Does anyone else flick water at bottoms to encourage loading

Hmm, how odd! Ive never heard of this before and I have had my fair share of bad loaders!!!

Id have thought youd need to be farily close to the horses bum to flick water at it and stand a chance of getting kicked!

Dont think Id recommend it.
 
I used to use a Super Soaker. It worked a couple of times, then horse got wise to it.

I eventually took him to an old, wise person who had figuratively speaking, been round the block a bit with horses. She soon got the measure of him. He never was a walk on straight away kind of horse, he'd give his opinion on the whole thing (for about 30 secs) and would then go in.
 
I used to do this with my old arab a any stronger form of persusasion would lead to a tantrum :)
He would plant at bottom of ramp, assistant with bucket of water would stand behind and literally flick few drops of water with their hand, he would walk nicely up ramp-Bizarre :confused:esp as he was an endurance horse and more than happy to stand still and let me throw gallons of water ovewr him in any other circumstance!
 
I had never done it until last year when I was taking my young horse to teach him to loose jump for futurity practice. He is a big 17.2hh now 4 year old who is very opionated.

He would happily load and travel then other days would prefer to stand around gazing and sticking his fingers in his ears pretending he isn't listening.

Anyway the guy at the Midlands Sport Horse Centre recommended flicking droplets of water up his bottom and it works/worked an absolute treat. You don't have to get too close to him and once he feels the water on his bottom he walks straight up the ramp.

What took an hour before now takes 10 seconds and a total stress free environment. he only has to see the bucket now and up he goes.

Lets hope it lasts
 
Yes I have and have tried it! Its an "old fashioned" method of encouraging the horse to move forward apparently. My horse was more stubburn and didn't work I found the quick prod with the damp brittles of a sweeping brush worked well though!
 
I have never heard of this but used to have a bad loader, the best technique that i found was to unbalance them on their front legs by using the lead rope and their shoulder and pushing them from side to side, this unbalances their front feet and makes them step forwards!!
 
My first pony was a B***h from hell to load, we tried many things but never knew about this, the only thing that worked was shuffling the gravel of the cark park behind her heels, and always had a chiffney on her as she was a nightmare to lead too, all 13hh exmoor of her!!
 
Many years ago we were sitting around the trailer having lunch and there was a lady trying to load a small horse and we watched her trying to load this horse for about and hour and in the end an old horseman called Derek Goode picked up a bucket of water and chucked it up the horse's backside and it shot into the trailer. The woman went ape**** about this but we were all laughing so much but he said to her well its in the trailer now.
 
never tried it, tried most things when i was naive enough to thing trying to force or trick or bribe horses into a trailer was right... horsey now loads no problem, i hate thinkin back to when id miss classes ect
 
My first pony was a little Sh*t to load, he wasn't afraid just stubborn, after spending ages loading him up to travel to Exeter for a show we then had the god awful task of trying to load him to go home at the end of the show. Luckily we had brought him from the Exeter area and Mary Kings mum walked up and said... 'Is that Pickles? Some one go fetch me a bucket of water!' She splashed his bum and he promptly ran into the trailer. We stood jaws dropped at how easy it was! He had been with the pony club she worked with and she knew him of old! We never had a problem with him again!
Didn't work with my next mare though!
 
After an hour of being patient and doing the "Oh, why is she doing (or not) doing this? " thing and trying every other trick in the book, and I mean everything, I got fed up and turned the power hose on one mare, it was that or stick a knife in her. She went in that same lorry frequently, there was hay and her 9 month old foal already quietly waiting in there.

She went in soon enough then awkward cowbag. Didn't hurt her, better than a beating any day, that would never have worked with her.
 
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My old horse was a monster to load - in desperation one day we turned the hose on his bum to see if that would work. It didn't - he kicked and jumped about like a bee stung bronco which was pretty unpleasant as he was 17.2!!

He did end up with a nice pair of red streaky legs though where the dye from his wet travel boots leaked before I removed them - he was a grey and his legs stayed red for weeks!!

My current horse can be a bit funny to load - he's a bit of a 'Mavis - well I don't really know' type and if I squirted water at his bum, I think he'd wet his knickers :-)
 
It is funny thatloading has been mentioned tonight, yesterday I thought of the horror on this forum if you could see how we got a wooden Fell mare into the most inviting trailer. She just planted her self, how can you argue with that? After a while we got the scraper tracter up behind her, presto straight in. No issue.
 
Yes, I have. With one particular old horse he hadnt loaded in 11years (as previously wouldnt load), planted her feet and was no way she would load with lunge ropes etc until I took out the hose - as soon as she felt the water on her legs she walked straight up the ramp - she wasnt afraid at all, had just clearly decided she didnt want to.
 
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