Training for All Contingencies

When you start training to compete in agility with your dog, one of the points your instructor will probably make is that you need to train for possible oddities you might encounter at a trial. Obviously you can't think of all the weird stuff that might happen, but some of the more likely. An example would be that the judge might wear a flamboyant hat, or have a hood pulled up. A weirder one that lots of dogs have reacted to is at indoor soccer fields (where most agility trials in my area are held). These fields hang advertisements along the walls of the fields, or in some cases, paint them on the walls. At one facility, there is a painted life-size male soccer player running/kicking the ball. More than a few dogs have been unnerved by this, and had their runs go bad.

 I imagine the same type of training is needed in the horse world as well. Now, I've only ever trained one little western-style colt and that was when I was 15. I didn't know much about breaking a horse and just learned as I went. If you plan to compete in Hunter/Jumper events, I am sure you need to de-spook your horse as much as possible. Which leads me to ask the question.....

How the heck do you teach your horse not to fear the GIANT SEAL ???? (or whatever it is!)

This comically carved log was in a barn full of various horse jumps at the park we visited on Monday. I can only imagine a horse flying across the field, jump, jump, and then slamming to a stop with a big WTF?!


Have a great weekend, Everyone! And be sure to train for those giants seals!