Best ear plugs for a head-shaker

[inca]

My horse is young and green. Showing in an outdoor arena - not a problem. Showing in an indoor - tends to get distracted at best and sometimes upset by noises. We don’t have an indoor at home so only place we have to deal with this is at shows. The earplugs help a lot. They don’t make the problem magically go away but they help. I’m not going to feel bad about using them.

We use POMS and she is usually okay about them. I may get a pair of the Equifit as an alternative (if she ever gets back to showing.)

[FineAlready]

inca - I’m not intending to make anyone feel “bad” about using ear plugs. I’m just pointing out that if you need ear plugs to keep the horse’s attention, well, the horse isn’t really trained. And if your horse hates the earplugs, as the OP’s horse seems to, it seems like it would be a lot better idea to just train the horse to be attentive without the ear plugs. There is very little more annoying than riding a horse that is trying to shake ear plugs out of its ears the entire time you ride - and that’s a distracted horse too.

[Calvincrowe]

Fine–please, come and train my old, reactive, spooky-as-hell-at-noise-outside-the-enclosed-indoor jumper through his “reactiveness”…please!! I beg you! He’s dangerous to ride during the winter and no matter what ear plug we’ve tried he will not tolerate them. I’ve gotten one in in the last 6 years, not effective. My very experienced trainer has gotten spooked off him, so it isn’t weenie old ammy me being the only victim. We’ve tried. We no longer try, just try to accommodate his silly old self by riding when the feed cart and stall cleaners aren’t rattling around behind the walls, closing the door to the aisleway and asking folks to try not to make loud noises in our aisle while lessons are going on.

I am going to try an ear bonnet, padded, to try to minimize what he hears…or thinks he hears. Oddly, he doesn’t mind the Sandhill and Whooping Cranes who land/take off next door to our barn. Silly old bugger!

[FineAlready]

[QUOTE=Calvincrowe;7289732]
Fine–please, come and train my old, reactive, spooky-as-hell-at-noise-outside-the-enclosed-indoor jumper through his “reactiveness”…please!! I beg you! He’s dangerous to ride during the winter and no matter what ear plug we’ve tried he will not tolerate them. I’ve gotten one in in the last 6 years, not effective. My very experienced trainer has gotten spooked off him, so it isn’t weenie old ammy me being the only victim. We’ve tried. We no longer try, just try to accommodate his silly old self by riding when the feed cart and stall cleaners aren’t rattling around behind the walls, closing the door to the aisleway and asking folks to try not to make loud noises in our aisle while lessons are going on.

I am going to try an ear bonnet, padded, to try to minimize what he hears…or thinks he hears. Oddly, he doesn’t mind the Sandhill and Whooping Cranes who land/take off next door to our barn. Silly old bugger![/QUOTE]

Maybe you have not read many of my posts here about my own, very reactive horse that can be extremely dangerous to ride in the winter? I’m not saying it’s super fun to work through, but I do think it can be done. Most h/j people don’t want to hear this, but dressage REALLY helps.

[Nickelodian]

I use a variety of different kind of plugs for each horse I ride depending on their preference. Many I have found like the cat toys, or the size XL pom poms you can get at hobby lobby. Super soft.

[ToTheNines]

Agree with Nick. Depends on horse. I do everything myself and am 61 now, so everything has to be easy. For one of mine that came to me a bit fussy, it took a while, but I taught him to accept ear plugs being put in and taken out without a fuss. Well, a treat/reward held to his nose taught him I guess.

But I can’t use any plugs other than the wooly poms on that one. To get them out, you can just grab a bit of the wool. The foam ones can get a little difficult to remove. He gets fussy again if I have to stand there and mess with getting them out. On other horses, I like the Plughzs because they probably muffle sound better and don’t pick up shavings.

[drs]

I use the fuzzy ones on my horse in the winter. My horse is trained and most of the time non reactive. But when the snow comes crashing down from the roof, with most horses training don’t like the sound. It just helps deaden the noise at age 50 I cant afford to land on the ground.

[luvs2ridewbs]

I went to Petco to buy more ear plugs and they have discontinued them. The sponge like cat toy is now a very large ball and will definitely not fit into a horse’s ear. What are the hobby lobby ones called? Maybe I’ll order some online.

[PonyPenny]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FOAM-BALLS-CAT-TOYS-Lots-5-10-Sponge-Squishy-Foam-Golf-Balls-Colorful-Kitten-/231103595864?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item35ced90558

[hype]

ear plugs

I think that there are some horses who are more reactive to sound than others.

I rode a horse who was very sound sensitive. He practically begged us to put in ear plugs. Saw them in your hand and put his head down so that you could put them in. We usually just did it for shows.

Another trainer I rode with did every horse every ride. That way if they needed plugs for indoors etc, they were used to them and it wasn’t a big deal. I’ve found that if you keep plugging the horse every day and even leave them in overnight at times, they get accustomed to the ear plugs.

It isn’t so much what kind of ear plugs they are for most horses, the ones who are protesting are protesting an ear plug period, not the type of ear plug.

I do find that the cat toy ones (or the ones made for horses which are the same type of foam) seem to stay in better than the yarn ones.

[BITSA]

[QUOTE=FineAlready;7289480]
Give it a break? I don’t think I’ve ever brought this up here before. And, no, I don’t prefer people drugging their horses. I prefer people TRAINING their horses. A horse that is mildly distracted on a windy day can be trained through the lack of attentiveness.

Masking the training issue (lack of attentiveness) will just result in related problems down the road.

It has been my experience that horses that are always ridden with earplugs tend to LOSE THEIR POOP, so to speak, when the earplugs fall out (which will inevitably happen at some point), especially in a show environment. I’d rather just know that the horse I’m on will be able to take normal noises in stride.

And I say all of this as the owner of a horse that is inclined to be very noise reactive. Working through the issues, which are at their core attentiveness issues, has proven to be much more valuable than attempting to muffle noises. The noise is less than half the problem.[/QUOTE]

Your assumption of not trianing or trying to work through it seems harsh. I don’t ride for a living, I’m an adult re-rider with a 40-50 hour a week job. My horse is in full training; she’s sensitive but I adore her. The issue for me is now because of my work schedule I have to ride at night (covered but not enclosed arena). She spooked one night a few weeks ago and I came off and broke my finger, had to have surgery, and couldnt use my right hand fo3 three weeks–which is a problem becuase I write and type for a living.

Should I have had a tighter leg: yes. Am I working on that: yes. Do I need to learn to ride through the sideways spook: yes. Does that mean I should not ride my horse or feel nervous in the mean time? I don’t think so. I think the ear plugs are a good common sense way to help me and my horse be safer and get better togther.

[BITSA]

And thank you for everyone who made a suggestion. I’ll try the cat toys first and then it seems like the plughz are also well regarded.

[FineAlready]

Not trying to be harsh, and I’m sorry you got hurt, OP. I guess my point is really more that I don’t think the earplugs would have necessarily prevented the problem, because the problem isn’t noise, it’s lack of attentiveness generally. And even if they would have prevented the problem that time, relying on them as a crutch will only serve to further entrench that particular weak area in her training. I guess I feel differently if she is being ridden at least some of the time without ear plugs. I just get so sick of seeing horses that literally never work without plugged ears.

[Nickelodian]

[QUOTE=luvs2ridewbs;7291081]
I went to Petco to buy more ear plugs and they have discontinued them. The sponge like cat toy is now a very large ball and will definitely not fit into a horse’s ear. What are the hobby lobby ones called? Maybe I’ll order some online.[/QUOTE]

http://factorydirectcraft.com/catalog/categories/1302_1998_2003-craft_pom_poms.html-5-0-0-0?gclid=CNHrtoONmLsCFcFj7AodWSEAqg

I use the 3" ones for my horse with giant ears, 2.5" for smaller ears.

[BITSA]

[QUOTE=FineAlready;7292268]
Not trying to be harsh, and I’m sorry you got hurt, OP. I guess my point is really more that I don’t think the earplugs would have necessarily prevented the problem, because the problem isn’t noise, it’s lack of attentiveness generally. And even if they would have prevented the problem that time, relying on them as a crutch will only serve to further entrench that particular weak area in her training. I guess I feel differently if she is being ridden at least some of the time without ear plugs. I just get so sick of seeing horses that literally never work without plugged ears.[/QUOTE]

Thanks. I havent ridden her w/plugs before (excpet our first show togther when she promptly shook them out). I only want to put them in at night since she’s more sensitive then. And frankly they are a bit of a mental crutch right now–kind of like Dumbo’s feather–hoping we’ll be back to normal soon :).

[mroades]

If I were a horse I would appreciate ear plus (plughz)
I guess if I were a horse I would be untrainable…

[Nickelodian]

[QUOTE=mroades;7294565]

I guess if I were a horse I would be untrainable…[/QUOTE]

Isn’t that true of you as a human?