So, we have come to the summer season, where coffee becomes iced, windows get stuffed with air conditioners, and horses leave the pasture covered with grass stains and leaves and twigs as hair pieces. Duncan is becoming master trouble maker and somehow manages to look like he rolled in a mud puddle even if hes been in his stall the whole time. Typical baby!
Anyway, the summer is the perfect time for bathing. Also in the summer I get to live at home and not at school, so Duncan is 10 feet away at all times! This provides consecutive days and countless hours to spend with him. The first thing I decided to tackle was the bath. Though the wonderful people at Stage Rock spent tons of time with Duncan and even got him accustomed to things like the farrier and a clipper, they didn't have time to begin the bathing process. He was still very tiny last summer, so this is the summer for him to learn!
We tried for the first time before I had gotten home from school, and we took his babysitter horse (Bullet, my uncles horse) with him and tried to hose him behind the barn. First we would hose off Bullet so he could hear the noise and see the action of the hose on another horse. Horses are pack animals and do learn by watching. (Hence why people say cribbing is contagious, it is. Horses learn from eachother) He wasn't terrible but couldn't understand why he had to get all wet. We only spent a few minutes with him to avoid aggravation on either end. The picture above is actually from this day, the first time we introduced him. You can see my uncle and his horse Bullet, Duncan, and me spraying the hose.
Just a week or so ago, I started really working with Duncan and the hose. When I first started, I took him into the small indoor (which is about the size of a large round pen) had him on a leadrope and had someone else spraying the hose. He was running around me in circles and pushing me around, but I made sure the water stayed on him at all times. Its super important to show a horse that running around like that doesn't make the bad or scary thing stop. I needed him to realize that he was still getting wet no matter how fast he ran around me.
It did get a little bit tough to hold him though, and I was getting upset that he wouldn't stand even for a second. So, I let him go. I unclipped the leadrope from his halter and I let him just run around the indoor while I sprayed him with the hose. No matter where he ran, he was still getting hit with the water. Eventually, he realized that he wouldn't melt if he got wet, and he began to calm down. He would actually stop and just let the water hit him. When I put him back on the leadrope, however, he was still running around me in circles. I stopped him, and did some common ground work with him (my space is NOT your space type stuff) and then walked him into a corner. We turned the water on in the middle of the ring and let him listen while I rubbed his neck, and then we slowly brought the water to him. He stood like a champ! I let him be done for the day.
I followed basically the same routine for 3 consecutive days, each day held noticeable improvement, but he would still get frustrated and run around me in circles. I gave him one day off of the "water treatment" but continued the day after. That 5th day was a hugeee difference. I suppose giving him some time to think about it and realize he was still alive really helped him out. On the 5th day I hosed him by myself, with him on a lead (with slack!!) and just the hose. I didn't use the sprayer on that 5th day, so the sound of the sprayer wasn't there, but I will put it back on for the next time.
Allowing Duncan to realize that the hose wasn't something that was dangerous and wasn't something that would trap him helped in the long run. Letting him run around with the water spraying on him was a good way to show him that it wasn't some scary human thing. I am assuming it reminded him of the times in the field where the water fell from the sky onto him. Because that is a natural thing, it makes this new association with water less scary. He's come a long way with the water in just a week. I will definitely post an update.
