10/20/2025
To be effective, horse trainers have to discover where the thresholds of every horse they train are, and every horse is different. A threshold is a boundary or point at which a new state, condition, or action begins.
When I get a new prospect my first goal is to understand where their thresholds of fight or flight and attention span are. To do this I provoke the horse and observe their reactions. One tool I use for this is a string of various pot lids from a thrift store.
To make this tool you need a three foot length of large baling twine and some old pot lids. You drill a hole in the lids in every pot lid for the twine and then sting the lids like beads with a knot tied on each side of every lid to keep them evenly spaced apart.
The pictures of horse trainers show them desensitizing horses. The trainer on the left is giving the horse plenty of space to go past the umbrella, therefore this is not very intense desentization. The trainer on the right is more aggressive or provocative, waving the tarp at the horse's face.
Note that both the trainers have control of their horses using long reins or lines and a long lead or lunge line. Both demonstrate very common desensitization techniques. Both are mostly visual desentizing methods, as is the common use of flags.
Because horses have 35% better hearing than humans, I like to use a lot of sound techniques when I train. I use voice at all the steps in training both for correction and for reward. I also use a wiffle ball bat, a very safe child's toy, instead of a whip for corrections because of the sound it makes. A wiffle ball bat doesn't hurt a horse but it makes a disturbing almost metallic like sound on impact. Beware, there are red or blue knockoff wiffle ball bats but they make ineffective thud sounds. Avoid them and stick with the authentic yellow bats.
The string of pot lids is a sound based training tool. I learned about it from Leroy Fisher, an Amish horse trainer I greatly respect. He lived near me in PA and moved years ago to the Mohawk Valley near Utica NY to farm. If you know him, tell him I said Hi.
With all horses, particularly young ones, I do not have the horse under my control with a lead, lunge line or long lines. I have them at liberty in a round pen. This is because I am more interested in building a relationship of trust with them and the desentizing is a secondary goal.
With the horse in the round pen, I enter quietly carrying the string of lids. Because the prospect is new, they usually keep their distance. I get about ten or fifteen feet away from the horse that is standing watching me and I gently toss the string of pot lids to the ground away from me and the horse to the side of both of us. The first lid toss always sends the horse into a leap away from the lids, not away from me. I remain standing still. The horse stops, looks at the lids and then looks at me most of the time.
The point I want the horse to get is something shocking just happened and they are OK, and I am still standing there. I then crouch down to the ground facing away from the horse and wait for the horse's curiosity to draw them to me. Most do. Some come up and smell me.
I get up slowly, and I quietly pick up the string of lids. I repeat the lid toss and all that follows as before. I stand closer to the horse when I repeat the lid toss, which is a little closer to the horse each time. While this is desentization, my main purpose is to send the message that "I am still here and everything is OK. No one is getting hurt. We are in this together."
Each toss of the lids desensitizes and lowers the horse's threshold of fear of the sound. Because this is done at liberty, the flight impulse is stronger than fight. I want flight and don't want to cross the horse's threshold into a fight response. However, some horses will respond to this drill with fight at some point, which is to be avoided. When a horse goes to fight, I have gone too far and crossed their fight-flight threshold.
During this process I constantly look for signs of diminished attention span because I do not want to push the prospect into their fight mode from the lids. To gauge where the horse is at in terms of potential fight, I will grab a handful or a pinch of the horse's skin to measure their stress level. Horses getting ready to fight tighten their skin to limit another horse's ability to bite them. They also begin to pin their ears back. A horse is more apt to go into fight mode when stressed, so, we take breaks when their stress is approaching their fight threshold to restore their attention.
I do not think of this lid tossing process as pressure release, but rather as sharing a stressful experience with a horse while I am the steady predictable leader. This is the "I'm still here" school of horse training. It's leadership combined with friendship.
Later on, after trust and friendship begins to be established, I will use the pot lids again but this time it is more focused on desensitization. By now the horse and I know and understand each other. I will then drop the lids on the ground while I stand next to them. I will toss the lids under the horse. I will lay the sting of lids across their back and eventually toss the lids on to their butt until they do not respond.
Measuring a horse's flight-fight and their attention span takes time and experience to learn and understand. If you try this technique and have little understanding of the fight-flight and attention span thresholds, you have to be very careful not to trigger the fight impulse while you escalate the process. Be a sensitive leader. Stay safe while you stand your ground as the leader. Remember it's the "I'm still here" method. Don't be a threat, be there present in the moment with the noise and they will want to be with you, the steady leader.
