Last month, one of my long-time favorite bloggers, Jennifer Buxton of Braymere Custom Saddlery, posted a series of an activity that the barn she boards her horse at: Desensitizing Party. I was greatly inspired to do a model horse version of this. So, in my dripping bedroom (it's been getting into the 100's this summer), I managed to pull off this photo shoot.
Enjoy!
The girls have been wanting to take their horses camping, but of course, the horses need to be ok with seeing a tent.
Serena: "It's ok, I dropped it."
Many of the horses at the riding school are on the naughty side when it comes to these types of activities, but some are (thankfully!) bombproof to give these girls a break between exchanging out horses.
Paint Me A Pepto can turn on a dime!
Stubborn Merida....
...always gotta sniff everything!
Not sniffing, more like eyeing the pool noodle.
Jenny: "What is she looking at?"
Jordan: "I think this G1 My Little Pony?"
La Biosthetique Sam is a semi-retired Eventing horse. He performs with the riding school now. So, he knows what this tarp is supposed to resemble.
Die tarp die!
Aurelius will rear at anything, so Serena has to be extra careful when handling him.
More sniffing...
Brighty's not amused.
Brishin got loose and headed straight for the pool noodle obstacle. Thankfully, he didn't destroy it!
Eh, no!
Nope, not that way!
Not fazed at all!
Well, looks like Oakheart is bombproof. He is doing extremely well for seeing all of this for the first time!
Next challenge: Get the stubborn pony entirely off of the tarp!
Oh, so tempting! I think he might be full on treats.
The "You've got to be kidding me?" look.
Between the low lighting in the arena and Enim's dark coloring, the camera did not want to get any clear pictures of her - except this one.
Here we go again...
BOING!!!
"I watch you, hooman - me no step!"
Naturally, Speck's Peanut wanted to go into the tent!
Ok, this time he looks like he's actually interested in the treat!
Jordan: "Wait! Let her go! Let's see what she does when I move the cart forward!"
*Paint Me tries to "Cut" or "Herd" the cart*
Serena laughs hysterically in the background.
Nope!
And nope again!
They did want to include the horse trailer, too, but there wasn't enough room in the arena. Additionally, I have no idea how they all (handlers and horses) were able to withstand this heat moving around like how they were. Though, come to think about it...maybe it was the heat that was making Brighty a little more non-cooperative than usual...
