Extream trouble loading!!!! Help me!

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Stacie_and_Jed

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I went to a show on Sunday with my boy Jed. He normally is a bit of a stubborn boy when it comes to loading but normally only takes 5 minutes. Well on the way out to the show took the normal time loading which was fine by me, but on the way back it took me 5 hours to get him back on that lorry. (baring in mind we had a very good journey)
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In the end we resulted in scaring him in but i dont want him to think loading is scary!! The problem is he is so powerful and he uses his extream body weight against u. Any body have any suggestions please!!!
 
What did you try when loading him? My horse was a nervous wreck to laod and would rear, spin and do anything not to go in. We tried the broom/ bully trick and this did work however she was stressed whilst travelling. Now we do it with just 2 of us. 1 leading other with 2 lunge leins attached to either side of the ramp and then crossed over behind. If she goes to go back they tighten around her. If she moves over she gets the lunge line wriggled against her. This is the most humane and stress free method of loading her now and she generally goes straight in. Initially took a bit of patience and perserverence. But now she is a happy relaxed horse to travel
 
Ditto the lunge line trick! it worked a treat on my friends old pony!
It wont work for all though! its really a matter of back to basics- feeding in the lorry/on the ramp etc until its second nature.
 
He doesnt go with force. He knows as soon as the lunge lines come out he just over powers us rearing and striking out. He is better when there is only two of us normally but sunday he wasnt having any of it. He normally goes on with a bucket of food and treats. He travells fine when in the lorry. No sweating banging around or nothing so i know he is not stressed whilst in there and he doesnt get stressed when were trying to load just very very stubborn and powerful! Im now at my wits end with the loading.
 
u need to go back to basics with him - lots of ground work as he doesnt repect u on the ground and until he does he will treat u as he likes. force/food/mad techniques work short term but not long term. get him so u can move him all round u in any direction with the slightest touch - lots of backing up , and lateral movement etc
 
I'm not sure being nice is going to help you much with this horse as he is clearly just taking the p***!! I had the same problem with my mare when she first came, wasn't scared in the slightest and travelled absolutely fine, she just knew she could get away with not going in the trailer if she didn't feel like it. She also used to rear and pull away from you. In the end my dad (who is a very experienced old-fashioned horseman) got hold of her, put a bridle on and wrapped the lunge whip round her backside a couple of times, after which she walked in like a lamb and has done ever since. I will probably get slated for this method and its' definitely NOT suitable if the horse is in any way scared, but sometimes I do think they need to know who is boss!! If you're going to go down this route though you need someone who is strong and knows what they're doing.
Should say as well this took less than 5 minutes and in my case has certainly been a long-term solution! Although she is quite a pliant mare by nature and her behaviour wasn't that ingrained...
 
This sounds so familiar!!!!

I think there is a difference between a stubborn horse and one that is frightened of travelling. My boy is the former, once on the trailer or lorry he travels fine but getting him on can be a nightmare.

For 3 years I have tried to load him using food and treats, regular ground work and trailer training. Feeding him nowhere but on the trailer, letting him walk on in his own time.......... for him this approach (which is the one I would prefer to use) just does not work.

As he is a big strong boy I always use a chifney to load him in. I use two lunge lines either side to keep him straight and a helper or two to keep these taught. A helper also has a lunge whip or schooling whip and encouraging him to keep straight and giving an encouraging tap if required. He now loads like a dream. Once he is on he gets a small feed and lots of praise.

I have shed so many tears... been left at showground’s for hours and missed events when he refused to load and while ideally I wouldn't do it this way it works for us!

Pilib X
 
How on earth did you "scare him in" in the end after 5 hours? All I can suggest is to practice at home. Go in and out, feed in there. make a big fuss of him when he does go in. Be consitent.

What got my friends horse in the lorry recently after a lot of visits to vet hospitals, was her leading him along, and me picking up his feet and placing them on the ramp in turn! He associated the travel with pain, which was why we babied him up the ramp, but he now loads pretty well with some no nonsense persuasion - me hanging onto the lead rope so he can't go back and his owner literally shoving him up the ramp! He gets better every time though.
 
Just because he doesn't move in the lorry, doesn't mean he isn't stressed by it.
I suggest you train at home - feed him on the ramp, then a bit further up the ramp, then in the lorry etc.
Take him little journeys to somewhere he likes.
Perhaps a mirror might help him?
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I would try natural groundwork, concentrating on leading issues. I used to have big loading problems. I had done some natural groundwork about a week before I was due to load Charlie. The day came for me to load Charlie and to my amazement he just walked straight in. I now do groundwork at 1-2 times a month
 
I had trouble after my horse stumbled on a steep lorry ramp (someone was giving me a lift) he lost his nerve with the ramp itself and therefore didn't want to load, but once he was on board he was fine. My friend told me an old dealer trick, it's a little difficult to explain on here but i'll try! If you attach the leadrope to the headcollar on the wrong side then loop the leadrope down and put it under his top lip right in the groove above his gums then loop the leadrope back through the headcollar on the correct side (where you are standing), lead him up to the ramp with no pressure on it and if he starts to stop or go backwards just pull on it and keep walking. There are apparently nerves there, and if i applied pressure my horse just wandered up quite happily with no panic or anything. It doesn't work on every horse but it did for mine, and now he runs up everything without a second thought. Good Luck!
 
I normally do it with food and i feed him on the ramp he takes a step i feed him again he takes a step etc etc.....i fuss him hwen hes on the box and fill him full of treats and fuss...more than u can imagine. But it still hasent solved the issue. He has now realised that wen he takes a step he gets food so he steps back then forward again so he gets another mouthfull!!! Very clever boy.
 
Pressure halter worked for me. Lead up to lorry, the second they stop apply a constant pressure. If they pull back keep pressure on (for godsake wear gloves) The second they step forward release pressure. It takes sometime to register with some but stay calm and you'll end up with a horse that load well all the time.
 
Is that the pressure halter ifield mentioned. I think i will give that a go. I need something that can over power him and that he cant wiggle his way out of. Sounds a fab idea....Thankyou!
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I think my version is the old fashioned make do before such things as pressure halters were around. I know people that use them a lot, but like what was mentioned earlier you should use one of them to do basic ground work with so that he understands the principles before you introduce the loading scenario
 
I agree with all the posts that say go back to basics, do your ground work and I would feed as often as possible in the lorry. That way you get him in and then he has something nice and then you get him out again. Once he's going in and out properly by feeding him in there. Put his boots on etc as if you're going somewhere and feed him in there again then get him out. Continue this way, it takes time but he'll never know if he's going to a show or having a feed. I'd even introduce short journeys as well with no riding or work involved. But if all else fails and this was the only way I could get my stallion in a trailer 18 years ago (prior to learning more intelligent horsemanship methods) was to join two lunge lines together, hook one end to the headcollar take it out through the jockey door and around the back of him so you end up with the lunge line behind him and you encourage him in the same way as you normally would with the lunge line behind him (you also have someone with a leadrope at his head in the usual way but when he pulls back he's pulling against his own strength. It was an old school way but worked a treat and we went from hours to get him in a lorry/trailer to minutes.
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So what you're trying to do is explain to the horse WHY he has to get on the lorry and HOW to get that done calmly and quietly.

The aggressive "one shot" approach CAN work, depending on the situation, and give EXPERIENCED handlers but it can also be a recipe for disaster. Donadea's Dad sounds like a strong, capable horseman who could assess the situation and had both timing and knowledge on his side. It's all about how much pressure, when to apply it, where to stand and how long to keep it up - not easy things to learn on the internet. Even for a scared horse the right correction at the right time can get it "over the hump" so to speak - sort of like someone giving you a bollocking or a shove when you're scared.

HOWEVER for an inexperienced person, especially if there are already control issues with the horse, it can result in disaster. What if you give the horse a smack and it leaps forward away from (or worse, on top of) whomever's holding it? What if it leaps backwards and double barrels you in the stomach? (Don't joke, I've seen it.)

Much better to learn a system you can use over and over. Interestingly when I've done trailer loading clinics, invariably people start to make associations with other issues they have with their horses and, with a bit of thought, sometimes they can apply the solutions to other situations or at least start to see patterns emerging.

Why the horse won't go is can be a factor in finding a solution. You'd be surprised by some of the things that can cause problems - I've seen quite a few horses whose loading problems started when they were shod correctively! I've seen others who started to push the boundaries in other small areas, not enough for the owners to get upset about, and then drew the line at the end of the ramp. Others have developed odd "methods" of getting on to the trailer (lots walk slightly sideways up the ramp, say) which they then can't do in a particular situation so they won't get on at all. Some get scared, some get pissed, some get confused . . . In fact the solutions are very close whatever the motivations but understanding the root can help make the fix permanent while also offering insight into what makes that horse tick.

I know that all sounds a little overblown and "hippy dippy" but horses are VERY systematic creatures and they tend to take refuge in the same behaviours over and over when stressed.

It's not perhaps the most popular opinion but a lot of loading issues are people problems as much as they're horse problems. I don't mean the horse doesn't need correction, just that sometimes people are making it much harder than necessary for the horse to comply, sometimes with the best of intentions! Some of it is psychological, too - I've seen so many people behave completely differently towards their horses the minute a ramp comes in view, no wonder the horse thinks something's up!

Personally, I haven't found sheer practice to be all that successful unless you're practicing the right things. Some horse figure it out for themselves and/or just get more comfortable with the situation. Some PEOPLE do for that matter. But unless there's a system you can reproduce - preferably alone - what do you do when the horse decides "no" again, maybe because he's tired or distracted or you're in a rush?

Same with having a system dependent on having a couple of people - what happens when you don't?

So, annoyingly, after all that, I'm not offering anything useful. Because it's not the sort of thing you can just say "do this" and it's all fixed. MAYBE someone will tell you the right thing FOR YOUR SITUATION and you'll do it the right way and it will work. Maybe not and then you'll have a worse problem. If you hire somebody decent to work with you and your horse and provide you with a permanent solution then you never have to be dependent on anyone again.

The various natural horsemanship approaches all work reasonably well, although different ones work in different situations. Lip chains work well, although you need to know what you're up to or that can go REALLY wrong.

I think it's a worthwhile investment to get someone to help you in person. What's it worth? The price of one show? Isn't that worth it to be independent and arrive wherever you're going from now on, calm and in control?
 
That sounds really good Cruiser. Dont suppose u would mind popping over to help me??
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. All jokes aside i know two people who had problems with loading and the hired a horse whisperer. He came out for the day at a cost of £250 and ur horse would load fine by the end of it. It would be very interesting to see if he could get Jed in!!!
 
Hmm, just realised I forgot to change my profile.

Alas, I'm just off the boat and don't have a car yet (actually I even technically have a car, I just can't find anyone to insure a foreigner
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. . . but I digress), otherwise I'd be more than happy to help. I LOVE doing trailer loading clinics - a chance to travel and meet new horses/people; a really interesting, rewarding task; the chance to impart a useful, attainable skill; and decent money for something I enjoy.
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I'm sure there's someone in your neck of the woods if you ask around. It's a pretty common problem!
 
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But if all else fails and this was the only way I could get my stallion in a trailer 18 years ago (prior to learning more intelligent horsemanship methods) was to join two lunge lines together, hook one end to the headcollar take it out through the jockey door and around the back of him so you end up with the lunge line behind him and you encourage him in the same way as you normally would with the lunge line behind him (you also have someone with a leadrope at his head in the usual way but when he pulls back he's pulling against his own strength. It was an old school way but worked a treat and we went from hours to get him in a lorry/trailer to minutes.
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This is my preferred method of loading the "awkward" ones, except I use the tie ring inside the lorry to thread the lunge line through. Yes, we should all spend the time doing the groundwork etc but when you are doing a job and you've never met the horse before and it needs to be loaded promptly a "short cut" is necessary. Its stress free, the horse fights himself, not you. 99.9% of the horses I've loaded like this have become problem free loaders, there's been only one horse I failed to load like this. She had refused to load for several years, been down the whisperer route to no avail when I was asked to take her to a new yard because the one she was at was closing. She loaded within seconds to the delight of the owner. But it didn't work a 2nd time when she had to be loaded again! She escaped it by throwing herself on the ground and refusing to move. She had to be walked to her new home in the end.
This method can be used single handedly, keep the lead rope in the hand nearest the horse and the lungeline in the other.
I never use the crossed lines behind the horse method since a horse spun on the ramp with me, the helpers raised the lines to block him and I got throttled!
 
QR.
Groundwork and going back to basics is the only way forward. You have to teach this horse to trust AND respect you.
If you consider any kind of NH type of halter for heavens sake don't use it as just another method of hauling the horse into the box, that is not what it is designed for. I suggest you get the Richard Maxwell halter, but use it according to the instructions that come with it.
 
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