The advantage to introducing objects to your horse will become apparent when you ride him on trails, or take him to a show. He will be steady and obedient, even when an excited child lets his balloon go in the crowd and it slowly floats past your horse's nose.  Makes a great impression on the judges when all the horses in the arena are spooking but yours. On Racer's first-ever trail ride, the lead horse decided to go off the trail and up this hill. Racer was second in line at that time, and so off we went. Madras, the lead horse, stepped into a grounded yellow jacket nest and they swarmed. Horses took off, and Racer wanted to flee, but I asked him not to, and we very quickly walked up the hill, when I dismounted and found about 5 bees on his tail! Larry, the trail boss rode up with this look of amazement on his face and asked me how old Racer was again? I told him three years old, and he shook his head and said he had never seen such a controlled horse under those circumstances! I was so proud!

Be creative with what you show your horse. The other day I was at Wal-Mart and I saw this huge balloon sculpture of a six foot high ghost. It was $25.00.  I was so tempted to buy it and bring it home and see what the horses thought of it. But $25.00 will buy two wormers and that was the important issue of the day.

Bombproofing is indeed worth it, and it can be fun. You never want to force your horse to accept something foreign, let him discover it on his time frame and not yours. The end result will be a steady horse on trails and a calmer horse in shows. Do the lessons in a controlled setting, and be sure there is ample room for you to get out of the way, if the horse explodes on impact. After all, they call these lessons "Bomb"-proofing for a very good reason.