Loading - a step further but am I any nearer? Advice again please!

[DITZ]

Sorry to bore you all again with my incessant friggin loading problems!

OK, had practice session tonight trying to do it without help as I cannot always rely on someone being around to help me by putting the back ramp up.

Background : have treble front/rear loader which stubborn horse has previously had no problems entering but now refuses to cooperate, predominantly going sideways off back ramp or backing out if he does get in.

Tonight managed to get him in all the way, eating his tea and tied him up. All OK. Went to get out of jockey door and he pulled back snapping twine an out he went.

Tried second tactic which was to hook feed bucket over breastbar and 'send' him in. Fine no problems. Moved bucket to hang off front door so that he is all the way in, again no problems. Go to close door (and almost had it upright) and he backs out again. Not wishing to get crushed under door and horse I dropped it down again - and out he came.
Evidently he isnt the type of horse who feels the ramp against his backside and moves forwards!

Am I doing the right thing here and is there any actual progress being made?

I believe that this is a simple matter of a battle of wills with him (the likes of which I have had before) and am trusting that once 'dominance' has been established we will be OK. Just hope that its me that emerges the victor!!!!!

[galadriel]

You got him on the trailer, and multiple times :) That's great. This is progress from your last time.

I think you need to teach him "stand," and get him to the point where he will "stand" no matter what you're doing--if you walk away, if you're walking around him, etc. Then, once he's in the trailer, you can tell him to stand--and snap "Stand!" at him if he starts to move. Once you're sure he knows *to* stand when you tell him to, you can reasonably expect him to do it.

I have a discussion of teaching "stand" here:
http://trainersnotes.lorienstable.com/voice_commands/stand.html

But in the meantime--remember, this is progress! It is :)

[DITZ]

thanks mate, feel better for that. the annoying thing is that in hand he acts the perfect gent. i took him for a 4 mile walk in hand a couple of days ago with not a foot out of place. Methinks he knows what he is doing!

[Kylie Chamberlain]

The owner of the place where i agist my horse is a master at groundwork and retraining horses with floating issues and he has taught me heaps.
You start by asking the horse to put one foot on tailgate/ramp, then two, then three (that one's tricky and finally four. You do everything really slowly and allow the horse to stand half in-half out while he susses out the float.
Anyways you have to always remember this "Act like you've got all day and it will take five minutes, but act like you've got five minutes and it will take all day.


Anyway i don't know if i have explained his meathods really well, but if you want more info.

Good luck with it:)

[DITZ]

Hi Kylie, thanks for the reply. I was kind of doing that yesterday without knowing it really. I was stood in the trailer and with his feed bucket behind me was holding a handful out to him and rewarding him with a mouthful everytime he took a step forwards, even if it was a fairystep!

I am proud to say that I managed to load him tonight all by myself, including walking out of the trailer round the back and doing the back ramp up. I even repeated the exercise 3 times just to make sure it wasnt a fluke.

Think we are getting there!