A winter rug and a summer fly mask may look incongruous, however it's an ideal time of year to be teaching a horse to accept a rug. Maverick wasnt quite sure for a while but by using touch and move away on both sides of his body and then placing it over him very gently before gradually fitting it, he was fine. It was important that he was still as it was taken off as we didn't want to reinforce any fear by removing it if he was moving away. So, if he moved as the rug was lifted off part of his body, it would be put back down again until he stopped moving. This all worked well. Before fastening the back straps, I had gently placed a rope around his back legs and just moved it about in order to assess what his reaction was likely to be. It was also a good time to find out that Maverick has outgorwn the rugs that were intended for him and a short trip to the rug shop will be required!
