Getting over the fear of the scary tarp

[nativehiro]

My horse normally questions spookier looking things around the farm so I usually like to show him a lot of the stuff to get him to realize it’s not going to kill him. Yesterday one of the Parelli people at our barn were working with their horse and a blue tarp. After they were done I wanted to see if he would go over it (he has been over tarps 100x usually takes coaxing) well didn’t even want to go near it. Lets just say my horse has impressive backing up skills when in danger.

I got off and tried shifting the tarp to a most smaller section to get him to cross over it and he almost ripped my elbow off spooking backwards again after the wind blew it. I really don’t do the time and patience is key stuff like some people at the barn since we do more trails/eventing type riding. So once I mess with putting the tarp over his entire body, I laid it back on the ground and got him to almost run me over by jumping over it a dozen of times until he finally realized he can just walk over it without it killing him. Once I got on it was back to square one after hacking around for another 15 mins. Came back to tarp and he would just leap sideways or 3ft over it. Finally got him to trot over it a few times.

Is it okay to just keep letting him do this? Is it OK to try again the next day or give it a break for a few days? I don’t want to overwhelm him with it as he is terrified of the tarp but I don’t want him spooking at scary jumps at shows where we don’t have time for patience. Maybe he was just in one of those spooky funks yesterday :o

[Marla_100]

An easy way to get them to accept a tarp is to just lay a tarp in his turnout area and he will teach himself that it’s not gonna kill him. Put it in a traffic area and within a few days he’ll walk right over it. Then you can easily move on to flapping it around and on him.

[NoSuchPerson]

When I decided it was time to introduce my young mule to a tarp, I spread it out in the pasture at dinner time and put a pile of hay in the middle. I exited the pasture and settled in to watch what I thought would at least 15-20 minutes of entertainment. Nope. He walked over, said, “HAY!!!,” regarded the tarp for about 5 seconds, then walked over to the hay and dived right in.

I’ve since used the same approach with another, older, horse. It took him a bit longer, but was still a no-drama event.

[quietann]

My mare can be iffy about tarps; never mind that she was exposed to them a lot as a young horse, and even, as a weanling, helped one of her buddies grab a tarp and chase another weanling around with it!

Patience and repetition helps. I do not have a perfect sense of timing and so forth, so it takes a while sometimes. I am also not 100% convinced that she is really scared of the tarp as much as just having a big case of the Don’ Wannas, so (eventually) getting her across the tarp without a lot of silliness is required. (It can feel like forever to me, but is rarely more than 10 minutes and usually less then 5.)

I will get off of her and lead her over it if she’s being really goofy, but then I get right back on and we go back to riding over it (or trying.)

Peppermints help, too

[Cherry]

I would fold the tarp up into a relatively small package, lead the horse over to it to show horse there is nothing to be afraid of. If he doesn’t react I’d slip him some sort of treat. Then I would slowly unfold the tarp a bit at a time.

The goal is to do it gradually without getting the horse to react. If he reacts I would stop unfolding immediately and just wait until he settles down, then quit for the day.

Refold the tarp (out of the horse’s presence) and start all over again the next day. Be patient! Eventually the horse will figure out there is nothing to be afraid of. If you force the issue it will take longer to train him…

[enjoytheride]

Why don’t you ask the parelli people? They tend to do groundwork really well and it sounds like you and your horse are lacking in that area.

A horse I was working with, her first time with the tarp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMvXBLy6zx8

Her second time with the tarp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3TBqedXbzE

[meupatdoes]

[QUOTE=nativehiro;8134310]
My horse normally questions spookier looking things around the farm so I usually like to show him a lot of the stuff to get him to realize it’s not going to kill him. Yesterday one of the Parelli people at our barn were working with their horse and a blue tarp. After they were done I wanted to see if he would go over it (he has been over tarps 100x usually takes coaxing) well didn’t even want to go near it. Lets just say my horse has impressive backing up skills when in danger.

I got off and tried shifting the tarp to a most smaller section to get him to cross over it and he almost ripped my elbow off spooking backwards again after the wind blew it. I really don’t do the time and patience is key stuff like some people at the barn since we do more trails/eventing type riding. So once I mess with putting the tarp over his entire body, I laid it back on the ground and got him to almost run me over by jumping over it a dozen of times until he finally realized he can just walk over it without it killing him. Once I got on it was back to square one after hacking around for another 15 mins. Came back to tarp and he would just leap sideways or 3ft over it. Finally got him to trot over it a few times.

Is it okay to just keep letting him do this? Is it OK to try again the next day or give it a break for a few days? I don’t want to overwhelm him with it as he is terrified of the tarp but I don’t want him spooking at scary jumps at shows where we don’t have time for patience. Maybe he was just in one of those spooky funks yesterday :o[/QUOTE]

Basically what you as a handler need to do is work on your timing with your pressure/release and reading his body language so that these situations do not cause a major blowup, and so that he learns he can always “say yes” when under pressure. What you are looking for is to make him responsive, not reactive.

Being dismissive of patience is probably not the best mind frame to be in on this, however.

There is a difference between a horse that is about to take one more step onto a tarp (or trailer, or wash stall, or whatever) so the best thing to do is reward his try and release pressure for a moment, and a horse who has decided to just wait and hang out with a leg cocked while the owner gets a tan. The difference is in the horse’s body language - if the horse’s weight is over his front legs and he is looking down and about to step forward, release pressure. If his weight is over his backlegs and his head is up, add pressure. Most people do not distinguish between these (hugely different) stances and just cluck/wave the broom/pull on the shank willy nilly. Rather than calibrating there pressure to smaller and smaller slices (one step at a time, one “lean” at a time) they just add pressure like a bulldozer, and what it creates is a horse that blows up and bulldozes back (or sideways, as the case may be).

Other people watch the horses legs very carefully and when the horse’s weight leans the slightest bit forward, they relax their driving pressure, and when the horse’s weight starts to lean the slightest bit back they increase it. The horse is always rewarded for a forward tendency toward the scary with a release in pressure, and backing away from the scary adds pressure. This group can have an entire training interaction about just where the horse’s weight is without saying a word or either the horse or them moving a step. This is also the group that would have the horse stepping quietly onto the tarp/into the trailer/into the washstall generally in never less than 15 minutes, and after the first try, right away.

So if I were you I would refine your timing with how you add and release pressure when your horse is afraid so that you don’t have the problem in the first place, and I would never, ever treat a horse like you “don’t have time for patience.” It is better to take 15 minutes to do it right than to bully a horse in 3. You will find that if you take 15 minutes to do it right with Scary Object A, Entirely Unrelated Scary Object B Three Weeks Later will usually go easier. That is because working through these times where your horse is scared (reactive) and saying no, and calmly turning them into times where your horse trusts your call (responsive) and says yes, sets up that mindset for next time, too.

[Flash44]

Maybe he needs some more overall desensitizing. I’d do that on a consistent and regular basis until he realizes that stuff is not going to kill him. Plastic bags, plastic bags with rattling plastic bottles in them, balloons, pool noodles and toys, etc. It’s OK for them to be scared of stuff, not OK to run backwards out of control.

[nativehiro]

Thanks for all the replies it is folded into a smaller section - he leads over it fine if hes following another horse but soon as we are alone its whole other situation. He does jump it and eventually we actually touch it and settle down. Hopefully it’ll just keep getting better overtime. I wanted to make sure I would fry his brain out if I work with him everyday with it.

[SnicklefritzG]

[QUOTE=Flash44;8137128]
Maybe he needs some more overall desensitizing. I’d do that on a consistent and regular basis until he realizes that stuff is not going to kill him. Plastic bags, plastic bags with rattling plastic bottles in them, balloons, pool noodles and toys, etc. It’s OK for them to be scared of stuff, not OK to run backwards out of control.[/QUOTE]

+1

The regularity of the desensitizing is important.

I spoke with a police officer who told me that mounted units will practice several times a month with densensitization. It’s not a one time police training program the horses go through, they have regular follow-up.

My horse didn’t like blue tarps at first, so guess what? His dinner went on the blue tarp. I wish I had video of him standing at the edge, trying to lean over to get his grain without touching the blue tarp. Eventually he realized that the blue tarp was not going to eat him and he accepted it. Now he will wear a blue tarp, over his head even, without freaking out about it.

[HungarianHippo]

Sure seems to me like you are setting him up to fail. Repeating every day won’t fry his brain but repeated failure sure damages your mutual confidence.

I’ve always started tarps with the horse in hand rather than in saddle. What worked for me is getting him to stand facing tarp, from far enough away that he was concerned but wasn’t feeling panicked. Like 10-15ft. Have things on the corners to hold it down but loose enough that the breeze may ruffle it a little but not Big Flapping Monster. Then walk around the arena going past the tarp at that same nervous-but-not-panic distance. That distance will shrink, and it doesn’t take much time at all. Same process for getting him to actually stand on it. Then lead across it. Then let it be much looser, noiser, etc. Repeat all this from the saddle. I mean, this took like 3 sessions, not days and days.

[wateryglen]

I had some PMU weanlings I tarp proofed by just putting a black tarp in the field with them. I let it blow around & changed it’s shape to let it look different. It was winter…they figured out the black tarp was heat absorbing and was warm so they ended up sleeping on it everyday…no matter where it was…they’d take turns dragging it out into the sunshine if it was laying over the fence or wherever. Hilarious scene…3 weanlings layed flat out on a black tarp sleeping…and I never got a photo of it! Cute!

[Pocket_Pony]

I was working with my filly, Princess Fancy Pants, one day with the tarp. This was after I worked with Mac and the tarp and Mac and I rode over it while it was laid out on the ground. Since it was still in the arena, I thought I’d show it to PFP who at first was wary but curious and checked it out. Then she stepped on it. OMG, what a horse-eating monster it was! I think the sound freaked her out more than anything. We eventually got to the point where I could touch her legs with it and touch her neck with it, but it was not a happy day for her.

So what did I do? I bought another tarp. This one I’m cutting up into pieces. The first piece was a corner square. I attached it to my stick that already has a flag on it (so now there’s a flag and a tarp) - she’s fine with the flag - and did some ground work with it. Actually, first I just left it outside of her stall for a day or so so that she could see it. Then I carried it around with me while working with her on the ground (but not putting any “energy” into it). Then we moved on to a bit of groundwork whereby I’d drag it next to me while leading her. Then I’d just gently wave it about. Then I’d put it in front of her so she could sniff/touch it. And so on.

Actually, I ponied her with it (it fell off the stick after a couple minutes): https://youtu.be/oWw45HxG0po

I think it helps that Mac isn’t at all bothered by it so she doesn’t see any need for reaction.

Now I’m on to a bigger piece of tarp that she has decided she wants to bite and play with. Eventually we’ll get to the whole thing again.

I’m not forcing it and only do it 1-2 days a week at a slow pace. She’s just about three so I’ve got time on my side and no deadlines of doing anything.

IMHO, these are the situations where you need to learn some patience because forcing your horse into dealing with it is going to backfire on you. Better to take the time and do it slowly to really teach them that it isn’t anything to worry about and that they can trust you.

It isn’t just about the tarp. It is about anything scary that they may experience and teaching them that you provide safety and security and that they can listen to you to know that everything is okay.