Training horses to be comfortable in water can be very difficult. There are many trainers out there that would be happy to sell videos to teach a multi-step method to make a horse "want" to cross water. I have no interest in trying to convince myself that I am a better person for acquiescing to what the horse "wants" to do. I am only interested in showing a horse that he will not be injured by doing what I asked and helping the horse loose his fear of the unknown by making it known.
Our horses spend a great deal of time in deep mud and heavy water. A horse that has not been shown that water is no threat is a horse with very serious limitations. My best success in dealing with this problem is to simply lead the young horse through the water while I am on a calm, experienced horse. Sometimes we do this alone, sometimes with a group of riders. It seems to work a bit better with a group of riders, provided that the riders all are experienced enough to remain calm if the young horse show fear.
For much of the year we have a section of woods path that is submerged for nearly half of a mile. At the conclusion of calmly riding through that water with many other horses water ceases to be a problem.
It is that simple--make herd dynamics work for you as a trainer instead of trying to over come them.
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