Hi Dawng,

Getting your horse happy with a canoe on a river will be the same as getting your horse happy with lorry's on a road.

If you can, never turn your horses head away from it, all this does is tell the horse it's something to fear and move away from, much better to chace after it.

Having a static canoe in the paddock is a great idea, once your horse is happy to approach and sniff it, tie a longish piece of string to the canoe and get the aid of a helper. With you on the end of a lead rope take your horse about 15 to 20 mtrs from it and turn and face it. Get your helper to pull the canoe along the ground from a distance. Once your horse is happy with it moving ask you horse to walk after it, if a horse can chase something away it can't be that fearfull. If you can't borrow a canoe make something that looks similar (a few cardboard boxes taped together will do).

No-one REALLY knows how or what a horse sees so the colour of it may not be that big an issue. If you're sure the colour is an issue, paint the boxes for each and every colour of canoe he/she might encounter, or if you can borrow a canoe wrap it in a sheet of what ever colour.

Have a go at natural horsemanship. Done properly it will create an amazing bond, your horse will really learn to trust you and trust your judgement of scary things. Teach her to expect the unexpected. The more weird and wonderful stuff you can desensitise to her, the better she will be when strange things pop up on hacks. Things can include wheelie bins, dustbins, umbrellas, waving flags, flapping tarpaulins (and on the ground - get her walking over it), make archways covered in carrier bags. Every time you introduce something new make sure you have her in an enclosed space, on a long line, don't froget hat and gloves. Have the weird thing out and ready and walk her in and past it. If she starts to get nervous, halt her and calm her then start again. If she is staring right at it turn her slightly away and walk past it from a dfferent angle. If you have a helper then you could be the one to stand and they bring the scary thing to you. If she gets scared, get your helper to walk away and you get her to follow. Then stop and ask your helper to bring it closer again. basically, any time she gets worried you tell her it's ok, wait for her to calm and go again. You may have to take baby steps, or you could cover your horse in plastic bags from the first moment withour her even flinching. Each horse is different.

As for the specific canoe issue, I'd recommend leading her out as horses are generally calmer when being led as they are following your lead. If you're on board they've got to figure stuff out for  themselves more (it's odd, but my pony is fab whilst being led on her own, but far worse when I'm on board!). Ask around for a helper with a canoe or try and acquire/hire yourself one. It may have been t he fact that it crept up silently that scared her (rather than it being a canoe), so get her facing it as it approaches. If she's fine with that then start working with it coming from behind. That's something you could work on back home as well. If she's fine with weird stuff, try approaching her quietly from behind and having odd things suddenly appear from behind her. Obviously keep well away from the back end as you do so, but the theory here is the same as before - teach her to expect the unexpected.

I hope this has helped, let us know how you get on!

Any chance you could borrow one?  I found introducing thing to Rosie in her stable , then field, then lunging her past it and building it up to riding her really worked and now rosie isn't fazed by anything including a childrens bouncy castle full of toddlers screaming!