It's not about the water

The phrase "It is not about ....." is heard regularly from the lips of Pat and Linda, but this week it really hit home to us. Our horse, Bonitao, has always had trouble getting his feet in water. He absolutely refused to go through large puddles and definitely not into lakes. Ritchie has worked on this from time to time over the years, and whilst it got better, it was still not a favourite activity until this week.
We are going to a play day on Sunday at Larisa Tasker's yard and so not wanting to wait until we are already late for the show Ritchie has spent a fair bit of time trailer loading him. Another activity he is not over keen on, the issue being trusting a predator to enter the trailer when he is in there to tie him up. So patiently Ritchie has built his trust in her and it is now much better than before.
A couple of days ago she was trailer training in the field at Shana near to the water feature to which she was paying no attention at all. After an hour or so of trailer training she took him to the water feature for a drink. He was a little hesitant but still drank from it. Then he put a foot in it, very unusual. Then two feet and started splashing the water. At this point another horse was brought to the water and happily walked in and started splashing around at the far end. A few minutes later, with some well timed encouragement from Ritchie he had happily joined the other horse and was having great fun pawing with his front legs and making everyone around wet.
What caused this change ? Well I believe that the trailer training had made him more trusting in Ritchie’s leadership, and the fact that the water had never been a focus, just an afterthought, probably helped as well. Thus it was the trailer training that made the difference and made the entry to the water "Not about the water" but about his trust in Ritchie.

The next day I took him for a longish hack out and on returning to the yard took him to the water for a drink and to see if he would enter with me on his back. Well he was reluctant to start, but I made the water a place of rest and when asking kept my focus on a point beyond the water, not the water itself. Soon we had two feet in, but not for long. As soon as he showed interest in the water I took him away for a trot, then brought him back again for a rest, but kept my focus on the far side. I had just decided that we had achieved enough for the day with two feet when he suddenly walked calmly right into the water and started playing with it as the previous day. Had he noticed my sudden relaxation about the water as a focus ?
We stayed there for around 5 minutes and then I asked him to leave. He was actually slightly reluctant to come out !!
What an informative, interesting couple of sessions !