Horse Wears a Blindfold, Is Totally Chill About It
Next time someone confuses your fly mask for a blindfold, show them this video.
Cassie Sprenger of Complete Equestrian Company, a training and horsemanship farm of Lakeville, Minnesota, was recently challenged by her sister (who operates Complete Canine) to work with a horse blindfolded — just to see if she could do it. Taking away a horse’s sense of sight requires a huge amount of faith and trust on the horse’s part: check out this video and see for yourself how much this horse believes in his rider. (Must be logged in to Facebook to view.)
Blindfolded! CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! Cate from Complete Canine challenged me to do something with a horse blindfolded. Thanks to the handy dandy Hay Chix swag/bandana, I was able to blindfold my horse and have him do some cool moves!Watch him lead swap!Watch him leg yield at the canter!Watch his flying lead changes! All blindfolded! Thank you Cate for challenging me. Tomorrow I’ll challenge you back!Love, Cassie!
Posted by Complete Equestrian Company on Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Yeah, I’d say there’s some trust and faith in that relationship.
Now, we don’t recommend that you run out to the barn and slap a blindfold on your horse to test the strength of your relationship: if we had to guess, we’d say that Cassie probably worked her way up to going “totally blind” on this horse. It’s also important to note that she’s riding in a groomed arena — we advise you not to try this out on the trail. (We also advise you to #mindyourmelon.)
While you may shrug your shoulders and wonder what’s the point of blindfolding your horse at all, consider that working with a horse to accept a blindfold can be a useful ground-training technique not only to build trust but also to help desensitize your horse to have things over his head and blocking his sight. (Ever had a horse get stuck with a blanket over his head?)
What do you think, Horse Nation? Ever tried blindfolding your horse before? Have any stories to share?
Go riding!
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