Re: Water evasion

[Farafix@aol.com]

When training my stud colt my dressage trainer's "wait-em-out" technique
worked very well with water.  I had worked with the colt on the ground; he
would follow me thru water or I could ride him if another horse led, but he
really didn't like a nearby stream crossing.
So I would ride him down the trail until we got almost to the point where he
was going to stop & I would ask him to halt just before he was going to anyway
(that way it was my command to halt).  Then we would stand & stand & stand &
stand . . . Since I had stopped just before the point that he was going to
fight me, he was at a comfortable distance, & didn't make much effort to turn
away. If he did, I just made him face the stream.  Since I had used this
technique on other scary things, he knew that if he wanted to ever move again
in his life, it was going to have to be forward,but I wasn't going to force
him go forward.  Finally, after he got sooooo bored, he took a step forward,
and we waited & waited & waited until finally he got soooo bored he took
another step forward.  After an eternity he finally inched himself up to the
stream & in it.  Once in, he went across with no problem.  
The next time we went out, it still took a lot of waiting for him to inch his
way into the stream, but not as long as the previous outing.  Each time we
went out, he got a little better & a little faster about crossing the stream.
This technique took almost more patience than I had, but it avoided a big,
potentially dangerous fight that I would probably lose.  The horse stayed
calm, the horse figured out for himself that his choice was to stay standing
before the scary obstacle for the rest of his life or confront it himself.
Now when my stallion sees something he's not sure of he'll stop, look for a
minute, give me a look over his shoulder & go on.  He knows that I will
(usually) give him the time to check something out, so he doesn't get all
upset at something a little scary.  It's much safer for me.  Now that he's
older, I will ask him to go by/over something he's not sure of if time is of
the essence, & he usually trusts me enough to go.

Nancy (Md)
& Tempo, who crossed the Shenendoah