Bombproof Your Horse

Rick Pelicano, Lauren Tjaden

From Shelf: Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, a selection

Desensitize your horse to: sudden loud noises; speeding trucks and motorcycles; blowing plastic bags; smoke and fire; flapping tents and flags; narrow bridges and water; bicycles and umbrellas and much more.

Every type of horse and pony, no mater how well trained, is at one time or another faced with objects or situations that are confusing, if not downright terrifying. As riders, we often simply just wait for this moment to happen - and the resulting frightening, out-of-control bolt, baulk, wheel around, or buck. We tend to expect this sort of reaction and believe that it comes with the territory. What we need to do instead - in order to avoid risking life and limb - is to train the horse to cope with these disturbances. In other words, we need to bombproof our horses. Sergeant Rick Pelicano, of the Maryland National Capitol Park Police, knows only too well how important it is for horses to be absolutely safe - bombproof - when confronted with unusual circumstances. For many years, he trained new mounted officers and their horses to withstand massive crowds, noise, chaos and everything that is thrown at them (sometimes literally) in police work. Although most riders don't anticipate having to deal with the challenges that police horses face, this method of training works just as well for average horses and accustoms them to incidents and unusual terrain such as back-firing cars, speeding motorcycles and trucks, plastic bags and flags on windy days, and everybody's favourite bugbear, crossing water or ditches. Working up to a performance over fifteen different obstacles including walking on mattresses, through piles of soft balls and balloons, and by umbrellas and road flares, Sgt. Pelicano presents his bombproofing programme in an easy-to-understand, logical, instructional manner, with many photos illustrating his step-by-step techniques. In addition, he offers sections on teaching basic necessary skills like walking on unusual surfaces, self-loading into the trailer, dealing with unknown odours, as wells as more advanced skills such as carrying flaps and riding in parades. He also presents a highly informative chapters, with instruction and advice not available elsewhere, on display formation riding - both in small and large groups.

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