Help! Stubborn loading horse...

a kind of magic

a kind of magic

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We recently bought a beautiful mare who is our mare's older sister. She is 'practically perfect in every way' for me but we are having a major problem getting her home.

She's travelled before in a big lorry and a trailer and has never had a bad journey or loading experience, but she refuses to put any more than her front feet on the ramp. We managed to get her walking across the ramp with all feet but when she is stood on the ramp her little legs shake like she is going to fall over.

We tried to load her Saturday but the yard was very busy and 3 hours later we had to give up, tried again Sunday when it was much quieter but she still refused, before finally trying yesterday in a hired lorry instead of a borrowed trailer to see if it was the size that was putting her off, but she still didn't load. She is stubborn and just plants herself but if you start trying to hassle her from behind she does start to rear and we are afraid she may go over backwards if we continue to do that.

Whilst all this is going on her old owner is still looking after her for us as I work split shifts it's nigh impossible to get over there as well as looking after our other horses, so really it's in our best interests to get her home ASAP!

Our options are:

Pay for our local Monty Roberts RA (who has trailer trained all our other horses successfully including her stubborn sister!) to come out and trailer train her with a borrowed trailer, hopefully being able to take her home then. It will probably cost around £65, and the earliest this can happen is next Tuesday.

The lady with the lorry suggested sedating her, she travels lots of horses to and from the vets but if we go down this route she will practically have to be lifted onto the box as she won't make it any easier for us. Sedalin/ACP have little affect on her so it would have to be injected. This could feasibly happen anytime.

Last option is to ride her home, it's a fair way and a lot of it is roadwork which puts me off and the other part of the ride is open heathland with loose cattle and ponies.
as I would really like to get to know her a little bit before pushing the boundaries like that, but understand I may have to do it regardless! It would perhaps be a possibility to box my other riding horse over to the yard where she is as a 'totally dependable escort', and I did think about trying to find a very confident rider to ride her home, chances are she will be fine but I am anxious to get her back so I wouldn't be the best rider in this situation.

What would you do?
 
I would have the MR / Kelly Marks RA. I used one for my horse who wouldn't go anywhere near the trailer and would try to kill you if you tried to make him - she had him loading within about 25 mins. Amazing!

It'll be the best £65 you'll spend :)

FWIW, it isn't a "cure all" though. My horse still has times when he doesn't want to load but at least now he is usually quickly and easily won over with food.
 
It probably wouldn't be the whole solution in this case, because of your need to travel the mare soon, but for future reference I make a loading harness, which might be of help once you get her home and have time to do some training. Having said that, the harness has worked 'like magic' i.e. instantly on about a third of the horses who have tried it, and it seems to have a calming effect on many of them - PM me if you would like details!
 
would it make a difference to give her her tea every night in the horsebox ?

I got one of those over-the-bar buckets when we got our trailer, and Shy had his tea in the trailer until he was completely happy going in and out. Now he tries to get into it on his own.

Sorry if that sounds a bit basic. :)
 
With one of our ponies we also had to do the "feeding" thing and also remove all the partitions. We could only travel him with a breast bar and no partition as I think he felt claustrophobic. He travelled fine - not falling over- and seemed able to balance himself. Unfortunately this isn't a short term solution but something you could work on once you've got her home. I think I might go for the riding home with a trusted friend option as you don't want to cause any more upset before you get her.
 
If she's travelled well before in a lorry and trailer with no problems, do you know when she started having an issue with it?

Personally I would pay the £65 for the professional to help as this could then 'fix' the problem as opposed to hoping that you could get heavily sedated horse into a box/trailer and travel witout incident (I wouldn't fancy doing that myself). I don't think £65 is actually a lot to pay if potentially the issue can be sorted.
 
I'd pay the £65 for someone to come out. I'll need to do the same actually as I've recently bought a box with a steep ramp and I know Nadia will not go in without a fight.
 
My horse is like that - shes stubborn and mareish which makes it worse. I park the trailer by a building on the side she always tries to run off to and then keep trying - sometimes she goes straight on and others it takes a while. she'll literally stand there until she decides to get on :rolleyes: then once shes loaded she has a mini trantrum and we're away. I tried getting someone out to her but they were of the same opinion as me - shes not scared, she won't be bullied into it and its easier to sit and wait than make a fuss. I took her out regularly last season and by the end she was loading fine 99% of the time :)
 
Could I just clarify, you have bought a new horse who you have been told travels and loads OK, but you can't get it loaded to bring it home !

If this was me big alarm bells would now be going off, what else have you been told that is not true.

I think I would be suggesting that the seller proves that the horse will load and travel by getting them to pay for any outside assistance that may be required, failing that I would be cancelling the sale and asking for a refund of my money.
 
I used a Richard Maxwell training halter on our chesnut mare who would rear and drag us around the yard - it took 10 mins to get her on! I now use it each time and she might have one little protest and then lads perfectly! The halter comes with a DVD which covers general groundwork and loading!
 
Sounds silly but are all doors, windows and partitions fully open?

How big is the mare?

I personally would go down the RA route but make sure you have the mare loading and unloading well several times before you travel, then repeat the process at the other end and for a few days after that and then periodically.

It sounds like a confidence thing. Like she hasn't travelled for a while and has forgotten what it's about.

Have you tried leading a good loader on and through the box in front of her?

you'd she be 'starved' for a few hours (maximum 3 hours) before you try loading and then bribe her with food?
 
We have had partitions out, front ramp open and lead a calm horse through the box to see if she would follow.

She hadn't travelled for nearly 3 years and was calmly investigating the trailer (nearly loading!) but there were lots of people there trying to help and unfortunately in this case I think it was all a bit too much and the mare just switched off!

The seller is a good friend who has owned this mare for 5 years (mare is nearly 6) and we've known the mare for a good couple of years so we know exactly what we are getting, in any other situation I would be wary but I know the background of this horse. :) The owner is being kind enough looking after her for me (I could go and look after her where she is but it is difficult with the hours I work) whilst we arrange travel and has been very helpful in arranging to borrow a trailer that is kept at their yard so we can use it anytime.

The RA is booked for next Tuesday, the same RA has trailer trained all our other horses so I believe she will get the job done, the mare is only 15.1hh but typical QH with a big bottom and lots of muscle! I will let you know how we all get on.
 
Definately try the local Monty Roberts RA, especially if you've had positive experiences with them before. I've got an arab who used to be an absolute b****r to load, then tried alot of groundwork training with the dually halter and it worked wonders!!! Loads straight away now :D
 
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