does anyone have a horse/pony who wont travel on there own?

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westparc

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does anyone else have a horse or pony who wont travel on there own

what do you do?

how sucessful have you been with travelling with any techneques?
 
Mine will travel fully tacked up to go out on a hack on his own but will not go to a show on his own!

I have borrowed an outgrown pony from a friend who comes to shows (put first in box) and it works well. He will walk away from the travelling companion without a care in the world.

I must just own a wierdo !
 
I did have.

My horse can be quite nappy & he jumps about & has reared on the lorry more than once (and, I have since found out from a previous owner has come over the gates once). He gets very wound up standing on the lorry when it isn't moving. I tried lots of techniques to get him to get used to it - including spending hours with him in it, feeding him on it etc.

He also doesn't tie up reliably.
mad.gif

Eventually I developed a technique which basically means I don't stand him on the lorry unless I can help it. So I make sure everything is ready to go - throw him in, tacked up except for reins and then when I get to the other end I run in & enter & then get him off straight away & just get on him. I do get a bit stressed if there is a queue when entering though as he rocks & kicks the wagon.

That said, he is out every weekend & the last two times he has stood quite calmly for 15 minutes whilst I entered/messed around so I think he is getting better!

Not sure if that helps at all. I go to shows on my own, or not at all at the moment so I had to work out a way of dealing with it!
smile.gif
 
we havent got that far! last time we shut the ramps she started double barreling them!! and
pushing on the sides as much as she could so the sides start flexing so begins to stand as diagonally as she can to create more force and shakes (she did this today even with the ramps down

it seems to be when she is on her own when we have left the trailer and cant see anyone

the thing is i really worry because she has torn her superficial flexor tendon on her right hind and her anular ligament on her left hind
 
Mine doesn't like travelling on her own. I have a lorry and the door from the horse-area into the living is a half-door (like a stable door), by tying the top half back, my horse can see me driving the lorry and that completely chills her out as she obviously doesn't feel 'alone'! Not much help if you have a trailer. Have you tried a mirror?
 
She was just difficult to load when on her own. She would go in but barge you straight out. She was fidgety when travelling, but not awful. I was lucky as my friend travelled with me for about 6months which got my horse used to it. I put the mirrors in when I started eventing and had to go on my own. She is all right standing on box at an event, but I suppose she can see other horses about and just seems to accept it. If she had a choice she would prefer to travel with another horse, but for me the solution was to tie the top half of the horse-area door back so that she has company in the form of me driving and my co-pilot, the dog!!
 
i thourght about using her best friend in the entire world (larry are bottle fed sheep!!!) but you need a transport licence with sheep and hes only a pet so we dont have one does anyone no of sheep being used as company for traveling

im sure she would love traveling in a lorry but we only have a trailer and a old rice at that but dads put loads of work in it and the horse wont travel in it
 
Try a radio!

My mare got upset the first few times I took her out in the trailer on her own, when I'd had a lorry before.

With the lorry, I was able to talk to her from the cab, and would always have the radio on loud and sing (warble) to the music!!!!

So I think that when we reverted to a trailer, she felt all alone, no one to talk to her - it was too quiet in there.

So I bought her a radio - tied it in the front - Radio 1 of course. That worked brilliantly, until one day...... I ran over it !!!! Good bye radio !!!!!
 
I have heard of race-horses travelling with sheep as companions. Perhaps you need to get out someone to help with her behaviour? Altho I'm not into the full natural horsemanship stuff, I have used one the Intelligent Horse people to help with loading problems. That might be your best bet to get someone out for one or two hours to watch how your horse behaves in the trailer and offer some advice. I know how upsetting it is to have transport and a horse fit to go and then have problems loading/travelling - good luck!
 
i was going to try that tomorrow as it happens as she had her radio in her stable to entertain her 5 live im afriad i had to bore her with football from lak of signal, i found that it stopped her going crazy on 9months box rest and from being lonely in on her own, she was quite spooky without it
 
Mine will travel alone but he isn't keen on it. The more I think about things, the more I'm starting to realise that he's probably never travelled alone until I got him last year. He goes on the trailer about 85% of the time, and I've only ever once failed completely to get him on. He's ok when the ramps are down (though he will get upset if I walk away), will tolerate being in there with haylage when everything bar the jockey door is shut but he starts to get upset once I shut the jockey door.

I think it's partly a combination of it being quite dark in there (he would turn to face backwards if he could, always tries to turn towards the light) and the fact he'd never been in a trailer before last year so though he has more room in it than some lorries, it must feel quite unstable. I recently (ie yesterday!) discovered that if I drop the jockey wheel to load, he seems much happier as it helps keep the trailer more stable. Have also had it suggested to use props to help this further.

I am also going to get him some mirrors (front and side probably) and a radio so that he thinks he has company. Until he starts to get better, it means I need to take someone with me to shows so that either I can stay with him and they do my entries, or they stay with him so that he doesn't get upset.
 
we put the supports down on the trailer to reduce some of the movement and have also taken the back doors off which she seems to prefer. more windows have also been suggested
im going to order the mirrors off ebay and put a radio in and hopefully it will work otherwise my pony will have a very boring hacking life wiptidooo

what does he do when the jokey door is shut
 
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