Hot or Cold? If you have access to or any way to create some warm water (like using a bucket heater), I strongly suggest starting with warm water for a new or reluctant bather. One horse I know hates cold water: she dances and dodges and tries to avoid every drop of it, but she practically falls asleep at the hitching post if I use warm water. Even when the supply of warm water is limited, if I start the process with a couple of warmed-up buckets, then she's ok as the water gets cooler and cooler throughout the process.

This is not to say that you are going to have to indulge this horse forever in warm water; it's not always possible. But when you are starting (or re-starting) his bathing education it's best to pick your battles. Make the experience as pleasant as possible.

One easy way to get warm water from a cold hydrant or tap is by using black hose. Stretch it out in the sun, turn on the hydrant (use a sprayer, of course, so that you can control the water flow) and let the sun warm up the water sitting in the hose. As you use it up, each time you put the hose down to scrub the horse, the fresh supply heats up. Note: the water can actually get too hot, so never turn the spray on your horse without testing it first.

Is your horse ready to be bathed?

-- Can he stand tied for more than 10 minutes?
-- Does he accept the hose moving around his hooves and legs?
-- Is he ok with water being sprayed near him (not on him, yet)?
-- Does he allow you to touch him anywhere?

If the answer to any of these is "no," then you're not at bathing square one yet. If he can't stand tied for long enough (and 10 minutes is not nearly long enough - it's just a start), if he panics at seeing or feeling the moving hose, if the sound of spraying water is alarming, or if there are still places on his body he doesn't trust you with, he's simply not ready for the compounding of all these experiences in a bath. Don't even try: you'll both be unhappy.

For suggestions on tying, please see the separate section "Fit to be Tied." (That section is currently under construction, please bear with me.) Please spend some time improving your horse's tying skills before you move on to doing things that call for him to be tied.

If there are areas on your horse's body that he won't let you touch, you have a very fundamental item to address. See the section "A Touchy Subject" (under construction) for some ideas on how to proceed. I'll make an exception for ear shyness, although I'd rather see you address the ear problem than the bathing. Severe ear shyness is usually the result of abuse, and is not necessarily an expression of a horse's general unwillingness to cooperate with you. But in a horse who has not been abused, an unwillingness to let you touch him anywhere you choose shows he doesn't trust you enough. If he doesn't trust you, address that lack of trust first. Everything else comes second.

Break it Down

Hose Acceptance: Some people say that horses get scared when they see a hose because it reminds them of a snake. Most of the horses I've known have never seen a snake. But they have seen hoses. And hoses are usually lying around, or coiled on a keeper, quite still. For the hose to suddenly develop a life of its own, start moving around, even bump into them, must be pretty startling.



Select a safe area (I've brought horse and hose into the arena so that we had a soft surface and I didn't need to worry about the horse breaking loose). If you're on someone else's property (boarding) make sure that the owner is okay with your use of the selected area for this purpose. Make sure that a worst case scenario will not result in injuries to you, your horse or innocent bystanders.



Do some basic desensitizing. I suggest that the horse not be tied for this at first. It will only increase his panic if he feels completely trapped with a menacing object. Use your 12' rope so he can get some distance, but he cannot get away.



Hold him facing the coiled up hose on the ground. Take one end of the hose and begin uncoiling and moving it. Watch him closely - you want to stretch the boundary of his comfort zone without letting him leap into panicked-flight mode. So as you're moving the hose closer to him, watch his reactions. When you see him shifting his weight away, or when he starts actually moving his feet to escape, stop moving the hose. Remove the pressure. Move the hose away - carefully - this may alarm him as well! If it does, just stop moving it entirely.



If you were able to stop the hose before he actually moved his feet, great. Praise him for that. That's exactly what you want: he needs to separate his alarm from his instinctive flight reaction - even if only for 2-3 seconds. He needs to learn that he can actually BE alarmed and NOT instantly flee - and still survive.



If he moved his feet before you were able to stop pressuring him, that's ok. You need to see what's going to happen earlier in the process. Perhaps you need to slow down the movement of the hose to give you more time to see what he's doing.



For example, if he has put his head down to check out the hose, chances are that his head will come up and his weight will shift backwards onto his hindquarters before he ever picks up a hoof. And all of that can happen in 3/4 of a second, so to give yourself a chance, take it slow here.



Once he stops, give him a couple of moments to recover. Start moving the hose again, coming as close to him as you can before he attempts to bolt. The idea is to be able to reward him for not bolting, so you need to stop the pressure each time just before he moves, if you can. And you need to increase the pressure - bringing the hose closer, touching him with it, letting it bang into his legs, etc. - as he gets more and more used to it.

Let him get used to hose near his hooves.

Don't forget to get the hose between his legs, touching two legs at once, up under his belly, flipped over his back. You cannot anticipate everything, but the more experiences he has, the better.

You may be surprised at how quickly he becomes accustomed to the hose. Horses are very alert to even the tiniest changes in their environments, but they acclimate almost as rapidly. I believe it's in their nature as prey animals: being alert to every change makes them harder to catch, but if they spent all their energy startling and shying away from every fallen branch or new family of rabbits that turned up, they'd be exhausted-an easy meal for any passing wolf. So they acclimate quickly to the new item once it proves harmless.

Eventually he won't care where the hose touches him.

Remember to work on both sides of the horse. They do not integrate things they see on one side or the other the same way we do - a horse may require seeing a new object out of both eyes before he accepts it. Some are particularly difficult about this, seeing a whole new danger out of their right eye that they have completely accepted seeing out of their left eye; some are extremely fast to put the two things together as one. Always give your horse a chance to see things as thoroughly as he needs to, even if it seems silly to you.

This horse is not ready to be bathed...what was she thinking?!

Spraying Water: If your horse is frightened of the spraying water, use the same method described above. This time, the safest place has to have adequate drainage. Again, someplace where the horse does not have to be tied (but can't escape onto a busy road) is best.

You may need a helper in order to start spraying the water at a distance the horse considers safe, just because that distance may be greater than your arm's length. As with the hose, don't chase him with the spray. Just bring it closer, a little at a time, as he'll tolerate. Give him plenty of time in between distances to get comfortable with his progress ("soak time").

Once he's used to the sight and sounds of the water spraying near him, it will be easier to spray it on him.

Can We Bathe Now? Finally?

Ok, let's say your horse is now ok with all of the above - no problems tying, moving the hose around, spray coming out of the hose...except onto him!



Start at the bottom.



Turn the spray on (use a gentle shower setting on your nozzle) away from the horse, then move it politely toward his front hooves. Without being abrupt, start spraying one toe of one front hoof.



Just as before, see if you can move the spray away just before he moves his foot away. And move the spray away from him completely - not onto his other hoof!



From this he learns that (1) he got wet but it didn't hurt and (2) the spraying stopped and he didn't have to run away from it.



Gradually work your way up his legs and extending the time you have the water on him. Don't forget real pauses in between sprays - the idea is to have him be calm, so give him time to calm himself. And don't be stingy with praising him and stroking him when he shows you he's really trying.



Be aware that this is not just one afternoon's work; well, not necessarily. Your horse may progress quickly and be a perfect angel the whole time, but you may want to set smaller goals: your first goal might be to be able to spray that one front toe for a count of three without him moving his hoof away. Then drain and roll up your hose and take your horse to the nearest turnout pen for a romp. Start again the next weekend and you'll be amazed at how much he remembers....everything.



I did have one experience with a horse who was so quick to get her hoof off the ground I couldn't begin to catch the movement in time to get the spray moved. She wasn't so much afraid of the water as disliking it. Here's what I did: when she pulled her hoof up, I did follow her with the spray, spraying that hoof that she was holding up in the air, until she put it down. The instant she put it down, I moved the spray away. She caught on pretty quickly that trying to get out of the way meant being endlessly sprayed, but if she cooperated and stood still, it would be over eventually. Then little by little, I extended the time I sprayed her once she'd set the hoof down, so that a little spraying could eventually become a whole bath.



Be patient. Horses have their own timetable. Don't expect to cover huge amounts of territory all in one shot. Reward every attempt on your horse's part to understand what you want, and he will try harder and harder for you.

Listen first, whisper later...