06/13/2026
Let’s talk about desensitizing horses. There are a lot of opinions out there, so I want to share my perspective.
I do believe desensitization is important, but how you do it matters immensely. I’ve never understood the mentality of tying a bunch of scary objects to a horse and letting them run around until they “stop reacting.” That doesn’t actually produce anything meaningful. More often than not, the horse becomes overwhelmed, shuts down and dissociates from the experience. They aren’t learning. They aren’t gaining tools they can apply to new situations later in life.
And then I hear people complain that the horse is still flighty, still reactive, still struggling with the same behaviors. Well yeah… The horse wasn’t taught how to think. It was just flooded. Trust me, I’m excellent at dissociating when I’m overwhelmed too 😅. It doesn’t equal growth.
The true goal of desensitization should be building confidence and teaching a horse to think.
That also means staying connected to them while they're learning. If I'm introducing something that could potentially get a bigger reaction, I often do it on a lunge line in a round pen. Not because I expect the horse to never react. It’s a horse and sometimes they're just gonna horse 😅. The difference is that I still have some influence if they hit the panic button.
I don't want to just turn them loose and let them run around blindly until they stop reacting. I want to be able to help them refocus, redirect their feet and remind them to think. My goal isn't to prevent every reaction. My goal is to help them learn what to do through and after it.
That means starting small. Letting them build confidence in manageable pieces. For example, I might introduce something as simple as a crumpled plastic bag in my hand. This is the important part, I reward curiosity. Maybe they look at it, maybe they sniff it. Then I back off. The reward might be a release of pressure, a scratch, or even a treat (with some horses, R+ can be really helpful and beneficial here). The key is this: reward that horse in the way they understand best.
We repeat. We keep it small. As soon as curiosity shows up, we reinforce it.
Eventually, that small item isn’t scary anymore. So we make it a little bigger. We increase the pressure gradually. It’s okay to ask a horse to step outside their comfort zone. Growth doesn’t happen inside it.
But there’s a difference between stretching comfort and flooding.
Our job is to teach horses to be curious, not to endure. To build confidence, not resignation. You might start with a crumpled bag in your hand, but before long, that same horse is confidently walking over tarps and facing all kinds of “scary monsters.”
This kind of confidence isn't natural to horses. They're prey animals. It has to be built thoughtfully and intentionally.
And honestly, that's exactly how God works with us. God doesn't abandon us the moment we're scared, overwhelmed or uncertain. He doesn't stand back and say, "Figure it out." He redirects us, guides us and walks with us through things that feel bigger than we are. He stretches us outside our comfort zones, but He doesn't leave us there alone. God doesn't remove every scary thing from our path. He teaches us how to walk through them. Growth happens outside our comfort zones, but growth rarely happens when we're flooded.
Holiness isn't our natural state any more than confidence is natural for a prey animal. Both are built over time, one step at a time, with good leadership, patience and grace.
That's the heart behind desensitization for horses and for us.
