How to Bombproof Your Horse

No, I don't mean to bring your horse near a bomb, but what I am talking about is getting her used to things like traffic, plastic bags, guns, and buckets while you are riding. Horses tend to run away when something is scary and they think it will get them and eat them. Fire and traffic will harm them if we aren't careful but when we are riding we need them to use their thinking side of their brains, not the flight side. So in order to get the thinking side going, while riding towards something scary to them, we need to get them to focus on us and us alone. You can do this by doing circles, backup, and side pass. Also you can get off your horse and lead her past the scary object a couple of times and then try again in the saddle. On a trail ride, you should do those things if you find something on your trail ride that you don't have at home (like deer, a hill ending in a creek, and a coyote). If you are at home work them until they don't give it a second glance (if you are able to come up with something similar to what they are scared of). For plastic bags, put your horse in a round pen or on a lead rope and put the plastic bag on a stick and start waving it around her and rub her all over with it. It may take awhile. Don't get mad if it takes 2 weeks or more to do. The more objects you do this with the more your horse will bombproof!