help needed with TB

[OakeyT]

I have a fantastic horse, he is green and very typically TB (spooky and likes running!) but is a fantastic gent on the ground. The main issue I am having is with loading, he travels fine but has an issue going onto the box. I have been trying to work on the loading issue for over a year, I bought a small lorry so I could practice and managed to get him standing in the box eating, but never closed in. I have had 'expert' help (one didn't get him in the box, the other took 2hrs to get as far as I had!)
He was loading fine and we were practising as much as I could, hadn't travelled but would walk on and off calmly and travelling was the next step. He now won't go near the box again and I am at my wits end. He is only 8 and I can't go any where with him.
I am now starting a new job and will have even less time to work through his issues.
Has anyone sucessfully retrained a bad loader? Do I try and find him a non travelling home? any advice gratefully received.
Lots of wine for getting this far

 

[digitalangel]

Oh ive so been there.

In the end, i took my horse to a loading demo at YHL. It took 40 minutes, and after some practice by myself at home, hes now fine to load.

With my boy, a daully helped. Have you tried that?

The only thing i think that helps in the long term,
is practice, as much as you can.

oh and *lots and lots* of patience.

Good luck.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

If you're desperate dbc it might be worth giving Richard Maxwell a call. An owner at another yard local to me had him in as her fabulous ned wouldn't load for all the tea in china. Very talented horse but she couldn't take him anywhere. Richard Maxwell wasn't the cheapest but she recouped a lot of the cost by selling tickets at £10 a go for people to watch how RM worked with the horse. We also had coffee break time to talk to him ourselves. It was a really good afternoon and the horse was practically boxing himself after 40 mins of simple groundwork (but with RM's magic touch) and 20 mins on the loading. He deliberately then put the horse away and we all had a Q&A teabreak for an hour. Then the owner tried the same technique and after a hesitant start, she got the horse doing exactly the same. And he's never looked back since.

 

[diggerbez]

might not be the most popular answer but my TB is a bit funny to load. he drags me left right and centre across the car park unless i load him in a snaffle bridle or a chifney bit- with one of these he hesitates for a second and then trots up ramp. coming home from somewhere he's not bothered and will load himself. i knew he was taking the pee tho coz he used to race and so has travelled lots. in a trailer tho he panics and is genuinely scared but i have an equitrek so never bothered trying to deal with the problem as didn't have to...

 

[jesterfaerie]

My TB was very awkward to load, we tried everything with him.
What has worked very well with him is to back the trailer up against one wall and a gate/similar. I have the gate with the horse in front of it so something is behind him and to one side of him, my dad is then on the other side of him. He literally has nowhere to go AT all other than into the trailer, my dad then slowly moved the gait inwards so he had to move onto the ramp, the rope was wrapped around the partition (so that if I let go it would come undone but if he walked in and I pulled it tightened) so that he couldn't get his head free and want to run backwards out. Once he got the hang of this he has learned he cannot do anything other than go into the trailer.
We load him in the exact same place each time.
This method suits my horse well because he will happy take the mick and stand at the bottom of the ramp alllllllll day given the chance.
It has only taken 6 attempts like this and now he will walk in with my dad stood behind him and only one side 'covered' and it doesn't even take 5 minutes now as oppose to over 3 hours minimum!

 

[air78]

Why don't you try getting an IH Reccomended Associate out? They'd help you improve your ground work and get him loading in no time

http://www.intelligenthorsemanship.co.uk/content/view/47/97/

 

[MrsMozart]

I'm all for bribery and corruption

.

When ned will go in, don't go anywhere, just feed his him his favourite treat or his dinner in there.

When I got last mare, I took her in and out of the lorry about twenty times in a row. Each time she was in and stood with her bum swung round where it should be, she got a couple of mouthfuls of food. By the end of it she was dragging me in and swinging her bum round

.

 

[OakeyT]

Thanks everyone for you replies.

We already do lots of ground work (a mix of all types of natural horsemanship, the best bits in my opinion!) and I can ask anything of him away from the horsebox! he will walk into small spaces, turn on a sixpence, move left/right/forward/back anything. Put him near the box and his brain shuts off! its very frustrating. Have had an intelligent horseman RA-they were the one who took 2 hours to even get feet in box when previously I could walk him on for food!
I have had him eating in there lots with the box open, even shut him in-which causes stress and was trying to build up to shut in and calm so I could move onto the next step of starting the engine.
I have gone as slowly and in as many steps as I could think of and still we have gone backwards a year.
Are there some hopeless cases that will never load properly?!