Loading issues- are they ever really resolved?

My friend had a mare who was so bad at loading,that she had to ride her to a Monty Roberts demo,about 10 miles and across a busy dual carriageway.They sorted the mare out there and then and although she will never be the happiest loader,she will load with no kerfuffle.I had a IH RA out last week for leading issues and it was nothing short of amazing.It completely changed the way I looked at and dealt with knobberpony,and it was very useful to have the RA watch me with knobberpony and observe the little signals that I didn't know I was giving out.In fact,if I keep doing my homework and she continues in her 'good work',I'll have to stop calling her knobberpony.

I'd highly reccomend the lady who came out to me,she is based in Derbyshire.
 
Yes they can be resolved, i had help from Richard Maxwell with a really bad loader,who would rear and throw himself to the ground before loading. It used to take me hours and hours to load, if i even could load him in a day :eek:
After my Max session i religiously did my loading homework,and 4 years later my horse still loads first time, :) he is now retired and when i loaded him the last time it was a year since he'd previously been in the box, but he still went up the ramp first time with no issues, and travelled well.:)
 
Took me over a year to get mine travelling. he had had several beatings when loading before and was absolutely petrified of going past a trailer or lorry, let alone in it. Lots of time and patience is what got us through it. I find that the set up for loading has to be spot on though, Ie everything where it should be as it only takes one thing out of place to worry him. There was always the "ever helpful person" with the broom up the bum approach-I always said no. and to be honest spending the time, on my own, is how we finally achieved it. Not quite managed to put the partiton in the trailer, but we havnt needed to yet. But it is something that we may have start work on as we now have a pony. I dont think I could ever leave him stood in it for any length of time either. Get to where we are going then out.
 
Hi after being a lurker for awhile, I,ve finally joined you lively bunch. My problem is that I,ve had a lot of problems with loading my mare. I,ve paid for a nat horsemanship trainer, and a month Roberts trained person to help me, both failed. In the end my friend came over and we spent all day finding what suited her and succeeded in getting her in. She is a bit claustrophobic and prefers an empty trailer, I add the breast bar once she,s in. Anyway I thought we,d sorted it, and for a few months she has been going in, she stands quietly and dozen,t sweat, and has been driven very carefully. Just lately she,s decided that she dozen,t want to be shut in there. She will walk through and even stand in the trailer with me at her head, but she won,t allow anyone near the back of the trailer to lift the ramp. As soon as someone walks towards the back, she reverses out, if they walk off, she,ll join me back in! She,s doing my head in, I,m so frustrated, it took two hours to get her in this week. I,m thinking maybe blinkers would stop her seeing the person at the back but have yet to try this. How do I stop her backing out when someone is at the back???
 
My mare had a scare once when we were loading her and was understandably nervous to load the next time we tried. We didn't push her, let her take her time and an hour and a half later she walked on happy as larry and more importantly stayed on. The next time we came to load her we started the same way but it soon became clear that she had planted at the bottom of the ramp not because she was scared but because she had got away with it before. She went on in an hour that time!

I then started feeding her in the trailer everyday and as someone else said letting her back off the minute she had finished until eventually she would stand quite happily for a fuss after her tea. She will now happily walk onto the trailer and stand perfectly and travel perfectly. The next test is to stop her leaping off the front ramp when we get her off so if anyone has any experience of doing this tips would be appreciated!
 
When I got my mare she just wouldn't load on a trailer or a box. I remember when we moved South I hired a lorry and she took over an hour to load, running backwards, running up the side and doing some pretty impresive rears
banghead.gif


When we got settled I bought a Ifor Williams 510 and started to practise loading, still she took forever to load, so I got myself on a Leading and Loading Course with Kelly Marks - best thing I ever did. I still do groundwork quite regulary and then I load on, off, on, off etc., etc., I find she is a typical mare as when we load she will hesitate on the ramp, when she does this I just ask with a small amount of pressure and on she goes. Think if someone else loaded her she could go right back to refusing again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top