This past weekend's obstacle challenge highlighted one of Ruby's great fears to me: being followed by something noisy. When we drug a tire a few weeks back, she did it with no problem but when those empty plastic bottles started 'chasing' her on Saturday, she nearly lost it.
So, Heather tied a bunch of plastic bottles together with hay string and we've been doing a lot of desensitizing with it. She was doing so well yesterday that I decided to drag it behind us at a trot (after lots of dragging it at a walk, of course). It started off really well...and I should have stopped her immediately and praised profusely, but apparently I am one who has to push the envelope.
Ruby neck-reins okay for a horse that hasn't been specifically taught to, so I was steering her around the arena with my left hand, with right hand holding the string. Then she started to get nervous and decided not to listen to the half-halts, uh oh. Coming out of a corner, she completely forgot that we'd already been dragging the bottles at a trot for a lap, and started side-passing at which time I decided to let go of the string. Only, I wasn't just holding the string anymore...at some point during the ride, I had a dumbass moment and put my hand through the loop. I had to roll my right shoulder to get the string off and Ruby stopped abruptly when the noise stopped - resulting in me nearly flipping over her left shoulder. And Heather missed the whole thing. I'm not sure how but she is never looking when I have these near-misses. Ruby settled right back down and we drug the bottles again (at a walk) in order to end on a good note. We also drug them around today. I'm so glad that she's one who gets over these things easily.
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