Loading away from home

Caramac71

Caramac71

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We had someone out to help us with loading issues just over a year ago. Since then, horse loads well at home (although we do take the time to practise when she hasn't been out in a while). She travels quietly, never seems stressed, never sweaty and in no rush to unload at the other end. But she always objects to loading when coming home.

She's been in different lorries (rear facing and herringbone), she's travelled alone and in company, she's been to various events (lessons, clinics, xc, sj, dressage, inhand shows). The times when she's loaded quicker are when she's been out for a long period of time (eg a team competition) so she's had a long wait before we've attempted to load her again.

She's been in/out of work since a diagnosis of arthritic changes in her spine las summer, and I'd put the reluctance to load down to possible discomfort when travelling. But now I'm thinking that she's actually just got in a habit of questioning it. We have stalls at our yard for tacking up / untacking and sometimes after being ridden she objects to going in, in the same way she does when loading. So I'm wondering if it's when she's a bit tired she becomes argumentative?

If it's likely that she's going to be able to compete / attend clinics a couple of times a month over Summer, then I plan to get some loading help away from home from the lady who came out to us previously.

I just wondered if anyone else had this problem, and if they could shed any light on why she might be objecting?
 
Its interesting that she is funny going into the stall. My horse is reluctant to go into the washbox sometimes when it is dark outside but not dark enough to switch on a light on the yard. The washbox is quite cavernous so can get dark inside. So I just switch on the light and he is fine. Could it be that when you load to leave the venue the light is diminishing and she dislikes walking into a gloomy trailer?
 
Mine can be (witness embarrassing hour outside the horsepital last year after he had been there a couple of days for impaction colic) and seems to be looking for distractions all around. He does load fine at home, thanks to lots and lots of practice but it is difficult to replicate the "away" situation, especially when I am normally on my own or with inexperienced "help". Watching ths thread with interest.
 
applecart14 said:
Its interesting that she is funny going into the stall. My horse is reluctant to go into the washbox sometimes when it is dark outside but not dark enough to switch on a light on the yard. The washbox is quite cavernous so can get dark inside. So I just switch on the light and he is fine. Could it be that when you load to leave the venue the light is diminishing and she dislikes walking into a gloomy trailer?
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I hadn't thought of that! I'll try the internal light on next time and see if it makes any difference. Certainly the worst loading we had was in the pouring rain on a very dark day. And quite often after a rally, because we know she's tricky, we wait til everyone else has loaded and gone home so it's dusk by the time we are loading.

JillA said:
Mine can be (witness embarrassing hour outside the horsepital last year after he had been there a couple of days for impaction colic) and seems to be looking for distractions all around. He does load fine at home, thanks to lots and lots of practice but it is difficult to replicate the "away" situation, especially when I am normally on my own or with inexperienced "help". Watching ths thread with interest.
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Your horse sounds very similar to ours. She is always looking for a distraction and that includes at home too.

When we had the RA out for loading practice, we did it at a specific place in our car park as it meant the lorry was on hard ground and we were loading from grass. Since then, horse will only load at that point (as we discovered when we tried to load her in a different area of the car park). If there is anything else nearby, that will distract her. That's why we thought it would be useful to box up, go to a competition somewhere and get the RA to help us in different situations. Although, knowing our horse, that will only mean she will load from THAT spot at THAT venue and we will end up spending a fortune getting the RA to help us load everywhere we visit :D
 
Yes mine doesn't want to go home when goes to an event ! just too much going on. We had a break through after a 2hr stand off ! literally hold up a lunge line and she goes in ? she has never been schooled or trained to this but it works !
 
Of course one of the factors is your own stress levels - it's hard not to be anxious when you are away from home and likely to never get home again!!
 
A behaviourist friend of mine says that this is a common problem, and it is generally down to the fact that loading is stressful; in the horse's home situation it can deal with the stress of loading because it's comfortable with the place, but when it is out and about and already has a certain level of stress, getting into the headspace to walk up a steep ramp and onto a scary box is just one thing too many. This tallies with the fact that, the longer she's been there and had a chance to chill, the better she loads. This also tallies with the fact that she only loads in your specific space at home - she's only comfortable there.
 
Morgan123 said:
A behaviourist friend of mine says that this is a common problem, and it is generally down to the fact that loading is stressful; in the horse's home situation it can deal with the stress of loading because it's comfortable with the place, but when it is out and about and already has a certain level of stress, getting into the headspace to walk up a steep ramp and onto a scary box is just one thing too many. This tallies with the fact that, the longer she's been there and had a chance to chill, the better she loads. This also tallies with the fact that she only loads in your specific space at home - she's only comfortable there.
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Yep what I had always thought. Have known a few that were trickier to load coming home than going out, and don't know of anyone that work the other way around. I'd always assumed it was due to horse being more comfortable etc at home so easier to load, and then higher stress/anxiety/excitement etc levels away from home. Don't think they can work out that loading away from home = going back home ofc!

ETA When I had a tricky loader, we worked first on loading from home but then did some outings and worked away from home, at local yards and then further afield from the helper's yard.
 
Assuming you use repetition for loading training, it might be worth loading and unloading a few times before you leave home, and when you arrive unload and immediately reload and reward before you do anything else. The load on arrival just feels like one of the repetitions, and by the time you go home you've already loaded once so it doesn't feel like such a big deal.
 
Thank you, that's an interesting theory and makes sense. Sounds like it'll be worth loading up and going to local yards just to practice reloading in a different environment, and then when she's coping with that we can move on to busier venues.
 
Caramac71 said:
I hadn't thought of that! I'll try the internal light on next time and see if it makes any difference. Certainly the worst loading we had was in the pouring rain on a very dark day. And quite often after a rally, because we know she's tricky, we wait til everyone else has loaded and gone home so it's dusk by the time we are loading.



Your horse sounds very similar to ours. She is always looking for a distraction and that includes at home too.

When we had the RA out for loading practice, we did it at a specific place in our car park as it meant the lorry was on hard ground and we were loading from grass. Since then, horse will only load at that point (as we discovered when we tried to load her in a different area of the car park). If there is anything else nearby, that will distract her. That's why we thought it would be useful to box up, go to a competition somewhere and get the RA to help us in different situations. Although, knowing our horse, that will only mean she will load from THAT spot at THAT venue and we will end up spending a fortune getting the RA to help us load everywhere we visit :D
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I would be trying her at home in different places, loading up, driving round the parking area, unloading and loading back in until she is reliable.
I thought the point of having help to sort out a loading problem was that they sorted it out completely and give you the skills to deal with any minor set backs, not so they just load in one place, I expect you are more tense away as you are now expecting problems so it may be worthwhile getting help again to give you some more tools to use when things are not set up so well, she should by now be wanting to load not questioning you, there will be a key to it as most horses enjoy getting out and about but are usually more than happy to load up to go home at the end of the day.
 
So does no one have a horse like mine? She is dreadful to load at home I use a gate, lunge line & OH, when I come home she skips in and I can do the whole thing on my own. I am sure it is because she knows going out means work and coming home she says bring it on. Not unlike me when I went to school.

OP Good luck with yours.
 
be positive said:
I would be trying her at home in different places, loading up, driving round the parking area, unloading and loading back in until she is reliable.
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I am not very experienced with loading problems, as I was fortunate enough to have a horse who pretty much loaded himself, and have not started taking my youngster out yet, but this makes sense to me.

I have been taught that horses are very contextual learners, so you can teach them something, but they only learn it in the context in which it's taught. E.g. you learn to jump a ditch, but you need to learn to jump several different ditches before you can be confident that your horse can be relied upon to jump ditches. For them to be able to generalise what they've learned, and be able to apply it any time anywhere, you would need to train it in up to 5 different contexts. So it's great that you can load in your "special loading place" at home, but you might find that if you train it again in different places at home, the horse finds it easier to understand what's expected when you're out and about.
Just a thought x
 
Micropony said:
I am not very experienced with loading problems, as I was fortunate enough to have a horse who pretty much loaded himself, and have not started taking my youngster out yet, but this makes sense to me.

I have been taught that horses are very contextual learners, so you can teach them something, but they only learn it in the context in which it's taught. E.g. you learn to jump a ditch, but you need to learn to jump several different ditches before you can be confident that your horse can be relied upon to jump ditches. For them to be able to generalise what they've learned, and be able to apply it any time anywhere, you would need to train it in up to 5 different contexts. So it's great that you can load in your "special loading place" at home, but you might find that if you train it again in different places at home, the horse finds it easier to understand what's expected when you're out and about.
Just a thought x
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This is absolutely how they learn, it is why so often people say they have issues with water on a xc yet they cannot understand why they will walk through a puddle out hacking without concern or sometimes the total opposite, it is the context that is so different, I think with loading they have to want to go in, be rewarded in some way for loading and learn to go in with no pressure whatsoever, most of mine love going out, load into any vehicle anywhere, including trying to go up random ramps at shows sometimes, I have had some tricky ones over the years but most have learnt to go in with very little fuss once they understood what was required.

I think the OP has been a bit cheated by the RA who has only partly sorted the issue, the mare has not totally understood the lesson, or there is a small possibility she finds the traveling more difficult because of her condition but I would expect it to show in other ways and she seems to be improving generally.
 
We have a mare who does to such an extent, we have had to hack 12 miles home!
She went to an IH weekend to be used as a Guinea pig for their trainees. It improved her a lot,but several things of note were mentioned and taught to us.
Firstly, my lorry ramp,was booked in to be replaced as it wasn't rotten,but had bowed a lot. This would have maybe made her worried.
Secondly, to corral her so she had no way to run out. We couldn't for obvious reasons transport a round one with us, so improvised using wind breaks that you normally see on a beach. This wasn't fail proof but it helped.
Thirdly,she went on loan to a family who were told exactly how difficult she could be, and they have experience with problem loaders as it turned out. They now use a blind fold, so no need to corral. It fails something like 1 time in 30. Then, lorry is backed into a corner leaving only one side that she could be difficult with, and that can be successfully blocked with a rug or siemthign attached to the lorry and whatever is making the block, often a wall or hedge.
Good luck,it's an incredibly frustrating situation when they are perfect at home but not away!
 
H does this too - loads 99.9% reliably at home (the other 0.1% he does the Highland Pony Plant, but that's just HiPos for you), but he tends to be rather awkward away from home.

One thing that certainly helps is having the trailer parked somewhere quiet (not too many exciting things to goggle at) and on hard-standing (no grass begging to be eaten): he's too nosy and greedy not to get distracted otherwise.

The other secret weapon for getting him up the ramp, I have found, is blackberry-flavoured Nutri-Grain bars. Not something I would recommend feeding on a regular basis, but they are easy to handle and apparently a great favourite of H's (besides which, any spares can be eaten by tired human helpers once we've hit the road).
 
be positive said:
I would be trying her at home in different places, loading up, driving round the parking area, unloading and loading back in until she is reliable.
I thought the point of having help to sort out a loading problem was that they sorted it out completely and give you the skills to deal with any minor set backs, not so they just load in one place, I expect you are more tense away as you are now expecting problems so it may be worthwhile getting help again to give you some more tools to use when things are not set up so well, she should by now be wanting to load not questioning you, there will be a key to it as most horses enjoy getting out and about but are usually more than happy to load up to go home at the end of the day.
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It might sound daft but it was actually a long time before we discovered that she'd only load from one place at home as we didn't think to try anywhere else. Our car park isn't huge and there's only one place where you can park on hardstanding but load from grass so that's where we tend to load. It was only when someone had parked in that gap that we tried elsewhere and she wouldn't load, and I reparked in the usual spot and she went straight on that we realised she associated that area as the place where she loads.

When RA came out to us she had her loading very quickly. Within an hour we could unclip at the bottom of the ramp and she'd load herself. I honestly didn't realise all we'd achieved was to teach her to load in one place!

We will try your suggestions at home first. I do think she enjoys outings - we hadn't been anywhere for a few months over winter and decided to do a bit of loading practice as we were planning a trip. We expected her to be hesitant to load as it'd been a long time but she couldn't wait to get on.

We do try to keep everything within her comfort zone - most of her trips are very local to venues she knows. If we ever need to take her further afield or somewhere new, we try to take another pony.

It does appear that it's the loading that's the stress for her as once she's on she'll sometimes sigh and visibly relax. It's just understanding why she's battling against it that is our problem. And I think the difference between how easily the RA had her loading and the issues we have is just not having the experience to react before she does.

I'm not sure we are stressed as such when loading as we always allow loads of time but I do think we are expecting her not to load. We do all the ground work RA showed us and mare does it nicely, but to the point where she's practically doing it without being asked as its all part of the 'habit' . As, is suspect, is the refusing to load.

I would love to be able to get her loading without her questioning it, for her to be able to stand on the box between classes. Standing on the box doesn't seem to be an issue, when we arrive we never rush to unload and she stands quietly. Likewise after we load we don't always leave straight away. She always has hay and treats on the box.

We havent been consistent with loading and travelling due to her health problems and the priority for time and money had been on treatment, physio etc. But currently she seems happy and comfortable so it's probably a good time to enlist some help and start again.

Thank you all for your suggestions, I'm really glad I posted because it's made me realise some issues I hadn't questioned about contributing to the problem.
 
Load and unload multiple times a day. Take her for a run on the transport and return home then load and unload then do the same at venues.

Guaranteed it's because you don't practice loading at a venue as you are so relieved she's in!
 
hobo, my pony is the same as yours. Nightmare to load at home - plants on the ramp and then runs backwards and throws in the odd rear (except if loading in company, in which case he usually squashes me as he runs on to be with his friend!) I have to resort to a be nice, a lunge line and my husband, who thank god seems to have the physical strength and no-nonsense attitude required. Coming home, pony skips on happily!
 
OP I have the same problem, my mare was and still is difficult to load. We have got her to the stage she is fairly reliable to load at home, this weekend, she loaded after 5 minutes whilst there was quite a bit going on around her, i.e. people bringing horses in others riding in the the school and people stood around chatting quite close by, she hasn't been out since October, nor been loaded since.

We went off on a 20 minute journey to hire an arena and do some jumping, had an absolutely fantastic time, but then took nearly an hour and a half to load her, she wasn't particularly stressed or anxious, but was clearly more interested in the other horse in the arena, and things going on. We did eventually get her to load up and she travelled home perfectly.

People keep telling me practice is the key, but it can prove expensive, to take her out to different places, and then have the worry of her not loading to come home, she is only 5 and hasn't seen much traffic either, so the thought of having to hack home horrifies me also.

Im thinking of loading up and taking her out on the field that is attached to our yard, and seeing if she will unload and load back up there, once she is comfortable doing that, I will try and go a little further, but its difficult where we are to find safe places to unload and try to do this

Hope you get it sorted :)
 
Repetition is key. As soon as they're in, lots of fuss and reward, then immediately off and straight on again - ten or twenty times, every time, until they load without hesitation. Mine went from not wanting to load, to needing a halt at the bottom of the ramp or she'd go on too fast - in three sessions. Repeat at both ends and keep the journey sweet
 
We had one who had always travelled alone until he came to us, loaded perfectly, still loaded fine when he came to us, with company as we nearly always took 2 out. One the rare occasions that we've taken him out on his own, he hasn't wanted to load coming home, and now has started not wanting to load at home unless his 'friend' goes on first. I think in his case, he has got used to having another pony with him now and doesnt fancy travelling when he thinks he might be going on his own. I suppose,in his mind, he is leaving a lovely pony party with lots of company, to get in a trailer on his own.
 
No real help but re the comment of it being rare for this to work in reverse my sec d can be a tad reluctant to load at home sometimes but is generally better on the return journey... I've moved him about a bit in past few years so think he's just reluctant to leave home (also he'd rather be in field munching!)
 
Boulty said:
No real help but re the comment of it being rare for this to work in reverse my sec d can be a tad reluctant to load at home sometimes but is generally better on the return journey... I've moved him about a bit in past few years so think he's just reluctant to leave home (also he'd rather be in field munching!)
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I was just going to say the same !

We had one who could be a nightmare to load at home but would load no problem coming back. We even resorted on a few occasions (having spent 30mins plus trying to load and being in danger of missing competitions) to hacking him out for 10 mins and then me meeting my daughter down the road with the trailer to load him.
 
Refusing to load was one of the first signs that Lenny was unhappy in his back! He used to load himself but it got to the point where it took 3 hours to load him on the way home one day! He had loaded within 2 mins that morning.
Vet said it wasn't surprising, on the way Lenny would have been fresh, not in much pain and happy to load, but the strain of travelling, then working would have left him very uncomfortable and he would associate Lorry and return journey with more pain and hence we had more of a problem of the way home than the way out.
Unsurprisingly now he is no longer in pain he is getting so much better at loading and on the way home from the vets last time he loaded first time!
 
My mare is still difficult 5 years after me getting her and she is nearly 22!. Loads ok at home as we generally have one side next to a wall. Coming back, no wall available and only 2 of us - me with her, hubby on one side of trailer, horse leaping towards uncovered side!!! If we practice at home with no wall she does get better. Last few times we've been out I've walked her through the trailer a few times first and just as that is ok, the bar goes up the next time she goes in and off home we go! Tricked!! I would say that the trailer always has to be full of light and I always have to leave her to calm down after which ever ride I've been on. Tried to shove her straight back in once after a fun ride as the car was playing up and had had RAC out, so as it was started we had to just go. Never again. Took 5 people to get her in a she was trembling when we got home 20 mins later. She prefers just me, hubby and a bit of peace and quiet to load!
 
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Theocat said:
Assuming you use repetition for loading training, it might be worth loading and unloading a few times before you leave home, and when you arrive unload and immediately reload and reward before you do anything else. The load on arrival just feels like one of the repetitions, and by the time you go home you've already loaded once so it doesn't feel like such a big deal.
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Just a little update, we spent a few sessions at home loading in different places and she loaded every time. We took her out to a local show yesterday and reloaded as soon as we arrived. She was a bit hesitant but we loaded and unloaded a couple of times before tacking up. Once she'd finished her classes we untacked and she loaded straight away!

So thank you all for the advice, I'm sure she will find other ways to challenge us but at least we had one stress-free outing and hopefully we can build in this.
 
Caramac71 said:
Just a little update, we spent a few sessions at home loading in different places and she loaded every time. We took her out to a local show yesterday and reloaded as soon as we arrived. She was a bit hesitant but we loaded and unloaded a couple of times before tacking up. Once she'd finished her classes we untacked and she loaded straight away!

So thank you all for the advice, I'm sure she will find other ways to challenge us but at least we had one stress-free outing and hopefully we can build in this.
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Brilliant news, really pleased for you :)
 
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