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Luckylocalian

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As some of you may know I have had my new boy for 7 weeks now. I have taken him out in the lorry twice (there and back) and each time he has walked straight up and been a very good boy. On the outward hourney he gets a bit hot but on the journey home he tended to get very sweated up but does not act particularly stressed, more excited? However this weekend he took over 1.5 hours to get back in the lorry to come home (all trips have been less than 20mins and all realxed and straightforward trips with the same horse companion who has behaved impecably throughout). It was the most horrible thing having 5 people beat the sense out of him to get him back on and I had to allow it as I don't have my own transport and everyone was waiting for me. Now I am terrified about approaching the loading again as it has gone from one extreme to the other and I really don't want to be in the situation where he has to be beaten again. Any advice gratefully sought please!!
 
Have you tried leading him with food? A pressure halter? A whip beside you?
Try and identify why he won't load - clearly he is unhappy about something as he did load well. If you can figure what has spooked him then you can rectify the situation. Force isn't the right way to do it though, IMO
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Force isn't the right way to do it though, IMO
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Ditto....I think you may find you have worse problems now as he will remember the bad experience
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I would practise regaining his trust on the ground and maybe do some groundwork around the trailer. Someone posted a while ago saying that when you get to the destination, it is a good idea to take the horse out of the lorry and reload them straight away, so they know they will have to go back on. I would start off with short trips returning straight home though, to make sure you can get him back on again.
 
I am sorry to say it but after the beating etc it may take you some time to resolve. My mare takes 2 people to load now (1 year of practice) She was beaten once when we first got her and yes she'd load but she'd be traumatised. Now we have gone for softly softly and now she happily goes straight in with 2 lunge lines crossed behind her. We realised beating this one was not the answer. When I will be able to load on my own I do not know but at least she now loads
 
My horse went through a period of refusing to load - he had to go to horse hospital alot and so not surprisingly got v bad at loading!

We cracked it by treating him like a baby - system was one person lifts a forefoot onto ramp, other person pulls like mad on the leadrope to bring his weight onto that foot. Lift next forefoot and place it higher on ramp, then pull like mad to bring weight onto that foot. Because there was no force involved, he hadn't got anything to fight with. By the end we'd got a brilliant system worked out and now he'll walk up the ramp quite happily (now he knows there's no Horse Hosp. involved!).
Good luck - time and patience is the key!
 
Oh dear me, i hate hearing about this sort of thing, and now i bet you feel guilty because you allowed it don't you?

I think that now you will need lots of paitience, time and peace and quite - please do not loose you temper with him, as now he will associate the loading with getting a good hiding and it will take a lot of trust on his part for him to happily go up now, if you can, borrow a trailer or lorry and get the ramp down and just paitiently try again, when you get him up there, feed him, brush him, let him get used to it again (my horses would do anything for some sorene malt loaf).

Just out of curiousity, is the driver of the lorry/trailer quite considerate towards the load when driving? Maybe he's had a bad journey?

best of luck!
 
Thanks all for your advice. It was such a horrible experience and I know that it has compouded the problem by beating him for so long to beat him on it. I think that the lorry was too tight for him as he is a big boy (17hh) and I don't think he was on the right angle but it is so so hard to say anything when you don't have your own transport and you have to be eternally grateful for anyone taking you out - on a plus note her driving was very considerate so I think it was a space/claustophobia thing which makes it so much worse knowing that there was a reason for his hating it and he tried to tell me and he got beaten.... there are no words to describe how awful I feel! There are a few lorries at the yard and I am going to try just putting the back down and his feed at the top and spending an hour or two coaxing him up there. How can I rebuild his trust in me???
 
Just lots of praise, if he pulls back or anything keep rooted on the ramp, do not allow yourself to move. When he approaches you praise him etc.
 
do some ground work - is there a lorry you can practise on !!

We have a horse at my yard that isnt scared but just stubborn people have tried to beat him and he just gets worse !!

he rears and spins so you cant do the leg lifting thing or try to hold onto him even with a bridle !!

do some pressure and release training so you put pressure on asking him to move forwards when he does you release ?? they will soon get the hang of it ?

make sure you load ina bridle so you have more control to !
 
I have a pony mare that loaded perfectly, then went out on loan for 2 months and ceased to load and it took me a year to get her back to normal. We didn't go out much.

Never really sussed out what set her off. I never beat her, but did use things like lunge reins to help her get the idea that it wasn't acceptable not to load. Another useful technique was parking the lorry or trailer against a hedge or solid fence, to minimise escape routes.

Samp: [ QUOTE ]
Just lots of praise, if he pulls back or anything keep rooted on the ramp, do not allow yourself to move.

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How does an X stone person not move when three quarters of a tonne of horse decides to pull back. Should I start weight lifting.
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Outwitting not out weighting is usually the most sustainable method IMHO.
 


Samp: [ QUOTE ]
Just lots of praise, if he pulls back or anything keep rooted on the ramp, do not allow yourself to move.

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How does an X stone person not move when three quarters of a tonne of horse decides to pull back. Should I start weight lifting.
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I do this with a lunge line, therefore horse can pull back but I refuse to budge, she generally learnt mum stays still so I may as well join her

Outwitting not out weighting is usually the most sustainable method IMHO.

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Ok so I need patience and time and lots of nice words and hopefully this will do the trick. God I just wish I had my own transport so it took the hurry and the stress out of travelling full stop and I could just do it on my own terms - it really is not fair for him to suffer at all
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Feel like a terrible mummy!
 
At the moment at a yard in Epping as was the closest/easiest to get to from my house with livery space. Been going out with another women at the yard also with a youngster but pretty sure I won't be invited any more if he won't load easily and can't have a fight like that again....
 
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At the moment at a yard in Epping as was the closest/easiest to get to from my house with livery space. Been going out with another women at the yard also with a youngster but pretty sure I won't be invited any more if he won't load easily and can't have a fight like that again....

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can you ask to practise if the lorry is at the yard ?? just putting the ramp down and getting your horse to walk on and off it no pressure ??

how about getting someone out to help you ?? you may find that he will be fine next time
 
That demo looks very good - I will watch that when I get home (don't think I will get away with it at work!!)

Thank you all so so much for your help and time and I will let you know how I get on!! x
 
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