Desensitising

[cadeby]

...the daft things we do

Having been dumped in the middle of the road many years ago by my Percheron filly when she was newly broken after a flock of starlings took off from a hedge and "attacked" her, we now like to desensitise our youngsters to low flying objects.

This is Martin looking decidely daft flapping the plastic mesh off a bale of hay in and around the baby boys :

This was Jacq's first exposure to the mesh. You can see that, aged just 9 months, his Dales priorities are well developed and although it's worth a surprised look, nothing can interfere with eating



This is Taz aged 19 months, who is more intelligent but more sensitive. He likes to check everything out before he makes the informed decision that it isn't edible and is therefore boring. He's then not bothered if you throw/drape it all over him



Silly tarpaulin pics next week?

[lucydales]

Wicked! What a good idea. Vanty would be in the next field!!

I love the first pic, "Has he gone mad??"

Now here's a question, can it be desensitisaton if they are not sensitised? I would use habituation!

Class, please discuss!

[lucydales]

Jacq the Yak looks remarkably like Tim still!

[cadeby]

Mar 9, 2009 20:21:43 GMT -1 lucydales said:

Now here's a question, can it be desensitisaton if they are not sensitised? I would use habituation!

Class, please discuss!

Yep, that's a better word but I can't do philosophy at this time of night and/or 1/2 a bottle of wine to myself

[lucydales]

Is that one or two or half??!!! (Lightweight!)

[greydales]

LOL, yours don't look overly bothered! Great pics ;D. I do similar stuff at home, but I have found with both Cherry and Saturn that meeting similar things out in the big wide world is VERY different from encountering it in the safety of their home .

I have waved giant flags around Saturn's head, cantered around the arena holding it over him in the wind, opened and shut umbrellas in his face, walked him over tarps etc etc. all of which he accepted with no problem and was quite bored by it all. However the Handy Pony class at the DPS Performance Show was quite a different matter LOL!

The same with Cherry, but out on a hack she will not pass a small piece of wood leaning on a fence, several haylage bales stacked up, a hedge with dead leaves rustling in the wind .

Remy does not bat an eyelid when I throw her green rug over her, but this week I took out a new red stable rug and her eyes were out on stalks . There was much snorting and drama until she realised it was not going to eat her!

Bless em all ;D

[NFK Dumpling]

Mar 9, 2009 20:21:43 GMT -1 lucydales said:

Now here's a question, can it be desensitisaton if they are not sensitised? I would use habituation!

Class, please discuss!

I think its a good idea to get them used to unusual things but it must be in part down to their own personality how they react : there is a "cannon" about two fields away from the ponies its been there since the corn was planted last autumn - when it went off the other day Musky flinched but carried on eating whereas James leapt about 18" in the air and scuttled about. James has had nearly 20yrs more experience of guns and birdscarers than Musky

[Debbie]

I was thinking the same. Totally yaaawwwnnn, boorrring on the homefront. But OMG that's certainly not the same carrier bag, flapping tarpulin, etc, etc I saw at home. Everything looks so different (and scary) out in the big world.

Some of Blossom's favs.... attacking beach balls of various sizes. And for the record, Jolly Balls do not stand a chance with her. Their 'indestructibles' aren't...she's killed two of them.


Playing with 'poles' and the ducky...


;D She loves the sqeaky noise it makes! Poor ducky didn't weather well. Maybe we'll get her another one. I wonder what Galahad would make of ducky? ;D


And we do tarps of all sizes, although her favorite method is to 'kill' them first, she'll happily hide under them, have them flap all about under, over, playing kites, etc. It was the first thing she was exposed to on her very first day here. As she stepped into the field, the huge tarp covering her field shelter flapped. So we marched right over to the box. I stopped her further out. Then I stomped on it (letting it make a crinkly noise) to show her it wouldn't harm her, and then we walked off without a fuss.

To this day her first impulse is to always walk over and stomp on the tarp.

[loopylou]

OOHHHH fantastic photos and i love to see the ponies have as much thrown at them as possible too. We try to find things that scare them, some times a hard chellenge for us, LOL.

Look forward to the tarpaulin sheet photos next week.

I did the tarpaulin sheet with Mags at the weekend, thought i would walk her passed it first, she had other ideas, headed straight over, nose down, walked all over it, pawed it and then tried to eat it. Game over in the space of seconds, LOL.

Love the ball Debbie, great photo

[lucydales]

Celt was shaking haylage plastic this morning to see if there was any tiny morsel left in it! LOL! So Helen's habituation plan worked very well! Tim wasn't bothered having one rubbed all over him (nor was Celt) and Vanty departed the area with the whites of his eyes showing when I was within 2 yards of him!!!! Early life lessons pay dividends, at home anyway!!

[harleydales]

I watched a friends foal run off with an Alfa A bag the other day - scared his mum and the other horse half to death but he was having great fun with it!!

[Debbie]

Remind you of the little boy who brings in a snake to show his mother whilst she's chatting with the neighbor? ;D

I agree, the more they can see at their bold, inquisitive stage, so much the better. I think it helps later in life as they try to discern the scary from the not so scary.