I already said it. That is what I am doing. Dressing up my horse.
Except when we are trail riding or doing a hunter pace during certain times in certain areas where the deer flies or horse flies are evil and my horse acts highly irrational when one gets in her ear.
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Oh I did lol but I do have one mare who hates even one little stray hair, so no no matter what she wears one.
I have a few things that could match 
haha I’ll hook ya up!
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The very next time I have a crowd, food trucks, trailers pulling in and out, and a loudspeaker at home I will commence my training program.
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I have a big TB gelding that ran until he was well into his 9 year old year, including two summers at Saratoga on big stakes days (he was on the undercard of the Whitney one year). After a few years of trying him (unsuccessfully) as my show horse, I started riding him in our local drill team. He was a rockstar at county fairs – until we got to the fair with the drag races. I’m really not sure how you “train” for that sound…
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A food truck is the same class vehicle as UPS and Fedex. Does your Smartpak arrive by stork? How about hay deliveries? Crowds and loudspeakers happen at clinics and lessons and are integral to most training barns. Trailers coming and going are a basic part of ground manner etiquette – assuming most people here are trailing their horses places before they ever go to a show…
If you have a noise reactive horse, the time to work at it is not at a show.
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You assume a lot here, and not just the final assumption. Do you really think everyone is at a busy training barn? Or that everyone has a trailer? Or gets smartpaks? This holier than thou “Train. Your. Horse.” attitude is not realistic for many people.
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Goodbye!
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I don’t have any of these things either. Private farm, we do get FedEx but the barn is far from the house. We grow our own hay. No trailers coming and going but our own. Picking up my own grain and supplements lol
Only on COTH would a neutral observation about fly bonnets be turned into “Holier Than Thou Attitude”…
My horses are in my backyard and I am as far from a state of the art training facility as you can get. They don’t have loudspeakers or food trucks either, much to one very chubby pony’s dismay… No Smartpaks either… Training starts at home. This is a COTH mantra.
In case you missed it: my original response was talking about noise reduction bonnets at horse shows.
If you’re at a horse show, I’m going to make a few assumptions: the horse was probably trailered there, AKA familiar with trailers. It probably is in a program of some sort. It probably is trained to some degree. These are all reasonable assumptions to make.
I am not sure what – or why – you think my original post was targeted towards people who aren’t showing or don’t have the means to show… By all means do whatever you want at home with your horses that keeps you and them safe.
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You are now assuming I am talking about people who don’t show. I’m not. And who said anything about having or not having the means to show? Where is all this coming from?
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You responded to my original post which was about showing and the legalities of showing in noise cancelling ear bonnets. I assumed you read it, when you responded to it.
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Ok, whatever.
How does a net over the nose help with a problem of a nerve just below the eye?
Nowhere have I been able to find anything that says how the net works. So I’m curious as to how it was discovered.
I’m also curious as to how its use might affect the rule about horses’ whiskers. Will their presence interfere with the effect of the net?
Is the net some sort of reaction to rules forbidding the clipping of nose whiskers?
Could someone say, “My horse has to have his whiskers trimmed because they get in the way of his nose net?”
I like to know how things work, and so far no one seems to know how this nose net does.
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You don’t need to clip whiskers to use a nose net anymore than you do to use a long fly mask. If you are using a nose net no one will be able to tell whether the horse has whiskers or not, so there’s no reason to clip them. But whisker clipping is an FEI rule anyway, and nose nets aren’t legal for FEI. And of course, it’s largely gone out of fashion to clip whiskers for dressage or eventing.
As far as why they work, and why they only work for some horses, the truth is that no one really knows for sure. The working theory is that contact pressure disrupts the nerve signal. But there is so much we don’t yet understand about headshaking that everything is just theories at this point.
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Re: acclimating horses to sounds:
I am reminded of an older book I have around somewhere which recommended finding a pasture near the railroad tracks to put young horses in for the summer so that train noises wouldn’t be an issue later on when they were in harness/under saddle.
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I would totally disagree with the sound-attenuating bonnets being bandaids. My horse was very sound-reactive when she was younger. When I got to a show on Friday, I would absolutely have her in earplugs so she could take in the sights/smells/activity without the added intensity of all the sounds. Then, by the second day when the show actually started, she was much more relaxed. Now that she’s older, I haven’t had to use them in … several years. It was a very valuable part of her training, which allowed her to take in all the stimuli piecemeal, and I definitely recommend it to others when working with sound-reactive horses, especially in new situations.
Besides, have you felt these sound-attenuating bonnet in person? I’ve looked at two brands, and frankly, they aren’t attenuating much. Maybe I looked at the duds, but they are really not that thick.
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I also have a very sound reactive young horse.
I’ve been spending my time taking her to new places in low pressure environments, and teaching her acceptable ways to deal with her emotions and fear, without the pressure of being at a show. I also take her out hacking solo a lot, so she learns to look to me for guidance. I have not ever found a need for plugs or muffs, because I take the time to allow her to process the environment she’s in - no matter how long that takes - while providing positive feedback for correct behavior and/or acceptable spooks.
I have felt the noise muffling ones, and they were every bit as thick as a neoprene-type horse boot. Probably 1/4" thick?
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And that’s great that you don’t feel you need use any noise muffling devices! I’m happy for you. But your horse may not be like my horse, and if you had had my horse and been in my shoes, maybe you you have felt differently. But regardless, I think it’s great that your training system is working for you and your horse.
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