wagon in to clean up and drag it past her with feed bags tied to the rear and drag the shovel. Now she watches but doesnt move. I also stand near her and throw big rocks out and she now just watches. She still has a fear of tight places but I can go under her, clean and trim her hooves, gently rope slap her body and legs and feet and I can clean her eyes and ears. I love her with all my heart and she knows it. So much trust !

[@SecondChanceEquine]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. You can't desensitize a horse to everything but you can develop trust thru these types of exercises. That trust will translate into real life situations. And yes you can create more problems with anything if you don't know what your doing. I'm not sure what demo you're watching but in this demo Fancy became calm and relaxed.

[@kushking9876]

what a badass horse what a badass trainer

[@sidilicious11]

I'm captivated by her markings, so pretty! I like using clicker training to desensitize. Way less drama and freak outs. It's faster too.

[@steelmagnoliadiane]

Great video! Thank you.

[@PsychicIsaacs]

I did this exercise with my Waler Mustang cross mare this afternoon. For her, the poll has been the bugaboo spot, directly above her eyes, between her ears. For the first time this afternoon, she was relaxed, three times in a row with the bag touching her poll. I have been working with her on this every session for the last 3 or 4 sessions and I told her what a good and brave girl she was!

[@julienoel473]

I agree. You can never 100% desensitize a horse, but you can train it to react/think a certain way. I have done this exercise with my Arab stallion and my rescue gelding. They both have learned to think with both the left and right brain 😆

[@nhchicky]

She has beautiful markings :) Such a pretty horse :)

[@Kaefer101]

I think it's really great what you do. I think its brave to film such a delicate phase. I'm training an untrained horse myself at the moment and I sure can use a lot of what you are doing here. Thanks so much for sharing and thanks for giving these horses another chance.

[@SecondChanceEquine]

Thank you so much for the kind words. I hope this is helpful to you. Part of our mission at Second Chance is to help educate horse owners to improve their experience with their horse and the lives of their horses. We are a nonprofit funded completely by donations. Any donations are appreciated and can be made by going to www.scearescue.com.

[@depphead_edits9455]

Working on my QH rescue mare now she lets me on and stuff we trot a lot to build up that muscle and now it’s neck reining and she isn’t scared of much thanks to this

[@KRequestrian]

We do this with all our off the track horses it is an awesome lesson for them. We eventually do the streamers, umbrellas, drums, giant beach ball and all sorts of things too. Thanks so much for sharing, absolutely love your work! :)

[@grandjal]

"How deadly or scary can a plastic bag be on the end of a pink stick, come on Fancy!" I love it!!!

[@nataliaguzenko202]

the beginning was really good, but then the ending spoiled the whole picture.. there should have been more reward in the second part of desensitizing. Still the video was interesting to observe. I absolutely enjoyed your phrase on the deadly bag at the end of the stick))

[@Zoelrrl1]

Beautiful horse

[@laurelcook9078]

I once had a pink plastic fan and a horse was like “wtf” and I let the horse sniff it, and he freaked tf out because I decided to turn it on just to see what he’d do, and it was kinda funny because he gets cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, but he’s scared of one of those tiny fans. I didn’t do it again, obviously, I just thought he had more guts lol

[@sonseere10]

Pretty good. A number of different ways to get the same end result. When I apply the pressure of the bag and the horse remains calm, that is the correct answer. And I give her release. She learn on the release of pressure.

[@HALedbetter85]

I'm planning to use these "starting" techniques on my 17 year old horse. He is neither here nor there with his ability to disengage his front or hindquarters. I want him to be a lot more responsive, so I'll be using the techniques you've shown in the videos of working with this filly. The start to finish videos are the most helpful, in my opinion. My dream is to eventually be able to actually train a young/wild horse from start to finish. I work more with helping people begin their journey into horsemanship, which I love. Hoping to work with a trainer some day that can help me with hands on horse starting. Thanks for taking the time to teach others with your videos. :)

[@lulubelleish]

Love Your Video's Thank you Paula In Australia :)

[@DarkNinjaXD]

Horses, They are generally afraid of 4 things. 1 - Things that move 2 - Things that dont move 3 - things that make noise 4 - Things that dont make noise. ;D

[@Unrated381]

My instructor came and helped, but she says I make non of these mistakes, she's just really sensitive and doesn't trust things that easy, After 3 session's I was finally able to touch her with it and now it's no problem any more. She just stands there not caring at all

[@JasperIsaLittleHorse]

I really want to try this with my pony, i think i should save it for summer because then i can be there for a full week. The rearing and bucking and skittering is when my pony does when he even thinks he hears a bag. It is so weird...he was never afraid of bags and then one day he was just terrified of the sound of bags and has been ever since.

[@heatherperry5081]

I wanted to thank you I have an ISH and he is super uptight about everything I needed different items to work with we tried the gym ball and oh my after alittle while we got to the point of bouncing off his bum and rolling it through his legs so thank you xx

[@Darienbeagle]

what a pretty little paint!

[@peterk8909]

Excellent work? Beautiful! Even and. a ? before I asked.. D3 Pt. 1, right B4 'Best & shoulders. Thx.

[@JasperIsaLittleHorse]

Ik what I want to accomplish and have since figured out how i want to go about getting him over his bag phobia. :) I'm still waiting for summer though as i want to be able to follow up every day. Thank you! :)

[@Relaxwithwildlife]

This was a good exercise but he needed to use more release it became to much pressure and no release....

[@alexisfowler93]

Is he a pintaloosa? Gorgeous!

[@SecondChanceEquine]

@stacieloup Most our issues with the horse is out of fear, pain or lack of respect. The striking and running away is the fear issue which Fancy had also. Don't fight it, go with it until the horse calms down. This could take 5 minutes or 5 hours but once you start you MUST finish the exercise. Find a starting point where the horse doesn't explode, walk away from the horse with your body between the bag and the horse, then follow the steps in the video. You can do it.

[@Otomiya]

Oh my horse loves to be "OMG THATS SCARY" when I'm in the arena with her or riding her but once I leave and my friends would be looking in from the viewing room they'd tell me "um.... your horse is playing with it". I walk back in, she comes running "OMG ITS SCARY!"

[@frootythepebble9686]

My horse is 14 and she's incredibly scared of plastic bags. We used one on a stick once to lunge her and she kicked that thing strait off the stick!😂

[@SecondChanceEquine]

Never attempt to do anything new with your horse until you have a good understanding of what you want to accomplish and you feel comfortable do it. Summer is a good time plus it's warmer!

[@haourss]

Gave my horse one class today. First time he is introduced to this kind of excercise and he is 18. He thought it was super creepy to begin with but improved from F to C+ for execution haha. We are aiming for honest B+ tomorrow and straight A in the third session later in the week.

[@SecondChanceEquine]

IF you were following this horse from the beginning you would understand this is a documentation of this specific horse's progress. It is not intended to be a training video. I am simply sharing what I am doing with Fancy. The principles remain constant even tho the degree of reaction will vary per horse. Thank you for your input. I will "pretend" not to take it personal.

[@Southernpinesranch]

My little horse Bad Company had done this exercise and every time i go over it again his is scared at first then is fine no matter how many times I do this. He is also scared of random things like brooms. Do I just to this with as many objects as I find or is there a way to show them how to react to things the same way no matter what it is and will he ever be unafraid?

[@ChoctawNawtic4]

She is beautiful. Where/what did she get rescued from??

[@DobraGniewna]

I think that I will subscribe your canal and follow your advices :) it seems really nice

[@SecondChanceEquine]

@purplesugar7144 Each horse is different. I have done this with some horses and it took 15 minutes, Fancy was highly reactive and it took about an 45 minutes for her to be completely calm and comfortable. I did a horse this spring that it took me 3 day in a row at about 45 to 30 minutes each day to get the same result. Just find a starting point and go at a rate the horse can handle. It's all fear based, so we need to build trust by pushing not breaking the comfort zone. Good luck.

[@MegF142857]

Can see how this method can work with good timing and not over pressuring, but I failed at this method of de-spooking. My horse was very fast and turned around taking off like a freight train dragging me or pulling rope out of my hands. I wasn't fast enough or strong enough to make this work. I was told to get a longer rope and a more severe halter. In the end realized not optimal for my horse or me. Switched to clicker training with them at liberty most of the time for de-spooking sessions.

[@selenavanwyk4281]

What did you expect? Should he chase her with it? It's the way he made progress with her. Get real. My horse freaked out way more than this also, but after doing this exercise, I can rub him down with the plastic bag. Have you tried it on your horse? If not, than don't comment please.

[@stacieloup]

hi, dont suppose you could advise me a bit more, i tried this plastic bag on the end of a stick with my just turned 5 year old and he went mental, tried kicking out at it with his back legs ad slight rearing then just kept luning in circles around it ad me! obviously something im doinf wrong...iv dont a bit of join up last few weeks and managed to get him to follow me, but i am struggling to get him to obey my back up command by sending waves down the rope he just stands still an ignores me! ha

[@martysmosaic]

my mare (pictured left) is brill outside but she is terrified of the rain when she is in her stable. she is very jumpy, panics if I touch the iron caging on the top half of the front of the stable. she hates noise of rain on corregated roof, but I cant leave her out in the rain. how can I stop her being so panicky inside?

[@SecondChanceEquine]

By using the same techniques of approach and retreat that I am using, you can desensitize her to the sound of rain on tin. You'll need to be creative but it shouldn't be too tough. Find a starting point that the horse can tolerate. Set up a piece of corrugated tin and spray hose at a safe distance. Turn the water on so that it makes the noise of rain. Your job is to work the horse away from the noise on the lead by using the sending exercise and resting it near the noise. Keep working the horse closer and closer until it becomes comfortable near the sound. Only rest the horse near the sound. Make sure you work the horse away from the sound hard enough that it has a desire to rest. Once the horse is good with the tin roof on the ground, rig it so the tin is above the horse and repeat the process until you can rest the horse underneath it. Check out Day 8 SCEA rescue. What I do with the tarp is what you'll do with tin. Be safe. Good luck.

[@martysmosaic]

thank you. I shall try this! ;)

[@sonseere10]

She is looking for a confident leader. You need to establish your 'lead horse' status. Horses need choices. If she were in a run in stall she could choose to be outside in the rain if she wished.

[@jaimeeshaw337]

I play the radio for my horses. A nice chatty radio show is good, it blocks out the noise of the rain and thy're too busy listening to the radio to notice the rain. :)

[@erinwallace3582]

I have a horse that will be in a parade next week. This horse is scared of horse-drawn wagons (which are a plenty) and I don't know what to do. We don't have access to any wagons or the money to pay someone to drive one for us. Does anybody have any ideas of how to desensitize her to them without having one on hand? Any suggestion is appreciated.

[@SecondChanceEquine]

Erin, if your horse isn't ready to be around horse drawn wagons, being in a public parade is a train wreck waiting to happen. Work on your horse in a safe environment first. If you don't have a wagon find a reasonable facsimile like a 4 wheeler. The principle you need to use is approach and retreat. Find a safe starting point for your horse around the scary object (wagon) and work him away (do small circles) from the that starting point, then move as close as the horse will allow you and rest it there. Repeat the the exercise resting it closer and closer to the scary object until the horse associates rest and relaxation with being close to the scary thing. If you have a 4 wheeler, have someone drive it away from you and track it. Same as I did with the plastic bag in the beginning. Good luck, be safe.

[@erinwallace3582]

@@SecondChanceEquine thanks! I'll try it :)

[@DobraGniewna]

true!

[@Unrated381]

I did this for an hour with my very sensitive 4 your old. Even a person walking by can spook her on bad days, Eventually I just stopped, she wasn't completely calm but I felt that longer then an hour would be to much pressure for her...

[@gottanomi]

I really enjoy watching you work with Fancy. I have a reactive young mare and these have been great help! Probably the best video series I've seen both in quality of sound, picture and training. Keep them coming. If you're ever in eastern Canada for a clinic, I will gladly take part!

[@SecondChanceEquine]

Why thank you for the kind words. My friend Jimmy Anderson (2014 Road to the horse Champion) is in your neck of the woods, he puts on a GREAT clinic. That's the one you need to take part in. I'm just an ole country boy having fun.

[@SecondChanceEquine]

You are probably right. Which means you are doing something wrong. Common mistakes. 1. Starting with too much pressure. Find a reasonable starting point that the horse can tolerate. 2. Releasing the pressure too soon. If you release the pressure while the feet are still moving all you teach the horse is to move your feet when your afraid and the scary thing goes away. 3. Not releasing SOON enough. Reward the slightest try. Timing is everything! Keep trying.

[@user-hg6uh6nr2s]

讚 !

[@SecondChanceEquine]

Thank you for the "thumbs up".

[@purplesugar7144]

I see this particular video is 9 minutes long and edited. I was wondering how long you actually spent during this desensitizing session with the plastic bag?

[@icesculpture321]

there wasn't enough release to reward her and show her to not moving away from something scary, I think that made it take longer then it needed to but other then that you did great.

[@SecondChanceEquine]

Ideally, you reward immediately when you see the horse try to do the right response. Unfortunately this is subjective to the person doing the training. The more you work with horses the better you get at doing this. I may have been a little slow in my release but I'm getting better. So if you're new at this, take heart, you'll get better too. It may take a little longer but you can get the job done. These short videos were meant to show how we at Second Chance work with real life situations with the hopes of bringing some value to others in the horse world. Remember, Life is about progression not perfection. Thanks for the input.

[@icesculpture321]

Scott Downs I don't think people should obsess over perfection but they should aim for it :). I think it helps people think "ok I have this down pretty well and I'm comfortable where I'm at but I know I can do better" and thus there aiming for perfection, pushing there limits to see how close they can get to it, without eliminating other goals to get to something that no one can achieve, but I think it definitely pushes people to do better instead of dead ending themselves.

[@ajsmitten2819]

+icesculpture321 yes I would've loved to see some more release as well. the timing and release was missing and the horse learns thru the release. That's what gets it thinking. so as she ran off, the object should have been touching her and the second she stopped it should've been taking away for a lil while to let her process the information. it's like this. the horse thinks "OMG OMG I'm scared of this so I'm gonna run to get away but oh no the scary thing is still touching me. I can't get away. so the horse stops and the object is gone... so now the horse thinks "ok when I'm running the scary thing keeps touching me but when I stop it goes away" so what do you think the horse will do the next time? correct it will stop. I can guarantee that of it moves away again it won't be as far as the first time.

[@sonseere10]

Absolutely correct. You understand horses.

[@ajsmitten2819]

+sonseere10 who?

[@109367]

Is she a pintaloosa, she has the freckles but no other appie markings? xD

[@MaritsView]

She's a paint.

[@SecondChanceEquine]

LOL. Tell your friends and maybe someday I will be.

[@lilyleclair8947]

The horse that i ride is scared of Tarps and Flags and somebody else help em trained him and made him more scared of it

[@sidilicious11]

I'd give her more breaks

[@dracomancer01]

so wish you could work with my rescued polish arabian..hes afraid of everything

[@SecondChanceEquine]

@laramarsden QUESTION EVERYTHING! Yes, remove the bag completely when she stands still. Approach and retreat, it's all the same just different stimulants. I did remove the bag but because of the time frame of the video I didn't show it as much as I should have in the clips. I should have edited this one better. Thank you for your comment.

[@SecondChanceEquine]

Use common sense for your own safety but i would encourage every horse to do this.

[@4Champ2and0]

Wow. This is awful! If it's not a 'scary object' then why MAKE it a scary object?? I just let my pony play with a plastic bag a little out in the pasture with me & his herd. No halter, no lead, no small pen. Just "here, it's a bag.". At first they were apprehensive about it, but I was holding it--& some goodies, & they immediately went to curiosity, the whole herd! Everybody got treats for touching/tolerating the bag..it was a lot of fun for us all & no 'scary' bag, just a bag! No fuss!

[@gerrycoleman7290]

@ 2:14 you ambushed her by quickly putting the bag near her. She moved away out of fear. Then you moved the bag away giving release of pressure when she moved away. You taught her that the right answer is to move away when the bag approaches her. Not the right lesson.

[@ScarsFromTomorrow1]

Why aren't you more well known than people who use whips and force to get their horses to behave? I swear every time my horse does even the tiniest thing wrong someone is telling me to smack him in the face even though he's only a five year old who's still learning and I would never smack a horse in the face or anywhere else. It's insane how most people train horses.

[@Mackie.macki_]

Holy shit, I read this wrong, and thought that you were encouraging whipping and slapping your horse, I would never do that to my baby

[@SecondChanceEquine]

Sorry for the late response. Your horse is acting like a child throwing a tantrum. That falls under the title of disrespect. The cure is tough love. Imagine you are a electric fence. Fences don't have personalities, they just are. If you touch them you get a shock. If you don't want shocked don't touch the fence. Every time the ears get pinned or a foot stomps that equals a touch on the fence. Work the horse hard and immediate and then back off. He will learn not to touch the fence.

[@SecondChanceEquine]

This is a trust issue. Work with your horse every day if you can with as many crazy objects you can think of. Some horses take longer than others. Consistency and repetitiveness is your friend when it comes to horse training.

[@lilyleclair8947]

He Cant get near a flag

[@captain_slang]

Stop trolling

[@TerriReuserHVR90]

OMG! I gave up sacking out years ago. You create more problems that you solve. I'm sorry, "Jimmy" (I'm from Canada and my sister knew his mother) and others don't have the expertise they are given credit for. Credit is given them by people who know slightly less than they do or by winning some horse show? To newbies this sounds and looks great, but in practice, you are unwittingly setting horses and people up for more problems with these and other "techniques" that I've seen over the past 25 years or so. Are you going to "desensitize" the horse to *everything*? Impossible. Try these techniques on a *scared* horse. This horse got "worse" (i.e. more tense) instead of better in this demo. Interesting that I've also seen J.A. do this and get the same results. Most don't know how/where or more importantly why these "techniques" got their start.