OMG absolute disaster - what do i do now?

Paint Me Proud

Paint Me Proud

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Back story -
Bought 3.5t horsebox - Chico wouldnt load, reared the lot.
Sold that lorry - took small loan to afford a lorry with much lower inviting ramp.
Bought 3.5t renault master coachbuilt lorry.
Chico loaded (eventually) then decided it was ok and loaded easily.
Each subsequent load he has needed a little extra encouragement but no silly rearing etc just stubborness.

Current story -

Arranged a park visit with my family, they would meet me at the park with the dogs.
Got lorry ready at yard.
Tried to load Chico - he is being a tit and rears once, goes on after 15 minutes.

Have a lovely ride in the park with my family.

Come to load him to go home and NO WAY he's not going in.

We spent 45 minutes of rearing and refusing and getting more and more worried that we were going to be able to get him home :(

Last ditch attempt i grabbed my mums coat and made a blindfold over Chicos face.

Lead him around calmly, led him up to the lorry, he went up the ramp calmly but when he was half way in he tripped!

He went down on his knees and started to panic. He staggered up, and was going crazy, throwing himself about. I held on to him as hard as i could as i knew if he went back off there was no way we would ever get him back on.

Thankfully we managed to shut the partition and get him to calm down and drive back to the yard.

I just dont know what to do now - i had a summer of park visits, shows and fun planned and now i dont know what to do :(:(

Help
 
I totally feel your pain. My boy was a dream (never ever met a horse like it) to go in the trailer, until one day I took him out and he slipped whilst coming down the ramp, it took us 3 hours to get him in to take him home and it took us 6 months (every single day) to retrain him to go in, even now he's not perfect and I doubt he will ever be like he was. It's so sad that these things happen and it really upset me. It was just a freak accident that couldn't have been forseen.

I hope you can get him to go back in again, it takes a lot of time and patience.
 
What area are you in? I have had Lyn Dixon out to help with my sticky loader today, and she is just amazing.

If you are interested I can pm you the address of her website :)
 
Just seen you are in Walsall - might be a bit far for Lyn, but check out the Intelligent Horsemanship website for a Recommended Associate in your area - seriously, they are not "cheap", but it really is worth it I promise :)
 
Yeah they can be a bit pricey i think.

What do u use to load him? Just a head collar or anything else? I only ask as minewas a bit cheeky to load, nothing like urs but he used to just to it in his own time. My instructor put a stallion chain over his nose to load him and within 2 mins he was loading fine. I now use a headcollar with built in chain everytime i load and he is fine. He know when he has it on and when he doesn't.

Just a general thought but have u tried letting some else - a knowledgeable friend - try loading him? Sometimes we can be a bit soft on our own horses and they take the mikey. Just a thought...
 
Nadia can be loaded in a headcollar into a box like yours but mine (a transit) she has to be loaded with a bit in.
The more and more I load her the easier it is getting and this is my only suggestion to you is to load every single day if you can't afford the professional help.
 
i am no softey when it comes to loading him.

I have tried headcollar, pressure halter and he just rears when you apply any kind of pressure.

Actually i havent tried a chifney - might be worth a try
 
If youve got a few hundred quid get out Max as hes brilliant
Failing that get the Richard Maxwell halter and DVD on its use and spend the next few weeks schooling your horse with it following the Dvd.
My horse was exactly like yours and he was sorted out in 1 session by Max, it was the best money I spent on my horse
 
claireandnadia said:
The more and more I load her the easier it is getting and this is my only suggestion to you is to load every single day if you can't afford the professional help.
Click to expand...

Chico is going to opposite though - the more i load him the worse he is getting to the stage now it is almost too dangerous to try again :(
 
As everyone else has suggested, load every day. When he's loaded, give him his dinner. Back out and load again, out and in over and over.. Don't take him anywhere in it though, just park in the field and practise! REWARD all the time for steps taken forward. As soon as he starts to back away, YOU back him away and keep him backing up until you say stop. Try a chiffney but have a headcollar on underneath with a rope attached to that as well if in case he doesn't take too kindly to it. Have you tried a lunge line clipping on to box and brought around his bottom? Obviously person on end of lunge line needs to know exactly when to let go of the pressure if horse is going to rear etc.. I wouldn't blind fold again, they can't see where they are putting their feet (up the ramp on a slope etc).
 
chiffneys are a god send - they stop the rearing - trying to bugger off behaviour which then leaves the horse 2 real choices - stand still or load.

I would def. take some time out to practice loading - even if it is one foot on the ramp for handful of pony nuts - next day 2 feet on ramp for pony nuts etc. Only if horse prats about put on chiffney - if you can manage without great.

AND.... get a friend who is v calm to help - i think its much easier some times to load a horse that isn't yours !!

I also found lunge line good but not in the traditional - use it to force them in but in way but in a very very calm very slight pressure manner

I have walked 10 miles home as chap wouldnt load !! that was after a fall in a lorry - he now loads well in equitrek but it has taken a lot of patience, practising and most importantly a very calm knowledgeable friend to help.

Good luck - you will get there x
 
lungeline doesnt work, he feels the pressure and rears.

I am going to try him again tomorrow to see what his initial reaction is after todays fall.

I wont be blindfolding again, it was used purely as a last ditch attempt to try and get him home before we got locked in the park (and walking home wasnt an option - Chico is very scared of large vehicles - it would have been a death walk!)

Just cant believe it, one minute he's loading then the next he has realised he can rear again and all my hard work is completely undone :(
 
I used to have a fab loader, he started taking the Mick and getting bolshy and excited as he knew he'd be going out to a show, a normal headcollar is useless, tried the dually halter and he just pulls against it. Last resort was a chimney and a lunge line, he no longer runs off, just stands still at the bottom of the ramp and then walks in after a bit of coaxing!
 
imo if you have tried pressure halters etc and they cause him to rear ..... then putting more on wont help and although a chifney might stop him rearing (if it causes him sufficient pain) it wont actually address the problem ( imo)

maybe a change of tactic might help ..... if he is so sccared now and physical pressure causes even more problems then maybe positive reinforcement is the way to change his perception and provide motivation for him to go in.

To really work though you cant mix it with what you have been doing or it just wont work, he will get confused.

if you want more info just ask

ours queue up to go in :D


anorderlyque.jpg
 
Honey Pony said:
If he started off loading okay and then became worse, it might be worth looking at why he no longer wants to load?
Click to expand...

he started terrible = refused to load my old box AT ALL - reared and threw himself backwards.

I got a low side loader and initial attempt took some encouragement but he went on fine.

Then he was getting better each load but suddenely he worked out he could just rear again and avoid going in.

He hasnt had any scares etc in the lorry up until today - and he travels really quietly and unloads like a complete gent (even today after his fall when we got back to unload he just strolled of calmly!)

He's a puzzle
 
My youngster's breeder trained my littlest one to load so well that he loads up if I leave the trailer in the field while I'm getting one of the others ready to go out :D He's on here so I'm sure if he sees this he'll share his wisdom, but I believe he just uses positive reinforcement - allowing the ponies to free-load in the field or round pen and then they get fed in there...
 
god i wish i had my own land.
The only place to load at our yard is on the car park so i cant try the 'leave it in field with horse' method :(
 
We stick a lungeline through the tie ring, clip it onto the horse and stand outside the box next to the horse then lean on the lungeline applying pressure until they decide to load - works every time with rear facing lorries if horse has loaded before and isnt going to kill itself :)
 
Can't recommend a natural horsemanship recommended associate enough. My horse was pretty much a non loader but after one visit he was following me up the ramp with no lead rope/lunge line.
 
Horse reacts to pressure, QED - Dont apply pressure... Go back to the beginning, different surfaces, going "thru" wings, get people to hold things above your head as you go under. Be creative. Ask for the energy from behind, not from the front....

If Chico has gotten as bad as you are saying then no "gadgets" are going to help you, its like trying to put a sticking plaster over a gaping wound, It'll only get worse and reinforce his behaviour.

I have a suggestion. PM me if you are interested.
 
CrazyFriesian said:
Horse reacts to pressure, QED - Dont apply pressure... Go back to the beginning, different surfaces, going "thru" wings, get people to hold things above your head as you go under. Be creative. Ask for the energy from behind, not from the front....

If Chico has gotten as bad as you are saying then no "gadgets" are going to help you, its like trying to put a sticking plaster over a gaping wound, It'll only get worse and reinforce his behaviour.

I have a suggestion. PM me if you are interested.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, see my link posted above, creating the energy from behind instead of dragging!!
 
Try a chiney and someone behind him with a schooling whip touching his back leg lightly and do that every night, give him his tea on the lorry for a few nights

Keep us updated, is quite an interesting one
 
My friends who have horses who have been challenging to load in the past have used NH methods to get them happy and confident loading. Basically it's not about the trailer so they have done lots of simulations of different aspects of trailer loading without the trailer even being there. For example:
- getting the horse to walk over and stand on strange surfaces such as a tarp, a bridge; we also use a pedestal and we have a horse see-saw in the field.
- getting the horse confident with narrow spaces e.g. squeezing between the human and a wall, the human and the outside of the trailer, circling between the human and the outside of the trailer, circling between the human and the outside of the trailer going over the ramp
- getting the horse confident going under things - I made a 'tent' using a tarp as a roof hanging two corners to the sides of the trailer and getting someone to hold a stick attached to the other side of it. You might have another idea. It really helps their confidence squeezing into small spaces like the lorry.
- playing games with an easy goal e.g. 'sniff the trailer' then when the horse has achieved the goal reward him and put him away with no stress. Every session doesn't have to be a big worry about loading. The next session can be 'put one foot on the ramp' and then 'put two feet on the ramp'. 'sniff the inside of the trailer' is more fun if there are polos to find inside the trailer - at least, my pony thinks so. Think of it as a game rather than an objective though.

I can't say I have 'cured' a difficult loader myself as my horse has been pretty easy - that said, my horse and I do a lot of the above techniques for fun so maybe there is something in them. They have certainly worked for my friends some of whom have had much more challenging horses than me. Anyway, I hope you find some of this useful. Good luck with your horse who is super-handsome by the way
 
meesha said:
chiffneys are a god send - they stop the rearing - trying to bugger off behaviour which then leaves the horse 2 real choices - stand still or load.

I would def. take some time out to practice loading - even if it is one foot on the ramp for handful of pony nuts - next day 2 feet on ramp for pony nuts etc. Only if horse prats about put on chiffney - if you can manage without great.

AND.... get a friend who is v calm to help - i think its much easier some times to load a horse that isn't yours !!
Click to expand...

I agree with using a chifney. My horse used to rear and spin and take off. I couldn't hold her in a bridle at all. But bought a chifney, and tried the loading again. She reared once. Obviously thought 'eek, that wasn't pleasant, I don't fancy that'... and went straight in, in 1 minute flat. I couldn't believe it!

It used to take me 5hrs to load her every Saturday with all the buggering about. With a chifney on, it was straight up in. I stopped using it after a while, and she was fine to load for ever more.
 
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