Best way to get horse used to boot monsters (vid)

[Erin's mum]

Lily hasn't ever had boots on so we need to start introducing her to them. Put on a front brushing boot today with the view of eventually working up to travel boots and she thought there was a monster clinging onto her leg   . Bless her she pranced around the box with one ear and eye fixed on it. She also tried to kick at it with a hind leg. After about 5mins she calmed down enough to stick to walking but still wasn't happy with it. I took it off (velcro was going to eat her   ) and let her sniff it for a while. Just not sure where to go from here. Should I stick to putting one boot on and let her fidget around til she gets used to it (she is very good at staying away from me whilst stressing!), leave her to her own devices with it on, or take a different approach? Don't think at the moment putting more than one on is an option, might blow her brains a bit  

Any suggestions would be much appreciated  

ETA, short clip of what she was doing;

boot monster

[ChrissieW]

Ah bless her - don't you know boots are horse eating monsters! 

Personally, I'd not have her constrained, but loose, seeing as she's in a secure area anyway and if she's that scared, I'd break it down more into sniffing, whilst velcro undone and redone till she's actively seeking to sniff the boot, then rubbing up and down her leg or anywhere she'll let you and only then putting it on.

I'd also use the clicker, but hopefully a proper clicker person will come along and explain that, as I just bung it into the mix which isn't correct use (works for me though).

Minnie was a demon with boots when I first had her (4 years old) - would kick you as soon as you tried to put them on, with her it was just patience, patience, a bit of firmness (ie yes this IS going to happen, not beating her!) and more patience.

Daisy bless her takes to things like that really well - just gives a bit of a "eek" what's that one me, then "oh its just that human putting strange things on me again - where's my treat!!!" 

Of course the other way that can work, is just bung them all on and let her work it out for herself in the box, but personally for this kind of thing, I always reach for my clicker nowadays as so much easier and quicker result

[catkin]

Does she like to checkout everything first by chewing or sniffing?

The Welsh princess is incredibly nosy so what I did with her was to take the boots in with me, leave them in the corner of the box and get on with something she knew such as grooming. Of course, before long her curiosity got the better of her and she had to go and investigate. Next step was then investigating them whilst they were in my hand, showing her how the velcro worked (she liked that -it made a good noise) then all the stages of touching her leg with it, wrapping it round etc.
I found that letting her investigate them to her heart's content first took away the scaryness - perhaps it's because they smell familiar before they go near her body. Only drawback with this method - be prepared for chewed bits of boot and vecro straps being undone by horse teeth!

You know your horse better than anyone but if she's a thinker I would leave her loose in the box. Mine liked to know she had an 'escape route' and if she was worried she would walk around the box, obviously had a bit of a think about things as she went, and more often than not would come back to stand in the same position and then we would carry on. It may or may not be useful for you to be in a position where you can walk around with her (mine was reassured by it, others may not be)

It's well worth the effort getting them happy with things being wrapped round their legs - even if you rarely use boots it's invaluable experience for bandaging.

[carapony]

I wonder if Micheal Peace's technique for dealing with clipper phobic horses might work? He always works with the horse in an open space (school/paddock) and not in the stable - helps to take the pressure off. Basically you use a lunge line or NH rope and show the horse the scary thing, in this case boots. The horse will react negatively, usually runs off in a circle. The minute they stop panicking (stop running/backing off whatever the behaviour was) you reward them by taking the scary thing away. You repeat this process asking slightly more of the horse as you progress. With clipping the steps are clippers on, then clippers moving about, clippers nearer, clippers touching etc. The key is to take baby steps and not to reward any negative behaviour - you have to wait for the try and reward the slightest effort by releasing the pressure. I used his method with my terrified mare last year and after a week or so of working slowly with her I was able to clip her single handed in the middle of the sandschool
He does a really useful DVD of the process which I found really helped me when I was waivering confidence wise. It did seem as if we spent a long time making no progress and just doing lots of running away, but suddenly it alll comes together, you just have to be patient. I don't know if it would work for the boots issue but it semmed like a pretty adaptable technique -

good luck and stay safe

[shoveltrash]

poor girlie!  what a sensitive soul - that's a SCARY thing, that horse-eating-velcro-stuff

how is she when approached with the boots? (prior to application)
if she's ok until they are ON, i'd let her work it out herself, loose in a small paddock or school.  agree that constraining might heighten fear.

IF she's scared when you approach with them, personally i'd do approach & retreat (i don't like chasing a horse around 'til they stop running).  approach with scary item and just as SOON as your horse shows signs of fear, walk away.  do this each & every time - turn around and walk away taking the pressure off.  you might be surprised at how quickly this works .  slowly you increase the proximity, until it's ok to rub on the horse - walking away when they get tense fearful, every time.  i've seen amazing results with this!
sorry to run on so

she is one LOVERLY mare

[SuzieP]

What a gorgeous horsey!

I had the same problem getting Bea into travel boots.  And as others have suggested, I used the tiny steps technique with lots of praise and treats.  I also rubbed them over him to get his smell onto them - he seemed less wary of them when they smell familiar.

I did make a BIG mistake once though and put a hind boot on and only did up one of the velcroes before going to his head and telling him he was a fabulous and clever boy.  Bea then kicked out, not liking the feel of the boot, and the boot stuck on and flapped, which was cue for even more upset and put us back days.  I felt so cross with myself and dreadfully sorry for having made such a stupid mistake.

Now, although he eyes the boots of the devil when I get them out of their bag, he does stand and let me put them on without fuss.

[shoveltrash]

i wanted to interject.....
i never use travel boots
you will all think i'm crazy - but years ago i saw something similar to what SuzieP described (stuck boot flapping scaring horse), and the horse was horribly injured.  so i choose to NOT use velcro travel boots.  touch wood we've never ever had even the slightest cut or bang to a leg traveling!  in the past i used polo wraps with pillows when traveling my boy with another horse, if there's risk of being stepped on.  otherwise, nope!

[ChrissieW]

I don't think you are mad Trish, I don't use travel boots either.   In fact Daisy travelled bare to the vets and back 

With Minnie I use sports boots or thermatex leg wraps or polo bandages, as have used travel boots in the past and she just gets too hot in them.

Most of the professional horse transporters loath travel boots for the very reasons you state.

[carapony]

I just wanted to add that I probably haven't done Michael Peace justice at all in my description of his technique - he takes over an hour to explain the process and I've rather crudely cut it down to a couple of sentences so the subtlety of the approach is lost somewhat I wouldn't dream of chasing a horse round with a scary object until it gave up running away - the idea is more about allowing the horse room to express itself without restraint and not forcing the horse to accept the object until its ready. I think probably the best idea is to seek out his DVD if you're interested and let him explain process properly - all I will say it that I had great success with it last year so it may be worth investigating

[cirocco]

I dont use travel boots, if its a long journey perhaps bandages over padding, but thats for the future.

If it was me, id fasten her up. hay net at head, and put on those little reflective wraps first, try this for a while until she accepts, then go to something larger.

[Erin's mum]

  Brilliant! thank you so much everyone for your input

Travel boots will be a bit down the line anyway tbh- will make a decision later on about whether to boot/bandage or neither but she'll need to get used to boots for working at some points, particularly if we ever jump in the future.

Michael Peace's method sounds interesting  I have his book and really like a lot of the stuff in it. Unfortunately we don't really have an arena with a proper fence so think i'm going to have to stick to work in the loose box for now 

She is VERY inquisitive and also very brave- goats/pigs/mini ponies/electric fence/coloured poles have all been tackled with little issue. This is the only thing she's really made an issue about in terms of spookiness so far. Hopefully we can use this to our advantage. Think i'll go down the route of letting her get used to them gradually and moving them down her leg as we go  . She can get a bit nosey if she gets too many treats so will try for now without and then maybe consider the clicker route. Shall see how it goes anyway!

Thank you again everyone- will put some updates on my blog 

ps thanks SuzieP- she is rather special  such a baby though-lots of work to come!

[SuzieP]

I did think of travelling Bea without his boots - and got told some horror stories by others on the yard which scared me half to death!  I must admit, I use those Polypad ones with no shaping because they're much more flexible.

[SueC]

I'd be inclined to introduce her gradually with her loose too.  Make sure you're putting them on the right way though, they don't look quite so for brushing boots?

Mainly replying ref travel boots though.  A mare I was travelling with was nearly written off when she tripped on the ramp and badly bashed up her fetlock when loading.   It took her months to recover.   With leg protection she'd not have been injured at all, but her owners at the time didn't think travel boots were necessary.  If your horse is scared of things flapping around their legs, I'd guess it would be better to accustom them to it, so that you can use leg protection when travelling, whether that's boots, wraps or bandages.  I personally don't think it's worth the risk.