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Bombproofing A Horse

The term bombproofing is used to describe the process of training your horse by the use of a logical plan to make certain that it is calm in situations where their flight response usually kicks in -  circumstances like the presence of scary objects or noises. When a horse is for sale is said to be 'bombproof' usually means it is more desirable as it is more suitable for kids and beginners. This type of training transforms your horse from shying, rearing or bolting when scared to being more confident, controllable, pleasurable and safer to use while riding and handling it.

Majority of the aspects involving horses require a certain level of understanding of the horse's psychology and bombproofing is not different. All horses are different and diverse so some might be easy to train while some might prove to be such a hard task. The training difficulty or ease on different horses might be impacted by factors such as their background training, how early they were handled as a foal which might still have a huge impact on how they behave even as adults.

bombproofing-a-horse

Recommendations

  • Make sure you use an experienced trainer if you are inexperienced with horses.
  • Don't rush through the training. Repeat, repeat and reward.
  • Keep the training short, 10-20 minutes per day is ok. 
  • Use Tools around the stable - You can use a plastic bag for desensentising the horse. Cheap and effective!
  • Horses learn when they are calm, curious and are having fun. So make sure you keep your horse's anxiety level low in a clam environment.

The personalities of the different horses might also play a part in the training. There are horses that are confident and full of themselves hence tend to pushy while others are always nervous hence a timid nature. The nature of the horse will impact how effective the bombproofing training will be and whether it will be easy or tough to do the training.

Be patient and try to understand how the horse works and time when it is most energetic. Both the trainer and the horse need to have some level of connection in order for the training to be effective. Shouting or beating the horse in order for it to become submissive will only make the training much harder and can cause a lot of nasty habits. The trainer needs to demonstrate what they want the horse to do in a very clear way. Just like in all languages both parties have to understand the message in order to communicate. Horses will read your body language and will sense if you are tense or angry.