Such a good girl. :)
Is there any possibility she has golden retriever in her blood? They’re worse than pigs for a good wallow.
Honestly she might lmao. I wanted to try to clean her up a bit before I had to go home, but the mud hadn’t dried yet. It was a little too cold for a bath, but even if it was warmer, I don’t think she’s ever gotten a proper bath before. I tried to bathe her last summer and she flipped out. My goal is to get her a bath this summer, but it’s gonna require me to desensitize her to the bathing hose over time.
Good luck, I’ve learned to just accept the difficulties with my rescue dog and love him for himself. Although even he’s learned to be chill with the vacuum cleaner now, and he really hated it before, so I’m sure you have a chance. Just takes time.
Have the hose visible before using with a routine before use, use it in a safe way over and over again. But I know nothing about horses, just what might work.
Aw thank you! With horses, the easiest and most straightforward way to desensitize them is just exposing them to their fear until they realize it’s fine. You don’t want to send them into a full blown panic, obviously.
The horses I had as a kid were afraid of tarps, so my mom would take the tarps and rub the horses with them until they stopped being afraid of them.
I plan on doing the same with Sandy and the bathing hose, but showing it to her close up before touching her body with it. She likes to examine things before she lets them touch her. She has to sniff and move her lips on each brush before I use it on her during grooming. She knows what they all are now, but she still wants to check them out when they come out of the bag.
Once she’s cool with the hose being around her and touching her while it’s off, I’ll do the same slow introduction to the hose while it’s turned on. Then start getting her used to getting sprayed off by spraying around her on the ground, then work up her body from her feet.
It’s gonna take forever, but my hope is that for just a single day, she’ll be super clean. I’m going especially slow with her and doing it in stages like this because she’s suuuuuper old and I don’t like to push her boundaries too much in one training session because of her age alone. Stressing out old things too much isn’t good for them lol.
She’s very lucky to have you to take care of her. If you ever get a video of her excited for her monthly hose down i hope you tag me in it.
As in I want to see it, not be mentioned in a tag. Don’t know how to edit on the app.
Lol okay. I’ll try to get a vid of her first successful bath and post it. I’m hoping that it can happen by August.
She’s a very good girl, and I’m happy to see she’s enjoying herself!
Sandy posts always make me smile 😊 Love to hear your updates and so grateful she has someone like you.
I love that you love posts about her! I love sharing her with people!
Wanna hear a dirty story?
A white horse rolled in some mud.
The dirtiest story on the planet
Random question does she wear that around her head all the time?
She only wears her halter when she’s out of her stall. Some people take halters off their horses when they put them outside to play and move around, but I don’t just in case something happens and I need to get control of her quickly.
She can be very skittish at times, so being able to get control of her quickly is important. She’s still getting used to being outside of her stall and interacting with people and being around other horses. She was in her stall without any interaction other than feeding, watering, and stall cleaning for a very very long time before another person and I started working with her.
She’s comparable to a neglected, stray dog that is learning how to be loved by humans. She’s doing remarkably well, but still has a long way to go with some things.
Interesting, thank you for answering, I hope she becomes less skittish for you overtime :)
You’re welcome! Thank you as well!
