Floating Problems

[Emma_G_NZ]

Can anyone help..
I have a horse which is really hard to get onto the horse float.He was great before he had an accident just before we got him when he fell over in the float.He has only been floated 3 or 4 times after this happened.
The fact is,I need some help on how to get him to relax a bit more,And to make things a little less time consuming.
Does anyone have some tips on how to settle him down and make things a bit quicker as I have a show in January and dont want to miss out on classes because he took an hour to float!
Thanks
Emma

[Anja]

Good-luck for the show emma

[cvb]

Hi Emma

Don't know if this is any use or not.

- is it the same float ? Try using a different one. My pony was turned over in a trailer when owned by someone else. Bless him, he would still load - but when you moved and went round a corner he would just panic. He obviously thought the trailer was going over. The solution was - to travel him in a lorry rather than a float. A bit drastic but much easier on pony and people's nerves.

- more or less space. Why did he fall over ? On one hand there is a school of thought which says you should give horses plenty of room so they can balance themselves. e.g. by removing any internal partition. On the other hand, there are people who suggest you should give them something to lean/brace against - by adding 'bumpers' to the float on the inside (big cushions at body height). You know the float and what happened - perhaps one of these options might help ?

- a horse I had on loan was quite nervous about travelling. The owners liked to use Bach's Flower 'Rescue Remedy' - a few drops on an apple. She was still nervous, so I am not sure I am 100% convinced - but some people swear by these remedies. So it might be worth a try.

[Emma_G_NZ]

Hi CVB,
I am not really sure what happened.We havent been using the same float.I would say it was due to rough driving though.The first time we floated him we pulled the partion out of the way and it still took him ages to get on then we put the board across so he could lean on it.(I wouldnt float him without one).The second time we had to move paddocks so we loaded in the paddock mate first and put the board across.I think it took the same amount of time to get on,Maybe a litter longer as there wasnt as much space.
Do you think I should try and load him first or second next time?As we will be floating with another horse?

[Anja]

Blaze likes some floats and dislikes others maybe you could try some herbal calming stuff you can get something called herbacalm from natrally equine ( sunny is having it right now) he is still a little nervis but he is getting better (( its a bit expenice)) ok beware my spelling is really bad!!! gotta go Anja ((I hope this helps emma) And you could also try feeding in the float