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[Rachel R]

Yet again I am having loading trauma with my horse. He has never had a bad journey, or bad experience travelling, and enjoys whatever he does when I take him out. I am 100% sure that he is not remotely afraid of anything. He usually goes in eventually, it is just a case of waiting. However, at 11 O'clock at night, after an hour of waiting it gets a bit ridiculous. If I attempt to use lunge reins etc, (Have tried most things in the past) he refuses point blank to go anywhere near the ramp and starts fighting back. If I let him take his time, he can be standing half on the ramp for hours without moving.

How do you think I should play this one? Sometimes he goes in in minutes, other times not. I have done the loading every day thing, and the feeding in the box, I have tried a pressure halter, but none of these make a blind bit of difference. Oh, he also tends to be worse away from home. Regular helpful comments from people that "He is taking the ****!" really do nothing to help, whilst I admit he is in control of this situation, how can I turn it around so that he really wants to go straight in without question?

Rachel

[minx]

i wonder if u've tried this method but just in case...

perhaps u could try walking into the trailer with u in front, leading him in? by walking in front u are telling him that u are the leader of ** 2-member herd. i can assure u that by doing so u are not at all trying to be dominant, and he will not feel belittled. members of a herd trust their leader's good intentions and obey instructions. if he is not at all afriad to go in then he's probably trying to show off his leadership skills. after standing there for a while, does he ever rotate his ears toward you/turn his head and look at you questioningly? if so he's asking u, "so who's the leader here?" tell him U ARE by walking towards him and standing right in front! and then proceed to lead him into the trailer.

be sure, and be firm. ** horse might test u out to see whether u are a gd leader that he's looking for. just a suggestion, hope this helps!

regards,
minx

[Rachel R]

Thanks Minx, I'll give it a try. Usually when he is standing half in, he is looking at anything but me - his reflection in a window, horses in the field, a bird going past........

[minx]

Mmmm... what about his ears?

if you ever feel that your horse is taking control of the situation, it usually shows that your horse is getting comfortable with, and enjoying his new status. he's looking at the birds, admiring himself, i think he's obviously enjoying it!!

u could perhaps, try this out in a training arena (so that he can move freely around).

a)your horse will usually exhibit his leadership qualities by walking or trotting around you with his head held high.

b)he'll expect you to follow, and if you don't he'll begin to question his own position & pay more attention to u (ears pivoted toward u OR looking at u OR possibly turning to face u).

c)at this moment, take the leadership position by physically putting yourself in a position of leadership. walk in front of your horse expecting him to follow.

i think it is better to try this out before u lead him into the trailer, with u in front. it might take some time, good luck!

minx

[Edited by minx on 30th Jun 2000 at 06:42 PM]

[minx]

sorry, just had to add this...

take note that u don't have to do that all the time (the one in the arena). once he sees u as the leader of the herd your mission is accomplished!

[lesley cox]

Rachel,
I can sympathis totally with the way you feel. My horse too was like yours if not worse. He is 17hh and big to go with it so theres no chance of bullying him. I have had him since he was a foal and he is now 11 so we are no strangers to each other. I invested a fortune in riding lessons but alas I couldn't take him any where. I tried to coax him in with food, I tried lunge lines, lunging whips, brushes and water all to no avail, the only thing that they suceeded in was frightening us both half to death.

The only thing, and I mean the only thing that worked for us was following a Richard Maxwell demo, a pressure head collar (yes I know you have tried this before but bear with me, it really can work) and a copy of the video that accompanys it. I set myself a target in May last year that Tim would load by September (for a particular show that we had qualified for). As you can see we gave ourselves plenty of time. I took the trailer into the school (so that if he did get away from me or act stupid that he wouldn't hurt himself). I took all of the partitions out of the trailer and opened the front ramp, so that he could see straight through. I did not let him turn away from the ramp at all I applied a little pressure on the headcollar and rewarded him with a stroke for each step he took forward. It took us 3 hours, I did not shout, I did not smack him (but how dearly I would have liked to). The next time we tried it took 2 hours. I did not ask him to just go in the once, this is where a lot of people go wrong, once he went in I asked him to come out and then go back in (any one can go in the once it is the next and the next time that is the hardest especially if you are at a show). The result by Septemper is that Tim went into the trailer first time. Coming home can sometimes be a different story so we drop the front ramp and go back to the way we practice, and it always works after about 5 minutes.

I am 100% confident that this method could work for you. Practice, practice, practice, use the pressure headcollar (yes he will rear up, but if you use a lunge line then he won't get away from you), don't start what you can not finish even if it takes all day, once in don't close every thing up, walk him through, back him out, stand him on the ramp, you tell him when he can go in, be patient and don't loose your temper, it will take a long time but once he's made his mind up to go in he won't go back on it.

good luck

Lesley

[ClaireC]

Have you tried cold water over his hindquarters, that always works for me. Either that or use a yard broom, bristles first to encourage him to move forward . With either of these methods make sure you have someone prepared to hold on tight and move quickly, and stay out of kicking range. Make sure you have two gates on the side of the ramp or, be up against a wall. Maybe the ramp is too steep?