In the first article from Lucinda Green’s clinic we talked about the jumping exercises she used to try and help the riders to improve their reaction times, develop more of an instinctive feel for cross country riding and how to cope when things don’t go quite to plan.
At the end of each session she also incorporated a bit of ‘spook desensitisation’ using some very scary tarpaulin monsters and rugs!
I was very impressed by Sarah Sammon’s horse (below) who seemed completely unflappable and calmly walked over the tarp straight away as if he did it every day. As it turns out, he does!
“I came to Lucinda’s clinic here last year” said Sarah, who had travelled several hours from Swan Hill to attend the clinic “I went home determined to make spooky items a non-drama. We now have rugs and tarps hanging everywhere!” It has certainly worked.
Some other horses were not quite so sure. Lucinda started by having the tarp and rugs folded up and fairly small to gauge the reaction. The horses that calmly accepted it were soon walking over the unrolled and noisy items laid out full on the floor but others required a little more time and a good seat on their riders’ part.
“Allow them to extend their neck and take a good look” encouraged Lucinda “Their necks are like telescopes and can really extend so they can see what is being asked of them but when they look down, don’t go forward with them. You have to learn to ride on a loose rein all the way to the buckle but still be in control”
Earlier in the class one horse had not liked the look of two barrels on their side to be jumped. First Lucinda split the barrels so that the horse could walk between them and led the horse through then let him follow another horse over until he was comfortable. There is a way to accomplish everything but it must be accomplished
“I don’t care, just get the job done” says Lucinda, not unkindly but pragmatically, when a rider tries to explain why her horse is objecting to something
The horses nervous of the tarp eventually realised that it really was not that spooky (or if it was their rider was going to look after them!) and after patiently repeating the exercise with a calm rider and encouraging coach, all of them were walking over the tarp on a long rein with ease
This isn’t rocket science but ask yourself – when was the last time you tested your horse’s reaction to unusual objects? With a new season about to start, maybe it’s time to follow Lucinda’s teaching and Sarah’s example and drag those spooky tarps out on to the arena. Just make sure you have time, maybe a patient helper and a calm determination to get the job done
