horsey no likey loading :(

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Flowers187

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alrighty so my little 4 year old, has had a few practises now and loading and my inital problem was she'd walk on, but jump the front ramp instead of walking down it, so went to practise today with the though of back unlaoding her instead, only to find the little maddam didnt want to go on the trailer at all and after 2 hours of temper tantrums I gave up.
She did stand half in and eat some feed but left again when she realised what I was trying to do. And I did try with my other mare in the other side muching on a haynet, but shes still wasnt very keen on it.

Oh and i use a long rope and a rope halter,
She does understand whips or getting hit as i've never had to do it, so no harmful answers please!

Any tips/ideas on how to get her on and happy? Really want to get her out to some shows now, as shes been going so well, just hit a brick wall!

Cheers in advance!
 
Don't feed her until she's in, just walk her on and off then progress to asking her to stand, our filly had to be asked to walk off she was so comy with it.
Personally I would walk her through going to the field and coming in, feed her in there so it's second nature good luck
We have a mare, very stubborn in loading, not scared just stubborn, I find tickling her heels with something gets her moving but she is 12 not a baby
 
One of mine refused to load years ago, so I bought the Richard Maxwell halter & learnt how to use it. I wonder if you are using the halter correctly. The basic idea is that when the horse is with you, it is in a comfort zone, when it moves away from you, it puts itself into pressure - you don't apply the pressure, the horse does. (sorry if you know all this already, but I have seen so many people use a pressure halter incorrectly). I practised with the halter with my boy on the ground for 2 weeks before going anywhere near the box and he was brilliant with it. The first time I tried to load him with it, it took 25 minutes and after that he walked in every time. He is now 23 and has never not loaded - but I always use the halter just in case!

I can't help much about the front ramp - I know many people whose horses jump the ramp.
 
you said you had the intention of unloading out the rear of the trailer, did you have the front ramp down when you were trying to load??

i had a horse that used to cat leap from the top of the ramp but i managed to distract her with a packet of polos, i found that at the top of the ramp her head would go up and she would just ignore me then jump. once i started using the polos she would concentrate on me/the polos! at the top of the ramp i'd bring her head down by using a polo/mint, then ask her to step down, it took a few goes but she got the idea that it was safe to stand on and i was able to stop her half way to give a mint.
 
You will need a dually or Be Nice (i don't like thin rope halters as they dig in), the dually is the most user friendly and comes with DVD.


Basically you work on the principle of pressure when she is not with you, timing being crucial. So you step away and do and tighten the rope increasing pressure, the minute she steps forward you release
 
My boy doesnt load very well but I think its good cause if anyone tried to pinch him WELL The fun would begin lol
Have you tried coaxing her with a bucket feed?
 
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