A lot of people don't bother to desensitize their horses to dogs, and then panic if they meet one out on a hack,

I desensitize my horses to everything I can find, including throwing footballs at them, just in case, and I have never had a problem with dogs when out riding as my horses are calm and the dogs tend to stay calm.

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Owner of:
Cooper- 2 year old Dalmatian
Darcey- 10 month old Dalmatian
Harry- 4 year old Springer
Becka - 16 year old Border Collie

Nags Equestrian -Handmade beta biothane synthetic bridles and dog equipment to your requirements.

I've got a dog school and my horse is living in a field next to our training field, so he sees lots and lots of dogs. He is ignoring them mostly, sometimes comes over to have a sniff. He is 13 months old now.

We use him and our sheep to socialise dogs with them so they know not to chase or bark at them. And all dogs are well behaved with horses and sheep now and my horse is bomb proof when it comes to doggies

This is the best thing to but but some horses are just egnerally spooky, like mine!! You can do things over and over and she still jumps at any little thing because thats just how she is so its a matter of learning to live with it. I always continue to try and get her to desensitize to things and she is bomb proof, she is just spooky and tends to jump out of her skin if something scares her (on the spot though) That to me wouldnt make her any less a bombproof horse.
Just something I have to live with!!

Typical thoroughbred. I think some breeds react differently to others. It's mostly the TB's at our yard that spook at dogs etc. However they are bred to run and they are naturally more instictive. In my opinion NO horse can ever be 100% bomb proof, nobody will ever erase natural instict out of the horse. Even Police horses have there spooks at times. It's just something we have to accept as said above from Melx.

I dont think anyone should even considering buying thoroughbred unless they are willing to live with querks like this!! lol It is just typical of the breed!!
My Star might be a bit of a idiot at times but I love her and wouldnt change her

My horses are used to dogs running around and bashing into their legs but they can still be frightened by a dog that moves fast or appears from nowhere and no doubt if the dog chased them while they were reacting they would run off in fright.

Dont forget no amount of desensitising can make a horse totally bombproof. I have one that is terrified of blue flowers and will often stop dead and refuse to go by a dark patch on the road, yet he is totally safe with big obvious things. A person knelt down in a garden weeding or something can totally freak a horse as it is an unfamiliar shape. Basically anything slightly different can terrify even the calmest horse - they are weird.

We have a tb on our yard that spooks at his own shaddow. It's so funny, you wonder what on earth is going through his mind. Everything spooks this horse, grass blowing in the wind, his feed bucket, water being poured, insane. However he's like that on the yard and on hacks but !00% on the ball when he's jumping. Weird, you can put a the most spooky jump infront of him and he's not bothered. Very strange. If only he could talk.

I hate to sayu it but Star has spooked at her shaddow a fair few times haha Last week I rode at about 8 in the evening and where the sun was starting to go down her sahddow was more obvious than usual, we were walking around the school with her snorting at it O and another funny thing she done the other morning, one of the girls was cleaning out the water trough and she the water had been chucked out onto the floor in the gate way, I went to put her back in the field and what did she do? Jumped the puddle haha!! She must have jumped it a good 3 ft too!! She most definitely isnt all there

Although since getting my new saddle for some strange reason she has relaxed soooo much!! I think maybe its because where I am more comfotable in my seat I am automatically more relaxed and she is then more relaxed!

She may be a bit weird but I love her