nervous heifer questions.

[gabbyellepaige]

okk, i have some questions on how to make a heifer less nervous.
mine is perfectly fine around me but whenever other people come around she refuses to walk.
she used to be really skittish even around me too up until a couple of weeks ago.
ive had her for almost 2 months, and we pulled her straight from the pasture.
my first show is in september, and i can walk her, set her up, and everything.
but that wont be of any use when i go to show and people are hopping around in the stands and she runs away from me.
so any advice on what i can do to make her less jumpy?

 

[KNERSIE]

Bearing in mind I show because its a neccesary evil in the seedstock business..... but she needs to spend more time being tied up for long periods at a time with lots of different people touching her while she is tied up short, untie and walk her with the people still there. You need to get her to the point where she WANTS to walk and KNOWS she cannot get away from the halter.

 

[COWgirls]

Had one of those, too. So much better now, but it took 3+ months to get her out of it. We took her to an early show with our others and went through all the motions with her except showing her. That helped tremendously. We also made sure to have lots of different people over at our barn when we worked her. We also worked her with all kinds of everyday commotion going on...the girls fighting, tractors being worked on, the grass being cut, etc... Under all conditions, we focused on the person working her remaining calm and "loving" on her a bunch. She's gotten so much better that another junior was able to show her for us a couple of weeks back because we had more than one in the same class. You could tell she was the most nervous in the class, but she did well. We've just gotten back from working ours for the day and were laughing about all the tough times we've had with her. We certainly understand where you're coming from. Best wishes

 

[aussie_cowgirl]

What Knersie and COWgirls said.

I used to tie balloons and such around in the yard, anything that would move. Wherever you work her you can use a radio/stereo to have constant noise around her. Washing and blow drying will quieten her down also. Try to get more people around and involved in your training.