ravenwood1
Member
With encouragement from replies to my "fed up" post, I rang a friend who offered to come over and give me a hand. We attached the car to the box and pulled it out into the yard a bit, so my horse instantly knew something was afoot!
Loaded quiet, easy, stablemate and then loaded my mare. she went in after just a few attempts and food bribary.
As soon as she was in, the ramps up and the top door closed, she started. Stamping her feet, pawing with her front foot viciously. We decided to drive the trailer forward a bit down the drive to see if she would settle and I walked along behind saying encouraging words, she seemed to settle a bit so I jumped in my car and followed, we just drove around the block , less than 10 mins.
By the time we got to the end of the drive (quite a long one) she had stopped stomping but was in a ferocious mood, ears flat back at companion. The driver stopped at the bottom of the drive and she started fidgeting but settled as soon as they moved off again. By the time we had got up the lane, although she was definitely not particularly happy she was eating the haynet and soon settled down. When we got back to the yard I let the front ramp down and she just stood there until I asked her to come out.
So Result, I don't think it was total fear or panic at all I think she just absolutely hates travelling and was showing her protest - will be doing this again on Tuesday and again and again until she learns to perhaps not enjoy it but at least put up with it!
Loaded quiet, easy, stablemate and then loaded my mare. she went in after just a few attempts and food bribary.
As soon as she was in, the ramps up and the top door closed, she started. Stamping her feet, pawing with her front foot viciously. We decided to drive the trailer forward a bit down the drive to see if she would settle and I walked along behind saying encouraging words, she seemed to settle a bit so I jumped in my car and followed, we just drove around the block , less than 10 mins.
By the time we got to the end of the drive (quite a long one) she had stopped stomping but was in a ferocious mood, ears flat back at companion. The driver stopped at the bottom of the drive and she started fidgeting but settled as soon as they moved off again. By the time we had got up the lane, although she was definitely not particularly happy she was eating the haynet and soon settled down. When we got back to the yard I let the front ramp down and she just stood there until I asked her to come out.
So Result, I don't think it was total fear or panic at all I think she just absolutely hates travelling and was showing her protest - will be doing this again on Tuesday and again and again until she learns to perhaps not enjoy it but at least put up with it!
