Foal Education - Maserati conquers his fear of water [Slideshow]
Every rider knows it: the horses fear of water puddles. Some horses really freak out at the sight of the shiny, reflecting and wet surfaces. No way to get them to cross it. Sometimes it is even asked too much to put one foot into it. Come on, it's just a puddle!
If you see it from the horse’s perspective, the issue becomes a bit more apparent: Horses don’t know that it´s just 10 cm deep. It could as well be an endless hole. And it could be the home of a horse-eating crocodile!
It happened to me once on an endurance ride that my horse Touareg absolutely refused to cross a little harmless river. It took me 30 min to convince him to cross it, which resulted in getting disqualified for taking too much time. It was not fun at all—and a good lesson for me
How can I prepare my young horses that they won’t be afraid of water later?
We had a lot of rain during the last weeks. A huge puddle, actually more of a little lake, built in my horse’s field. I jumped at the opportunity to show my two youngsters Maserati and Tara that water is fun.
Young horses learn easily by imitating their older friends. I took Mayana, their older sister, to be their role model.
Tara was very playful about it and even lay down in it! Maserati, who is one year younger, attentively observed his two sisters. He was a little more shy in the beginning, but eventually got confident to go into the water as well.
Click through the pictures to join Tara and Maserati in their water games!
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