Bombproofing, what in the world does that mean? I have been asked this question several times since I have started this website. Basically bombproofing means that you subject your horse slowly to different things that a horse may or may not ever come in contact with on his own.....

Some of the items to get a horse adjusted to are plastic tarps, balloons, loud noises, white plastic shopping bags, mud puddles, bridges, and mailboxes.

With my guys, I just started out by spreading out a blue tarp on the ground inside the round pen, and let one horse in to investigate this strange object. Lots of sniffing the item, snorting his distrust happened at first. Then I  quietly entered the pen, clipped on the lead rope to see if he would walk on it. Trav was unwilling to walk on the tarp,  so I placed some grain in the middle of the tarp for incentive, and that grain got Trav's attention. He walked right in the middle of the tarp to claim his reward. Racer could have cared less, he walked over that tarp like a champ.

Then it was just a matter of walking in a relaxed way around the round pen and back and forth on the tarp with each horse (not both horses at the same time). Once that was accomplished, I graduated to flipping the tarp up in the air, rattling it, hanging it on the side of the fence. Typical reaction for both horses was of course fleeing from the tarp monster, but after a few sessions they stood quietly while I did my tarp acrobatics. At the end of 30 days, I could place the tarp over both horses and they would stand still in a relaxed manner. I just took it easy with them, not pushing the contact, and over time, they became used to the presence of the tarp.

Once they started walking over it, I flooded it with water, and that was fun trying to get them to go through the dreaded water hole (even though it was a shallow water hole!)

As you can see from the picture above, Racer, my mustang-cross also got introduced to a helium filled balloon. If you look at his body language, you will see that he is curious, not scared. He had a great time playing with the darn thing, until one afternoon when he got up close and personal and popped it! Yes, he did flee after that.