When a Chifney doesn't work......

orbvalley

orbvalley

Well-Known Member
Jan 15, 2008
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France, South
Loading my 6 year old lass today w had a chifney on standby. Things didn't go well - rearing repeatedly - and I told:oops::eek: my RI to go and get the Chifney (thinking it would be the magic solution:rolleyes:). Tried numerous times again with the chimney to no avail and to my astonishment no better!! I couldn't see any difference at all to just using the head collaro_O She reared and f*'d :eek: about just the same as without it. We did eventually get her loaded and fortunately were all safe and sound. My RI says she's not frightened just stubborn, which I agree with.:(
Question is how to get over it...........??

PS she was trained as a 3 year old to load with no probs although never closed in nor moved in the van but her "adult" probs are that she rears up before being fully in the van anyway:(
 
What gets me is that I'd got her in twice but my RI told me to back her out again to desensitise her. I don't think it was the moment to start training her being that she'd already reared up spun and run off several times.
I'll spend some of the summer training her with the van in order to hopefully move her again in 6 months time without the same palaver. It wasn't very nice at all + it gets dangerous. If I can't bring her round I was thinking of getting the vet to dope her in the future:oops::oops::oops: Fortunately she doesn't have to move very often.
And to top off the weekend we went out for a balade on Saturday (RI and a young rider) came across a field of cows which freaked Cocaine out and turned her into a snorting flame breathing dragon. She span and tanked off and the other 2 horses followed her. I'm kind of used to it as she always freak out at field animals but it was the first time my RI had witnessed her doing it. She was more than a tad shocked at how bad she is and how powerful she gets:(
 
We tried a chifney on Jack years ago and it made no difference to him either, in fact I found it quite upsetting to watch. He point blank refused to load and reared repeatedly. We know from other stuff that Jack doesn't like being confined so think it was more than just stubbornness in his case though.

We took the trailer to our back garden and got in our RI to help. She spent a couple of hours with him on a lunge line asking him to walk in and when he wouldn't she made him work on the end of the line until in the end he got the idea that getting on the trailer was the easier option - little by little of course, a foot on the ramp, allowed a rest and then being backed off and starting again etc until she got him going straight through (should have said we had the front door open too so he could see straight a way out) and eventually progressing to actually standing on the trailer. At this point we decided the trailer was really a bit too small for Jack, due to his length rather than his height and we didn't want to push it so we didn't fasten him in.

After that we got the lorry which has a big space in the back for horses (no living, YO calls it a hunting box). When we tested it on Jack to see if he liked it better I let the YO's OH lead him on so my lack of confidence didn't get in the way, but something I had never seen before, his friend stood behind with a handful of gravel and just as Jack hesitated he threw it over his bum. Jack shot up the ramp and stood in the wagon looking a bit surprised, as was I!

After all that we never took Jack out :rolleyes:
 
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Cross posted - wow Cocaine really is a handful isn't she? At least your RI has seen first hand what she's like and hopefully won't think you're exaggerating in future!
 
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Phew well I'm glad to hear that its not only me that finds it upsetting @Bodshi - thanks for your post. I think if someone threw something at mine to get her in she'd totally lose the plot:eek:! My RI took to trying to push/encourage her forwards with the lunge whip but (as I predicted quietly to myself) it just made her kick out at the back as well as rearing:oops: Once she gets the thought in her head that she's not going to do something that really is game over. Strangely she's lovely to ride in the school both on the flat and jumping thank goodness otherwise I really would start to think she was too much.
I've just got back from the new RS where I lunged her and took her round the grounds for a mooch round - she was so like a little lamb I felt sorry for her:rolleyes:
 
Mine can be tricky to load. I have to load her in a bridle with a dually halter over the top. That works pretty well for us. It's stressful though! With her she's just a little devil on the ground really. On Sat, I took her for XC and dressage training, and she broke away from the trailer while I was having a wee! Luckily she just went up to the dressage arena which was where we were headed anyway, and she waited for me there and I don't think anyone really noticed she was loose apart from me! Little b*gger though!
 
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I don't like chifney's (but have used them), never really seen them to be great for anything. I don't think there is really a horse that can't be trained to load/travel as long as they haven't had a terrible experience before so I would be inclined to hold of on the vet doping until you have had time to work with her :)
I've had some easy loaders and some far less than easy, Bo used to rear on the ramp if you put too much pressure on him and wouldn't load if you didn't put enough on him, it took a while to find the exact right combo of pressure for him. Jess is very good now I have her figured, she will walk to the ramp and normally put 2 front feet on the ramp but then stops, she always needs 20-30 seconds at the bottom of the ramp to think and will then happily load, but put pressure on her before then and she will have none of it. When she was 3 or 4 I spent entire days with various trainers trying to load her, they tried all sorts. I stumbled on her way one night, in the dark and the rain, not really expecting her to load so I wasn't 'getting after her' and she just went right on :)
 
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Thanks @Jessey for your inspiring wisdom about most can be trained. She's never been traumatised so I'm hoping we can get over this. I went to see her today, YO says she'd not eaten her hay ration:( I said to give it a while before worrying as she's used to grass and organic hay:rolleyes: But I did feel sorry for her again. In hand grazed her, pampered her grooming, tacked up, rode an angel:), in hand grazed again, put her back in her paddock and left with her munching on her ration:):):)
 
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Eek loading horses can be so stressful if they have a problem with it.

Whiskey will go in the box with some gentle coaxing and a push up the ramp but it's a case of once she's in you gotta hit the gas and go, she's not the most patient of girls and shes not the best of travellers either after a few mishaps.
If I need to move her from A to B we tend to just hack it think the longest ride from one field to another one was about 40 miles, I will say though she's much happier in a lorry than a box.
 
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