How to desensitize horse to noise

Question

My horse, an experienced 10 year old quarter horse gelding is deathly afraid of people stomping on the metal stands at arenas. He has never really had a problem with any other type of noise except this. At our local arena, the warm-up ring is directly under the bleachers and if he hears just a few people up there, he freaks out. He jumps and tries to get away from it, sometimes bucking and rearing. I want to ride in the anual rodeo this year, but I am worried how he will react to hundreds of people stomping around at the same time. I want to know how to fix this problem before anyone gets hurt.

Answer 1

At home, try playing the radio loud, having some one bang on a peice of metal, etc...Do this around him while you have him haltered. Have him stand there. When he starts to get nervous reassure him that it will be okay. As soon as he starts to relax, stop the noise and praise him. Repeat this until he is calm with just about any noise you can think of. You can also do this to wear you have him walking "into" the noise, like being loud in a riding arena and having him go into it. Then walk up to the noise, by the noise, etc...It will take some time and paitence. But, it should work. Just always end things on a positive note, in other words, don't get frustrated and let him go because he is scared. Keep him there and only stop the lesson when he has done good.

It might also help while you are at a show to get a pair of the horse ear plugs. They help muffle the noise. But still allow a horse to hear. There are some that look like large pom-pom balls used for crafts. And others that look almost like people ear plugs. You can get them in a color that will blend into your horses color.

Here are links to a pair of each:

Pom-Pom style

http://www.doversaddlery.com/category.as...

"People" stlye

http://www.saddleandtackwarehouse.com/pr...