Been Offered A Youngster Who's 4 Hours Away & Never Loaded..

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What's the solution?
I've been offered an absolutely beautiful 10 month old Irish Sport Horse type. I've been looking for a while for a youngster, perhaps on loan, to keep my other youngster company. She was a surprise, owners are novices and bought the mare as a first horse for them and their daughter. 2 months later out pops baby.

Now I've been offered this filly who seems lovely, and owners have said that I sound like the perfect person for her. Filly is still with mum for one reason or another (certainly not ideal). Apparently filly was meant to have gone to a couple of people over the past few months but has been let down one after another. Most recently a girl agreed to have the filly, but came in a hurry and tried loading filly with no introduction to the box. Long story short they left without her, and filly was left sweated up with two bleeding legs and very stressed (which, I'm well aware of, will have done her absolutely no good). Apparently she was back to her cheeky herself soon after though.

To further this, neither myself nor filly's owner has transport in the shape of a box/trailer. Plus the fact that filly is in Essex and I am in Yorkshire, it would be a long drive if we couldn't get her to load.
I would be prepared to take her on in a week or two but can't realistically do anything sooner (other than try and think of a solution). I know the easy answer is to just leave it be and find another youngster but there's something about this filly that has me hung up - maybe the fact that she's mine if I can get her home!

Any advice is appreciated
 
If you're that keen I would get a professional mover involved who has experience of loading frightened younger horses. I know of a really good one so pm me if you would like the details. It's not cheap but the woman I used was amazing and if you really want the filly then it would be worth it. Plus you don't want her to have another negative experience, which could happen if someone less experienced tries again.

If the current owners can get a recommended expert to come and help do loading practice before the day that may also help you.

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you. :)
 
Can the owner borrow a trailer from a friend over the next couple of wks and get her used to loading?? If not a (safe, solid) wooden board on the ground and her walking over it to simulate the ramp and then placed in front of a stable so she is used to a ramp into an enclosed space. Think the few wks before you collect her is an ideal opportunity for the owners to help this mare to her new home, and if they want her to go to a new home they should be happy to do it. Hope this is of some help.:)
 
I'd do it if I liked the filly enough. Loading never worries me....they'll go on eventually, especially at that age/size.
 
Rent your own trailer for three days. Drive there and practice loading her for two days. Then bring her home:)
It's only four hours drive, or you could find b&b near her or maybe even the owners could put you up?
 
When I bought my youngster a couple of months ago I had a 500 mile round trip to Wales. I hired out a Renault 3.5 tn box with CCTV . Once loaded and on the road it's surprising how quickly they settle down. However your filly has had a bad start and the only answer is for the owner to maybe hire such a box for the day and practise loading her maybe with the mare to start with using gentle persuasion and lots of time. She must have been terrified. If the owners not experienced enough maybe she can recruit someone with natural horsemanship skills. Regardless as to whether you buy her the owner owes it to the filly to address this problem.
 
If you like her that much i'd go for it, i have done something similar tbf though :D.
I bought a wild spotty pony as a project - untouched, straight from the breeder - and travelled 3hrs in a trailer (no practising loading either :o). I literally saw some pics of him, loved him, went down with a trailer, herded him into a barn to separate from the herd (funny thing was he was the wildest out of the herd and kept the furthest away too!), got him on the trailer through coaxing and herding on and set off :D. We only had one incidence where he reared up over the breastbar and became stuck half over it, i **** myself as my dad was unable to pull over due to there (typically!) being no hard shoulder at this point but thankfully he managed to get himself down and stood nice and calm the whole time after that :). Plus he loved travelling after that - well once we tamed him enough to take him to a show :p
Although you are more likely to have problems obviously due to her bad experience so i think you should follow the advice already given and practise with lots of reward and praise :) So take lots of food/yummy treats and good luck ;)
 
I was always able to transport my young horses on a truck (professional racehors transport company), whereas they would not load/travel on a trailer (at least not until substantial time put into float loading). If the young horse is used to being handled and leads okay, then it should not be an issue.

I actually found the racehorse transport people were quite reasonable in price as well.
 
I sold my rising 3 year old that had only ever been in a trailer apart from when he was delivered to me as a yearling so i was a bit nervous hat he wouldn't go in but it only took about 25 mins of persuasion (no whips or lunge lines needed!!) Just a bucket of food and patience and he went on.
Once on though they didn't hang around to say good bye but apparently once moving he traveled like a dream.

They lived 3 hours away, and they got stuck in traffic!!. She had a Bateson trailer.

If you don't feel you could load yourself then it's expensive but i would be tempted to hire a transporter to collect...
 
Rent a trailer. I left mine in the field with no partition and fed hay and hard feeds in it. Less than a week later we enticed her on shut the door and went. No drama and the biggest problem was getting off the other end as she wouldn't go til having finished all the hay on the floor! Patience and giving her reason to want to go on will pay off
Pan
 
As a few people have suggested, get a professional in. They might be able to match your journey up with someone else, making it cheaper, and have another horse on board which would hugely help the filly's stress levels loading and on the journey.

Or cheat - load the mare as well, have them both delivered, and some weeks later take or send the mare back! Expensive in terms of diesel but gets the job done.

I live just over half way from York to Essex if you wanted to break the journey up - you could hire a little 3.5 lorry for two days, stay at mine the night before then arrive fresh in Essex ready to load one or both!
 
Llewelyn said:
As a few people have suggested, get a professional in. They might be able to match your journey up with someone else, making it cheaper, and have another horse on board which would hugely help the filly's stress levels loading and on the journey.

Or cheat - load the mare as well, have them both delivered, and some weeks later take or send the mare back! Expensive in terms of diesel but gets the job done.

I live just over half way from York to Essex if you wanted to break the journey up - you could hire a little 3.5 lorry for two days, stay at mine the night before then arrive fresh in Essex ready to load one or both!
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Great offer and some good advice there. A shared load would really help the filly
 
I would advise getting a professional transporter to pick her up tell them the situation and they will know how to handle it.
Many years ago I bought a two yo in Hampshire it was in the field where it was born with its Mum ( Mum had been removed for weaning ) a professional transporter bought to Northumberland for me he arrived tired but calm after a ON stop on the way and his first night in a stable the tranporters where excellent Is the youngster weaned ? Is not it will be more difficult.
 
Personally, with a young horse who had never travelled before, I wouldn't want to be going any great distance in a trailer. I can't abide the things (even more so since my sister had an accident when one flipped over on the M1!) and I certainly would not want to drive all that way (I know how far that trip is having done it a few times in a car!).

I would do what others have suggested and either get a professional to do it or hire a small horsebox (say 3.5T) yourself and drive down to collect the filly. From experience, I have found horse tend to load better in to a lorry and I think they get a more stable ride.
 
I would hire a proffesional. I bought a filly from Hockley in Essex and I am in Stirling, Scotland. Yes thats over 9 hours away! We made the journey down to see her stayed overnight and travelled back and when she was weaned used Eric Gillies to transport her. She too had never seen a lorry or a trailer before and at the tender age of 6 months and 3 days of travelling I was you could say a tad worried! However due to the excellent manner of the guys at Eric Gillie she travelled perfectly each time loading on and off without a problem and without any worry from her. Since having her I have travelled her in both lorries and trailers without a problem and I do believe this is due to the fantastic experience she recieved from Eric Gillies.
 
Like others have said, either get a professional or if you have the time/ experience hire a box, not a trailer. If you can't take the dam, I'd consider taking a travel companion with me. If you'll be spending a few days there anyway no reason you can't take a sensible seasoned traveller with you.
 
bikerchickone said:
If you're that keen I would get a professional mover involved who has experience of loading frightened younger horses. I know of a really good one so pm me if you would like the details. It's not cheap but the woman I used was amazing and if you really want the filly then it would be worth it. Plus you don't want her to have another negative experience, which could happen if someone less experienced tries again.

If the current owners can get a recommended expert to come and help do loading practice before the day that may also help you.

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you. :)
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I agree :)
 
Thankyou everyone for the brilliant advice.
I would more than happily drive down to collect her and hire a lorry but unfortunately don't have a driving license (I'm working on it! Can't bare not having one for much longer)
I would have considered asking one of my friends, who has transport, to collect her with me but I don't want to risk going that far and wasting everyone's time. Again only one of my friends has a box and she was my YM, and with running a yard and competing I'm not sure she'd have time.
The filly would be coming to me initially on loan for a short period and then I would plan on buying her in April. Now, I don't want to sound tight fisted, but every other horse I've bought have been horses that I already know and transport would be included. If I was to arrange a professional to pick her up would I be expected to cover all the costs? Or should I suggest it be split? Either way is fine by me but I'm just wondering how to approach this. Are the chances fairly high of her being successfully delivered to me if I do hire a professional? I agree that a shared load would be desirable, even if it's just to put her at ease more than anything.
Any recommendations would be brilliant on who to use, thanks again.
 
Well.. after a lot of fuss, and the owner telling me I was practically perfect for her, she's now turned around and said that she's decided to let a local woman take her off on loan. Disappointed to say the least.
Guess it's back to the drawing board :(
 
Oh no! How upsetting. But try to look at it positively, the right one for you could be just around the corner and less hassle to collect. So sorry though, can imagine how disappointed you must be. xx
 
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