Moving Away From Desensitizing

Desensitizing seems to be its own category of Horsemanship these days. What people often miss is that it’s not about getting them used to the flag, or the loud noise, but rather helping a horse to stay focused in the work. Sure, desensitizing plays a small role in the training process, but once a horse gets used to whatever is being presented as the stimulus, that part of the training is over and done with. 

Flooding is a tactic that is used to get a horse less responsive to certain objects. While some horses will shut down and internalize the pressure, others won’t tolerate it and will become more reactive in the presence of humans. Whether a person ends up teaching a horse to bottle up his worry, or over compensate, the horse ends up feeling less capable of trusting people to help him. 

Taking a look below the surface of why a horse is spooky or agitated is essential in reducing the behavior. People often miss everything else going wrong in a horses life and blame it on a scary object. The more tension a horse carries, the more likely they are to overreact in various circumstances. The common denominator is often the human imposing on a horse instead of helping him think and respond calmly. 

Photo: Roger and I taking Kimber and Fancy out for a trail ride. Kimber is an ongoing project of mine who lacks confidence and struggles to trust people. We are convinced that she has been driven a lot, which combined with her sensitivity can make her reactive at times. It has been an ongoing process to convince her that she can stay checked in even with the distractions of riding outside.