Zen Horse

Fly Season Approching

To practice my approach and retreat method for desensitizing your horse to fly spray, first fill an empty fly spray bottle with water. (If you don’t have one, just pour the fly spray into another container to use later once you’ve solved your problem — this will keep you from wasting your fly spray!) Put a halter and lead rope on your horse and take him somewhere he can move his feet — but can’t get completely away from you — like a round pen or a small arena. Do not tie him up.Now, follow these simple steps:

Step 1 To desensitize your horse to fly spray, you first have to desensitize the air around him. Let’s face it, mate, if I can’t spray the air around my horse there’s no way he’s going to actually let me spray it on him. If he moves away, I just hold onto that lead rope, keeping his head tipped toward me, and move with him, continuing to spray the air with rhythm. Keep this up until he stands still and relaxes. The minute he stops moving his feet and shows you a sign of relaxation, immediately stop spraying.

Step 2 Once he’s comfortable with my spraying the air around him, I’ll begin to desensitize my horse’s topline, or as I like to call it, his “weather shield,” by spraying along his withers and back, then his hindquarters, and then and back up to his neck. If he moves around, I just keep moving with him and spraying just as I did in step one. When he stops and relaxes, you stop and relax.

Step 3 When my horse is comfortable with my spraying his topline, I move on to more sensitive areas like his legs, belly and face using the same approach and retreat method I did in the first two steps. If at any time the horse reacts to my spraying a certain area, I just continue to spray it until he stands still and relaxes, and then I retreat.

Repeat this lesson for several days or until your horse stands still and relaxes while you spray every part of his body. Some horses are more sensitive than others, so how long this takes depends on your horse’s temperament and how consistent you are. Then, replace the water with actual fly spray and you’re good to go!

Above all, mate, don’t act like anything’s different when you spray the real fly spray on your horse. Even after doing this exercise, a lot of people still tend to sneak around when they first try to spray their horse with real fly spray. Don’t. With horses, if you act like there’s going to be a problem with something, the horse will think there’s something to fear. After a few days of using my approach and retreat method for desensitizing your horse to fly spray, neither you nor your horse will ever give fly spray a second thought.

Tips by Clinton Anderson

Excited to saddle up and apply fly spray. Back country horse rides coming up!!!

Happy Trails,

Danna