Joey - The Horse Who WAS Scared of Bicycles

Joey's owner has been kind enough to let me put this video of him on my blog. He's a great little horse, but he had a fear of bicycles, which was proving a bit tricky with the spring and summer hacking along the country lanes.

Bicycles are just one of the many things we can help with fears and phobias of. We use, and teach equine owners, special techniques to help turn their horse's fear into curiosity. Horses are naturally very curious creatures. By engaging this curiosity, and by understanding and working with the psychology of the horse and knowing how they learn, we can help them overcome their fears.

Joey was scared of bicycles before our training session. This video taken part way through the session shows how our techniques had started to engage his curiosity in them. Our training uses a "step by step" process, helping the horse or pony build confidence every step of the way. By the end of the session, Joey was able to have bicycles come past him from the front or behind along the country lanes.

Joey's owner has been keeping up with his training and they are doing brilliantly. As well as being OK about bicycles now when they are out hacking, Joey has also gained confidence with mopeds. His owner used the same techniques with a horse lorry and Joey being curious about it eagerly loaded himself into the lorry.