Dislike of water (not fear!)

[Zer0]

Well, hands down, May is a priss and hates water :p
She can handle the hose (I've played the friendly game with it, and she lets it touch her everywhere) and she can handle a wet rag and water being sprayed on her with a spray bottle, but water sprayed on her with a hose? No way.

I've done advancing and retreating with the spray of the hose but it's not working. All she does is trot away or....it's very weird........

Eat.

If I were a prey animal, afraid of being killed, I wouldn't be eating. I'd be getting out of there! ;) So, I think I can figure that May isn't afraid of water, but doesn't like it touching her. And from that, I can figure that I can't make her like the hose spraying her, but she's going to need a bath sometime in her life. I've heard of people who have actually gone as far as scrubbing their horse with a sponge and giving them a bath that way, but it'd be so much easier with a hose.

Any advice would be great. Thanks. Tell me if you need any information :)

[CMR]

Perhaps it's the way the water hits her? Do you have a nozzle on it, or is it just a full blast that you're trying to spray her with? Maybe she would act differently with different settings on a nozzle. :)

[Skyhuntress]

The best way I was ever told was to keep a firm grip on the leadrope, spray the water directly by her feet, let her retreat and back away and continue spraying right at her feet (not ON the feet) so she gets used to the sound.

When she doesnt' respond to that anymore, take a really wet spunge and squeeze it over her back and let it dribble.

Once she's ok with that, tka the hose and start slowly dribbling water, gradualy get up to more power.

Takes a bit of time, buit it DOES work

[galadriel]

Frequently a nervous horse will graze. I've seen horses taken somewhere for the first time, who reach down and grab at the grass, look up, around, grab grass, etc.

When Fantasy was stuck in the fence, she was grabbing things with her teeth. I'm not sure if she was actually *eating* the grass she grabbed, but she did bite at it.

I think the motion of biting and chewing is reassuring or calming. If I can get a nervous horse to graze, I usually will. Getting them to graze usually makes them more easy to handle once they've been able to eat for a bit.

Soooo...a horse who eats when confronted with someothing sounds to me like a horse who is anxious, but not afraid for her life, and possibly even confident that you won't hurt her.

Have you ever been in a situation where you had her by a lead, started spraying her legs, and just followed her until she stopped moving? That's what I ended up doing with Fantasy after she trapped herself in the fence; she had swelling on all four legs (up to the stifles on the hinds) and NEEDED that hydrotherapy. She'd never stood for being hosed before, but I pretty much had to make her tolerate it, so was willing to keep spraying until she stopped moving or got so hyped and anxious that I couldn't hold the lead with just one hand.

As it happened, once she worked out that the spraying and the cold water didn't leave if she moved or danced around, and that it actually didn't hurt, she stood for me like a rock. It took a good few circles right at first, but once she got the idea, she was perfectly behaved about it. I was even able to give her a full-scale bath after a couple of days, and she just stood there, not even tied.

Ordinarily I won't go at a horse that way with something they'd rather avoid, but if they're just being prissy and it's something they NEED to get over, sometimes it's a workable method. Especially if the horse has been previously desensitized to the elements (like the hose, and the feeling of water, and of bring flysprayed, etc), then sometimes it just takes putting everything together and insisting that you get cooperation.

[Silvia]

Jessy used to dislike water coming out of a hosepipe. Puddles - fine, sponging -fine, hosepipe - fine. But turn it on... no way.
I tried for a couple of weeks last spring, getting her used to the sound, turning the water on and off without attempting to spray her, then slowly wet the ground around her,... but every time the water touched her she would pull back and walk away.
I had someone else try with her because they were stonger and could stop her pulling away quite so easily but it just scared her more.
So I let the subject drop after three weeks of near daily practise, deciding it was not worth the effort. I just sponged her down occasionally.
I started doing some NH-type groundwork with an instructor around that time to improve her loading. As a side effect I also found her respect for me improved quite a bit and I learned to handle her better.
Then winter came along and I got tired of sponging down muddy legs every day. So one day out of impulse I grabbed the hosepipe and starded to wash down her front legs. We had not "done" water in about six months. Jessy stared at me, looking very surprised but stood still for 30 seconds or so. When she tensed up I turned the water off before she pulled away and praised her. The next day I tried again. She would fidget a little, but I managed to wash down her front legs without her getting scared.
Now, a year later she still does not "like" being hosed down, but stands still for me. I can even tie her to a ring with baler twine and she does not pull away.
I am still not sure how the improvement came along. I think the break from it was necessary to stop our "argument" - I was getting quite mad at her and she was becoming more stressed and uncooperative every time I tried. It took time to forget the negative feelings that left us with. The groundwork helped us sort out our pecking order and I learned to read Jessys body language and how to correct her before things get out of hand.
But I am still not aware of doing anything radically different. Sometimes a process is so subtle that you don't notice it for a long time. That must have been the case here.
So no advice, really - except try to remain calm and patient and maybe spend some time working on trust and respect away from the "water discussion".
Good luck with your horse.:)