Trail Riding -- Part Two

Partially I we talked about benefit of "sacking out" training as a prelude to a trek ride. In many parts of the world where horses are used daily for transportation and carrying loads, a "bombproof" horse is highly valued. Every day represents a new kind of trek ride for these horses and they have to study from a very early age not to interact with passing cars, trucks, bicycles and mountain bikes. Next to your skin to get accustomed to standing tied for extended periods as their owners go about their business in town before returning on horseback to their homes in the country. The "sacking out" training for these horses is carried out in a passive but very effective way Horseback Riding. The proprietor will simply saddle in the dam and go about his daily business with the very young foal following along behind. The foal follows his mother and takes his cues from her. If she is calm when a truck passes, the foal branches close to her for protection and doesn't react either. Over the course of a few months the small foal becomes desensitized to every kind of stimulus you can imagine. We've seen a horse stand softly while a chicken countries on his back. This might be the best way there is to "sack out" a horse for trek voyages. Unfortunately, for many of us this is a bit unrealistic, to say the least.

One of the most frightening things for a horse is a loud, sudden noise. A horse will definitely react violently to a reprehended gate, car horn or rifle shot if he hasn't been desensitized fot it kind of noise before. If you're going on a trek ride during hunting season, even as mentioned partially I, it makes sense to desensitize your horse to gunfire. How can you do this?

You should take several weeks to desensitize your horse to gunfire. Start by using similar to a BB or pellet rifle that makes a pop but not nearly the noise of a real rifle. Start by shooting the BB rifle 20 or 30 times far away of 50 metres or so with your horse in the round pencil. When he appears unperturbed by the shots, progressively move nearer 10 metres at a time. At each new position fire the BB rifle another 20 or 30 times. Eventually you will be in the round pencil with the horse. When he doesn't pay any awareness of your shooting the BB rifle in the actual round pencil, we can go to the next thing. Now repeat the same process with an actual rifle but only use half loads, so the sound is quite a bit louder than the usual BB rifle but still significantly less loud as a shot with a full load of powdered would be. After you are able to fire a number of shots using half loads of powdered within the round pencil without adverse reaction from your horse, try the same process using a full load of powdered. By the time several weeks have passed, the horse will have experienced several hundred shots dismissed from your job and may be pretty desensitized. You can then try the experiment while mounted with the help of a friend to fire the rifle.