MuffettMischief
Well-Known Member
Hi,
I'll try to keep it short and just say that we have tried all the tricks in the book so im hoping someone has some other ideas!
We have a horse that will load himself 10 times a day, every day all the time he is calm and quiet. the problem is that he wont load very well after hunting/competing/going out to a school or clinic. He will load perfectly on the way there but not the way back. You can tell that when he is high as a kite (for example just finished hunting!) that he just cant get into a good head space to be respectful and go on the lorry when asked. He will go sideways, backwards, kick out (resulted in me in a&e a few weeks ago...) and any which way apart from up the ramp. Once he does finally get on (after a bit of a fight which I dont want to have with him) , he will have a wee and stand there eating haylage as quiet as a lamb with a leg rested... You would never know hes on there either, he travels quietly and happily munches his grub on both outward and return journeys.
We have tried giving him time to chill out when back at the lorry, eat some haylage, offer a drink and have a hand walk round to relax and this does help but not enough. He is getting worse and not better and is not consistent. Last week he was an utter horror, the week before I had him on in 10 mins just asking with the quietly quietly approach. Any ideas?
As above, we have tried all the usual tricks and it makes no difference if he is in a bridle, rope halter, dually or his normal headcollar!! I do the nicey nicey approach, and i am normally very good at getting them to load but he throws his weight around (17.1 HW hunter!) and will run through you. Its like he just cant come down of his cloud and totally loses any manners or respect for you. Normally he is very good on the ground.
Thanks!
I'll try to keep it short and just say that we have tried all the tricks in the book so im hoping someone has some other ideas!
We have a horse that will load himself 10 times a day, every day all the time he is calm and quiet. the problem is that he wont load very well after hunting/competing/going out to a school or clinic. He will load perfectly on the way there but not the way back. You can tell that when he is high as a kite (for example just finished hunting!) that he just cant get into a good head space to be respectful and go on the lorry when asked. He will go sideways, backwards, kick out (resulted in me in a&e a few weeks ago...) and any which way apart from up the ramp. Once he does finally get on (after a bit of a fight which I dont want to have with him) , he will have a wee and stand there eating haylage as quiet as a lamb with a leg rested... You would never know hes on there either, he travels quietly and happily munches his grub on both outward and return journeys.
We have tried giving him time to chill out when back at the lorry, eat some haylage, offer a drink and have a hand walk round to relax and this does help but not enough. He is getting worse and not better and is not consistent. Last week he was an utter horror, the week before I had him on in 10 mins just asking with the quietly quietly approach. Any ideas?
As above, we have tried all the usual tricks and it makes no difference if he is in a bridle, rope halter, dually or his normal headcollar!! I do the nicey nicey approach, and i am normally very good at getting them to load but he throws his weight around (17.1 HW hunter!) and will run through you. Its like he just cant come down of his cloud and totally loses any manners or respect for you. Normally he is very good on the ground.
Thanks!