Another loading post (long)......Advice please!

[Natalie_H]

Hi All,

When I first got my horse he was a superb loader. I didn't need to travel him until 3 years after I got him, and even then he went straight in the trailer without batting an eyelid & continued to do so. He also travelled well (alongside our other horse). Things continued like this for a couple of years.

We then had a bad journey with him. Mum forgot to secure the back breech bar with the chain & it came down during the journey. I am guessing that it must have knocked his back legs & he started to scrabble in the trailer. When I unloaded him he was dripping with sweat & had seriously dented the interior of the trailer. Despite this, I managed to load him no problem & take him home (fortunately his travel companion was completely unstressed & not affected in the slightest by the journey). Unfortunately his next two trips were to the vet to have tendon scans for an unrelated field incident. Both trips involved sedation & having his legs clipped. He was reluctant to load to come home after the 2nd vet visit - this was the 1st time I had a problem loading.

Since then he has been awful to load. He has also become a terrible traveller scrabbling in the back evey time we take a bend or brake (and I tow really slowly). We are using the same trailer we have always had, same car, same driver, same companion travelling with him. He will walk up to the ramp & plant his feet in front of it. Then he will sometimes plant 2 feet on the ramp & start nodding off to sleep. Usually he will suddenly decide he is ready to go & walk in - but the length of time this takes is variable. Journeys vary from him eating hay whilst going along, to scrabbling around to get his footing. When I have practised loading him with no intention of taking him anywhere, I open up the trailer completely to walk him in, but when he does go on, he rushes & barges out the other side.

So.... do I
1) Keep practising as often as I can & hope he gets better.
2) Buy a be-nice halter / dually, teach him to lead in it, then load with it.
3) Get a professional out to help.
4) Other thoughts??

Should note that this horse is not greedy. If you tried to feed him in the trailer, he would rather not have the feed. If I can get him to load, my plan is to take him on some short journeys to some nice hacks (which he loves) to get his confidence back travelling & so he associates the trailer with going somewhere nice. I just cannot work out if he is genuinely nervous of travelling, or just being an obstinate pig (such is his nature a lot of the time!).

Well done if you got to the end and thanks for reading!!

 

[dwi]

Sounds like you know what you need to do. Taking your time over loading and then taking him for a short, pleasurable ride sounds very sensible.

 

[Natalie_H]

Thanks dwi - that's the plan. It's just getting him on the damn thing in a calm & relaxed way in order to make the whole experience pleasurable for both horse & owner (

)!

 

[flowerlady]

You say he starts to nod off with front feet on the trailer? I think I would get someone behind him and tickle and I do mean tickle his hocks with the end of a schooling whip. We had this problem with the grey and when I bought another from a dealer she did this and the horse loader straight away. So tried it with JB and it worked. We now have no problems loading we do not need anything he goes straight on.

 

[kelly09]

keep praticing and he get back to how he used to be and like dwi said take him some were nice good luck

 

[magicofhorses]

have you considered breaking down the steps first, definetly agree with taking your time, but also don't want him to keep not loading as we may teach him that that is the aim of the session - so my advice would be a proffessional, they can just help you focus so much and their experience is priceless - i would personally recommend a monty roberts recommended associate from www.intelligenthorsemanship.co.uk.

If not an option, you could get him used to say, walking over a wooden plank, under a washin line, simulating steps that he has to undergo to load into a trailer. Get him leading perfectly first, if he won't lead nicely around the yard - why should he suddenly be nice when faced with a monster (not saying he doesn't lead nicely by the way

)

Your first tasks when approaching the trailer may be "I only want one foot on the ramp", next day 2 etc... - he won't know what the aim is

And then yes just like you and others have suggested, lots of nice journeys, and when he goes into it keep going until he finds it boring - only when his adrenaline is low will he learn that the trailer is not scary, take him away when adrenaline is high and the lesson might not be the one you wanted him to learn.

BUT it is so hard to give advice from a laptop, which is why I would recommend an RA or another proffessional - one who you can question at all times, teaches you the techniques aswell and aim is safety for both you and your horse. They will be able to see the whole picture so much better than us

Hope you find a solution soon...

 

[Natalie_H]

Thanks Flowerlady. Do you think the nodding off is a p*ss take on his behalf? I'll give that a go. it may just work. Tapping with a schooling whip doesn't work as he starts to kick out against the irritation, but doing as you say might have a more positive reaction!

 

[Natalie_H]

Thanks for this. I was thinking of a MR professional as I do rate him & his methods.

He leads quite well, but I was contemplating incorporating the trailer into a leading obstacle course - planks, poles etc, thus reducing the concentration on walking into the trailer into it being just another element to step into / walk through.

As you say - I don't want the practicing to deteriorate into a number of refusing to load sessions - & that is what I am concerned it will become!

Thank you for your reply. Much appreciated & very helpful!

 

[flowerlady]

It's worth a go JB is a 16.1 ID and can be strong it he wants to be (never is normally) but would do anything rather than go up up ramp before I used to have a lung line to stop him running off the other side but did this and OH used to just have it in his hand if he was on his own and no one to help reload at other end. Now he;s fine. Good luck let me know how you go

 

[Natalie_H]

Thanks!

Will try tomorrow & let you know how I get on. Kelly09 - thanks for the good luck wishes!

 

[Gal]

I liked magicohorses reply, especially the bit about the high adrenaline and using accredited professionals who have been recommended.

I would want to know what methods they were going to use first too make sure you are happy with them.

I have had a lot of very weird advice from well meaning people that I never adopted. I wish had sorted my horses traveling issues years ago.

He will not travel (I can load him - because he trusts me, but will not travel, he tries to fight his way out) - he had an accident in a horsebox when he was young and when we bought him we were not set up to sort it out for all sorts of reasons.

Lack of money/time/experience/fear etc. I have a lovely horse who has never seen much in his life - what a shame.

Good Luck!

 

[Natalie_H]

Sorry to hear of your horse's travelling problem

. That is what I want to avoid with this one. Had the same problem with my old pony. I Had her for 13 years (since I was a teenager). Never took her anywhere as she wouldn't load. It was never rectified because my parents couldn't afford our own transport with which to practice.

Now that I am (considerably!) older & have purchased 4x4 & trailer, I want to make sure we make use of it!

I do agree that the point about the adrenaline is a very valid one. Really informative reply.

Thanks for the good wishes!!

 

[rugrat]

On my website www.thehorseloader.co.uk you will find a short video under the case study titled 'Posy'. Using the whip tap method Posy loaded quite quickly and calmly. The whip tap method is extremely useful/practical and effective, it just depends how you use it. Re the scrabbling I agree with magic horse re travelling until horse bored, it is living through the stress of your horse chucking himself around which is daunting! Also try travelling him without the companion with just a chest bar so that he has more space to balance himself and can get his legs wider than his tummy on both sides. Best of luck.