Baker training session 9 - hoof tapping and flyspray

So, Baker has impressed me again!  I really LOVE working with this baby!  I spent about 11 minutes working with him yesterday, and we got A LOT done in that time.  When I first went out to see him, I called his name and he nickered back at me and came towards me.  For the entire session, he stayed at least 30 feet away from his mom, and was completely relaxed with me.  Fiona was also relaxed about him being that far away.  I started out with rubbing and snuggling, as usual.  Then I reviewed picking up his front feet and putting them between my legs.  (I added a picture in "training session 6" to show everyone how this is done).  Since that went so well again, I decided to add another step - tapping his feet with a hoofpick.  When the farrier eventually has to put shoes on Baker, he will have to bang on his feet pretty hard with a hammer.  This does NOT hurt the horse, but the noise and pressure can be very scary.  The desensitization that I worked on with him will help him to get used to the noise and some of the pressure.  While holding his front feet between my legs (one at a time), I took the handle of the hoofpick and tapped it very softly all along the bottom of his hoof.  He was only startled for a second, and then he relaxed completely.  I did it a few times with each front foot, each time tapping a little harder.  I never tapped as hard as the farrier will, but I can add more pressure when I work with him in the future.  Our next task for the day was to work on desensitizing him to flyspray.  The noise of a flyspray bottle, along with the tickling of the actual spray landing on the horse, can be a little scary at first.  Most horses take a lot of spraying before they realize that nothing is actually hurting them.  Baker, however, is such a quick learner!  When I started spraying (I use a spray bottle filled with water so that I don't waste a lot of flyspray if I have to do a lot of repetitions), I just sprayed in the air, near him, but where he wouldn't feel it yet, just hear it.  He jumped once, and then got very curious and reached out to see what it was.  So, I started spraying one of his front legs, near the ground (that is the best place to start desensitizing a horse to any type of spraying, including a water hose).  He startled at first, but as soon as he realized that it wasn't hurting him, he was fine.  I approached the desensitization of the flyspray just as I have all the other things - as soon as he relaxed, I stopped spraying and rubbed him in his favorite spot.  Then I moved over to try the other front leg.  He never startled or jumped or reacted again!  He just stood there as I sprayed one part of his body at a time.  Each time he stood quietly, I stopped and rubbed him and then moved on to another spot.  By the end of the session, I had sprayed his entire body and he had only jumped twice at the very beginning.  I have never had a baby, or any horse, desensitize that quickly to flyspray!  Remember when I told you at the beginning of this article that he stayed at least 30 feet from his mom the entire session?  Typically, babies will run to their moms for safety when stuff scares him, but Baker is really showing how brave he can be!  This bodes well for him becoming a great event horse one day!