Loading advice wanted - securing breaching bar

[Crazylittlemaisey]

My new mare doesn't like loading into my trailer and despite making progress I've come across the next big obstacle.

She will load quite reasonably following me up the ramp and I've been rewarding her for longer periods of standing still whilst she's on the trailer.

The tricky part is putting the bar across as she hates things moving behind her. She sits down/kicks out/reverses, etc.

I had a Kelly Marks person out who's suggestions were 1. Desensitise her to movement around her back end and 2. Buy a side loading trailer.

Any ideas on ways to desensitise her to the bar? What are other people's experience of this?

 

[Crazylittlemaisey]

I should add that I use gates and a broom stick to desensitise as best I can. I keep her at home so am on my own in her training. My first priority is to stay safe!!

 

[soloequestrian]

I sell a harness that lets you clip on to the front bar to prevent reversing out of the trailer. Using it would at least let you work around her back end in a reasonably relaxed way so you could slowly get her used to the back bar going up. www.soloequestrian.com. It might be worth looking at the concept of clicker training too so you can give an indication of what you want her to do/ not do while not being at her head.

 

[claret09]

my boy is tricky and I have to load him on my own where ever we are. I don't bother with a back bar I just put the back up. I sometimes have to spend several minutes quietly persuading him to let me put the back up. he tends to get half way and slide off, then gets three feet in and slides back off. I get out of the jockey door and he again slides off. I sometimes have to open the front door again and let him out. it is like playing a game of chess. I gradually win, one move at a time. you need to be patient if I get frustrated it takes even longer. I always give my self loads of time to load. ironically coming home from our trainer we have the front down and the back down and he walks straight on sam than puts the front up and the back up. you have to persevere and be patient - but boy they can be frustrating

 

[southerncomfort]

I had this issue with our tricky loader.

This is a bit 'out there' but it honestly did work. I took a section of plastic pipe and covered it with lagging to simulate the bar. I then spent a good deal of time desensitising her to having it around her back end, until she was totally unconcerned. Next I made a trailer shape in my schooling area using jump wings and poles. I ran some string through the pipe/lagging and attached it to a jump wing. We had her walking in and out of the trailer shape. Once she was walking in and standing happily I began gently lifting the pipe/lagging behind her to simulate the breech bar going up. Only once she was totally happy with this did we go to the trailer.

Initially we had her stand in there and just rub her hindquarters with the pipe/lagging and then progressed to slowly lifting the breech bar, then lowering it and praising her until eventually we could fix it in place without any drama.

I know reading this it sounds time consuming but in reality we did this over a couple of days and it was definitely worth taking it slowly so she was never frightened.

 

[Red-1]

I had one like this, but asked friends to help, and we used a blanket that they raised and lowered like a ramp. If he reversed then the blanket reversed with him, and he found no release. He quit it, and became OK with things behind him.

We then did a load of desensitisation, where we would tap on the sides etc, and if he stood still we would stop, but if he was antsy we would keep tapping. The key was to do little enough that he would stop, so we could reward by stopping. Then we got it so we could shuffle the back part of the partition around, bang, whoop him with the blanket etc, building step by step. All this by aiming to do little enough each time that he would stand so we could reward him. By the time it was time for the breeching bar it was all a bit of a non event!

 

[Red-1]

I had this issue with our tricky loader.

This is a bit 'out there' but it honestly did work. I took a section of plastic pipe and covered it with lagging to simulate the bar. I then spent a good deal of time desensitising her to having it around her back end, until she was totally unconcerned. Next I made a trailer shape in my schooling area using jump wings and poles. I ran some string through the pipe/lagging and attached it to a jump wing. We had her walking in and out of the trailer shape. Once she was walking in and standing happily I began gently lifting the pipe/lagging behind her to simulate the breech bar going up. Only once she was totally happy with this did we go to the trailer.

Initially we had her stand in there and just rub her hindquarters with the pipe/lagging and then progressed to slowly lifting the breech bar, then lowering it and praising her until eventually we could fix it in place without any drama.

I know reading this it sounds time consuming but in reality we did this over a couple of days and it was definitely worth taking it slowly so she was never frightened.

I agree with doing the background work in an arena. I had a big mare who found it difficult to move round in a side loading box, so we marked it out on an arena and she learned the skills in a separate environment. She was great and 'educated' before we even got her to the box.

 

[2manyponies]

Aside from all the other perfectly good suggestions from both you and others perhaps you simply need to get a second person involved until she is trained and comfortable with it, then at that point start loading her on your own, perhaps still having the second person present (but not necessarily doing anything) for a bit in case she reverts back. Even if it means paying someone for a bit and using the techniques suggested. There's just hopefully more chance of it going smoothly, less chance of her getting away with reversing out etc with another person.

 

[iknowmyvalue]

It's definitely possible to solve this issue, so don't despair! But when I've done it before I've always had 2 people, one to stand at head end to feed/hold/distract, and then one at the back end to move the bar. It's just a case of doing it slowly slowly and not pushing her out of her comfort zone too quickly. If the trailer is big enough, I'd definitely make sure that she walks right the way forwards, so that when you put the bar across it doesn't actually have to touch her. Southerncomfort's suggestion is a good one, and I'd probably be trying something like that if you have to be by yourself.

 

[Zuzan]

I had this issue with our tricky loader.

This is a bit 'out there' but it honestly did work. I took a section of plastic pipe and covered it with lagging to simulate the bar. I then spent a good deal of time desensitising her to having it around her back end, until she was totally unconcerned. Next I made a trailer shape in my schooling area using jump wings and poles. I ran some string through the pipe/lagging and attached it to a jump wing. We had her walking in and out of the trailer shape. Once she was walking in and standing happily I began gently lifting the pipe/lagging behind her to simulate the breech bar going up. Only once she was totally happy with this did we go to the trailer.

Initially we had her stand in there and just rub her hindquarters with the pipe/lagging and then progressed to slowly lifting the breech bar, then lowering it and praising her until eventually we could fix it in place without any drama.

I know reading this it sounds time consuming but in reality we did this over a couple of days and it was definitely worth taking it slowly so she was never frightened.

I agree with doing the background work in an arena. I had a big mare who found it difficult to move round in a side loading box, so we marked it out on an arena and she learned the skills in a separate environment. She was great and 'educated' before we even got her to the box.

Definitely this... I have been through a similar process .. it works.

 

[bubsqueaks]

My new mare doesn't like loading into my trailer and despite making progress I've come across the next big obstacle.

She will load quite reasonably following me up the ramp and I've been rewarding her for longer periods of standing still whilst she's on the trailer.

The tricky part is putting the bar across as she hates things moving behind her. She sits down/kicks out/reverses, etc.

I had a Kelly Marks person out who's suggestions were 1. Desensitise her to movement around her back end and 2. Buy a side loading trailer.

Any ideas on ways to desensitise her to the bar? What are other people's experience of this?

There's some really great advice here, we too are now having problems with closing a side loading lorry partition, having managed to persuade him onto the lorry he has now learnt the art of avoidance by swinging either his shoulders or hips, he will stand there all day until you go to close the partition & then his antics begin, so will definitely be using some of the suggested training thankyou.

 

[Identityincrisis]

Or you can cut the years of c**p i endured with my horse and just get Richard Maxwell out! I spent 3 1/2years doing all of the above with my horse and the longest he sttood on the trailer for was 10mins!!! I couldn't even entertain a bar or ramp, i had 2 different KM Associates out who couldn't solve him even after a dozen sessions. Within 20minutes of presenting him to the trailer RM had him loaded and standing. 2hours later(mainly horse just standing on trailer) he had the ramp fully up. I cried!!! With hindsight i wished I'd done it sooner, he wasn't particularly cheap but I would have paid double to get to where i am now, not loading doesn't even come into it now. Read my past posts to get an idea of what I was up against

 

[tristar]

always get someone to help, its safer and quicker, i use the other person to put the back bar across soon as the horse is in, quietly, and am ready to move off quickly as the vehicle vibrations seem to make the horse concentrate on balancing.

also always use a piece of twine attached to the back bar across the floor so at no time does the helper have to go behind the horse they pick up the twine from safety of the other side of the partition and smoothly lock it in.

 

[Annagain]

My boy does something similar - he's not in the slightest bit bothered and you can almost see him laughing at me. If anybody else is at the yard, he won't do it, even if they're 30m away and out of sight, he knows I've got help if I need it so behaves! If I'm on my own, he goes on fine but shoots off backwards as soon as I leave his head. He's broken so many leadropes, it's untrue. He loads himself to come home or if there's another horse on the trailer.

For him, food is the only thing that works - although if she's genuinely worried, I get it might not for her. I put one of those buckets that hangs over a door over the breast bar (the fact it swings back and fore a bit is good as it's harder for him to get to the food) with a handful of something tasty and while he's focussed on that, I sneak round the back and do it up.

Could you maybe try leaving the breast bar down so she goes further forward, distracting her with a bit of food while you do the back up and then backing her up to put the breast bar in place?

 

[catroo]

my boy is tricky and I have to load him on my own where ever we are. I don't bother with a back bar I just put the back up.

This sounds incredibly dangerous, firstly the ramp fixings aren't designed with that in mind and secondly there's the danger of you being squashed when releasing the ramp back down

 

[claret09]

he doesn't have a partition in the trailer and always comes out frontwards. he is an absolute angel once he is on. you would never know he was in the trailer. it is a method that works well for us. we have travelled all over. I drive very carefully with him as he is extremely precious.

This sounds incredibly dangerous, firstly the ramp fixings aren't designed with that in mind and secondly there's the danger of you being squashed when releasing the ramp back down

 

[MagicMelon]

As others have said, I wouldnt think this would be much of an issue to sort purely through patience and practice outwith the trailer to begin with. If he's funny about stuff going on behind him then do lots of stuff on the ground to get him used to it. As an example one of mine had developed a thing about things flapping round behind and above her withers (basically my young son couldnt hold rossettes up when he was sitting on her as it could spook her) so I attached lots of plastic strips (cut from a feed bag) and tied them on a jump pole then put it up high so they dangled and slowly got the pony to walk underneath / through. She's still a bit spooky but much better than she was. So yeah its just thinking outside the box a bit, Id try tying a tail bandage from a lunge roller round behind her bum and back the other side and lunge her in that to get her used to something tightish right up behind her. Also just getting a schooling or lunge whip and getting her used to you slowly tickling her with it all round her back, down her back legs, round her hindquarters etc. Work up to a plastic bag for example tied to the end of the whip so it makes a funny noise as well. Get someone to "load" her into the stable so walk in then stop with the door open behind her, then get a pretend bar (tied with baler twine on one end) which you could pull up to replicate the trailer situation etc.? Loads of treats when hes good.