OMG absolute disaster - what do i do now?

tazzle said:
thank you for your compliment * blushes






you said it is difficult chicos mum to get the trailer in the field but can you set some other things up in the field that might simulate a trailer

how will he go over wood for example ?



we have things like


see saw

mayagility011.jpg



simple to make if you can source some wood...... just make sure if you use it as a see saw and not flat on the ground that the long bits of supporting wood are thick enough ( I added stronger struts after the pics0 taken)

various003.jpg




a reinforced pallate can be found in most yards

mayagility060.jpg


and can take bigger pones ;)


100_5565.jpg



set up a tunnel

mayagility027.jpg



all these things will get him used to doing activities that you can reward him for that are similar to a loading task .....


maybe if you take more time now it will reap dividends in years to come.

I do so hope you can work this out so you can both travel happily :)
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Love this, so inspiring!!!!
 
tazzle said:
thank you for your compliment * blushes






you said it is difficult chicos mum to get the trailer in the field but can you set some other things up in the field that might simulate a trailer

how will he go over wood for example ?



we have things like


see saw

mayagility011.jpg



simple to make if you can source some wood...... just make sure if you use it as a see saw and not flat on the ground that the long bits of supporting wood are thick enough ( I added stronger struts after the pics0 taken)

various003.jpg




a reinforced pallate can be found in most yards

mayagility060.jpg


and can take bigger pones ;)


100_5565.jpg



set up a tunnel

mayagility027.jpg



all these things will get him used to doing activities that you can reward him for that are similar to a loading task .....


maybe if you take more time now it will reap dividends in years to come.

I do so hope you can work this out so you can both travel happily :)
Click to expand...

Lovely photos - this is like what we do but you have illustrated it so much better than my rather poor explanation did :)
 
All I can say is patience. My friends pony doesn't load, I'm talking hours to get her on! Took us 3hours but her record was 5!! But the more you force her the further back she goes she justs sits there and has to wait for her pony to load herself with food bribery. It's the calmest way really, if i'm honest I've never known someone so patient! Also just practice, practice, practice. Let him load himself into it and get used to it :) Once he's on take him for a trip round the block, unload him give him a fuss, then put him back on !
Hope this helps! xx
 
Paint Me Proud said:
alot of excellent suggestions but sadly alot of them i cant do due to where and how the lory is located on our yard.
Space is very tight so any method that involves working the horse near to the lorry isnt an option regrettably.

I will try a chifney this week i think becasue he is just being an obstinate little sod so i think when he realises he cant rear he will just go straight on.

He will stand at the bottom of the ramp with a glazed expression, resting a back leg and sighing - he doesnt seem scared just stubborn!
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Any chance of asking the yard if you can use a paddock to do the loading training. Much safer for the horse. And you can set yourself up for success better than making do with using the car park.

Do have a chat with Sue Palmer at Holistic Horse Help
 
Tinypony said:
your horse sounds as if he's genuinely scared.
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I have to dissagree with this....The OP has already said that the horse just stands at the bottom with his leg cocked.

This is not a scared horse.. He is rearing when she applies pressure to drag him forward, because he is just having a paddy.

I agree with the earlier post, that a well timed crack with the whip sound the best route.
 
unbalanced said:
Lovely photos - this is like what we do but you have illustrated it so much better than my rather poor explanation did :)
Click to expand...

not poor explanations..... I understood them ..... just that pics do speak volumes ;)

Hardly think that Taz used to be a problem /dangerous horse would you ( the bright bay in the pics) :rolleyes:. The others are some of our little agility club.

We have a lovely "older gent" that just about c****** himself at all this stuff a few meetings ago ..... and now he copes with the flag on his face and all the whirlygiggs ...... and went over the see saw on Sunday :D :D :D :D. His owner says he has changed and grown in confindence since he started coming ........ so you can teach an old horse "new tricks" :D :D :D :D
 
sprite.... I am under the impression that this is the current situation

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.
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and the standing with the cocked leg is what he can do or did do sometimes before that.



if the above quote was the last time he was involved in the loading process then I cant imagine him being happy about loading now at all :( ...... he is being led blind somewhere then falls and hurts himself. I would not trust anyone to lead me again if that happened ! To add more and more pressure to this horse hardly seems fair :confused:
 
Standing at the bottom of a ramp resting a leg DOES NOT ALWAYS mean an unscared horse... He could very well be switching off as it is a safer place to be than the stimulus which faces him... Horses are very good at that.

OP I wish you the best of luck and hope you reach a safe and satisfactory solution to your lads' issue...

All I can add is just to ask that you take a good long look at everything that has happened, everything that you have tried, everything that has resulted from this... Try and see this from Chico's point of view. They do not see things as we do. All we can do is be their advocate. Horses do not get out of bed and think "ooo you know what, today I'll try to piss off my human..." It just doesnt happen...

Think of the relationship you WANT to have with your horse - willing, co-operative equals or "master / underling"

I wish you the very best and hope you find a way thru this.
 
dalesslave said:
Billy once decided he didnt want to load.some horse are more than able to put two and two together better than some people think! A six mile hack to a show up hill and down dale followed by a mornings showing and jumping and he actually dragged me up the ramp,
could you arrange a sort of pretend trip whereby as soon as he decides to throw a wobbler you tack him up jump on and give him a mornings stiff hard work going somewhere and back a couple of days in a row unless he loads sensibly and then unloads and gets the morning off, especially if you are sure theres no pain issues etc
(word of warning billy now tries to load on any trailer/wagon that happens to be open just incase he misses his lift again!)
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Love this dalesslave!:D:D:D
I can really imagine it all!
 
CrazyFriesian said:
Standing at the bottom of a ramp resting a leg DOES NOT ALWAYS mean an unscared horse... He could very well be switching off as it is a safer place to be than the stimulus which faces him... Horses are very good at that.
Click to expand...
The sighing is a big clue that you need to look further than the cocked leg. A lot of sighing is not an indication of a relaxed horse in a situation like this. That's really simple equine behaviour.
 
CrazyFriesian said:
Standing at the bottom of a ramp resting a leg DOES NOT ALWAYS mean an unscared horse... He could very well be switching off as it is a safer place to be than the stimulus which faces him... Horses are very good at that.

OP I wish you the best of luck and hope you reach a safe and satisfactory solution to your lads' issue...

All I can add is just to ask that you take a good long look at everything that has happened, everything that you have tried, everything that has resulted from this... Try and see this from Chico's point of view. They do not see things as we do. All we can do is be their advocate. Horses do not get out of bed and think "ooo you know what, today I'll try to piss off my human..." It just doesnt happen...

Think of the relationship you WANT to have with your horse - willing, co-operative equals or "master / underling"

I wish you the very best and hope you find a way thru this.
Click to expand...

What an excellent post.
 
a friend of mine had this problem with her mare (bad on roads so walking wasnt an option) when she wanted to move yards. She was advised to walk the horse to the ramp and everytime it threw a paddy at the request to go in she calmly walked it away and lunged her for a few mins. She then took her back to the box and asked her to go in again, each time repeating the lunge session whenever she decided she didnt want to go in. The mare realised after a few lunges that it was hard work and that she would rather go in the box. They then closed the partition for a couple of mins then unloaded her. She was then asked the reload and repeat the exercise if she resisted. She only needed to do this a few times and the mare now walks streight in without a fuss.
 
A really frustrating situation to be in. I had one many years ago that got a fright just as she went into the trailer and clipped a small piece of skin off her forehead as she went in, coming home she refused to go in, reared up, sat down and broke her femur - I was devastated.

Do you have a paddock that has such minimal grass he needs to be fed extra in it? Is so park the truck in the paddock and place his feed on the bottom of the ramp for a few days. Keep putting it further up the ramp over a period of a couple of weeks until the feed is in the truck completely. A bum rope is good to as it is hard for them to get their head up to rear.

Once he is on are you able to have someone travel with him and see what he does while being transported. Some rubber matting gets quite slippery when there is a dropping on it. I travel mine with straw over the matting to ensure they don't slip.

Alternatively using a loading ramp so that the ramp is flat would be ideal. I have the opposite problem - my youngster jumps in and out of my truck - won't puther feet on it!
 
I agree with others who have suggested that it might be beneficial if you look at the loading and travelling process from your horse's perspective. It sounds like he's giving you a rather emphatic "no thanks" but there must be a reason.

A friend of mine has a very big (17.2hh and built like a tank) irish draught - she rented a 3.5t box to take him cross country schooling and he simply refused to load. He'd go to the top of the ramp, put one or both front feet inside the actual lorry and then go sharply into reverse. They tried everything . . . positive reinforcement, taking their time, changing the partitions around . . . in the end they concluded that he just couldn't make sense of the interior of the horsebox/didn't know where to put himself and put him away. Last weekend she was moving him to another yard so rented a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge horse box so that he would have enough room and load. Same thing. Just wouldn't go on and when he reared on the ramp and then carted the woman doing the loading halfway across the yard (in a dually), they concluded that it probably wasn't worth risking someone being injured. The horsebox was large, sure, but from Ollie's perspective it just didn't look inviting - he couldn't work out how to turn his body or where to put himself . . . it was quite narrow and looked very "enclosed." The next day, a bigger/differently shaped/configured box rolled up onto the yard - Ollie walked straight up the ramp. It wasn't that he WOULDN'T load . . . it was that he thought he couldn't!

My horse will walk straight onto a lorry - every time - but he HATES trailers because they look too small/confining and are inherently unstable (to him).

I think you need to spend some time working out why he doesn't want to get into the box . . . is it the box? Is it the travelling experience? Is it all the tension now associated with loading? If he's a rearer, trying to force him will only result in a battle royal - and he's bigger and stronger than you. Stronger bits/gadgets will only result in him putting up stronger resistance.

Hope you figure this out.

P
 
have not read all suggestions but i do know how you feel
we have a TB mare that was a brill loader --then we lost her companion
she'd seen him go on the wagon to horsepital but we came home with an empty wagon from that day she refused to load to the stage she threw herself over

we have used martin in the past for various things so didn't hesitate to phone him again he will stay with you until you are confident in loading he's not to expensive and he will have your horse loading by itself --it would cost less in the long run to get someone in by the time you've paid out for all the gadgets

--http://www.mrdhorsetransport.com/index.html

we knew we were not helping the situation as everytime i went to load her i was giving negatives as all i could think of was the time she threw herself backwards

she now is back to going on the wagon with no hesitation

i would not use the chifney if you have no experience with them to be honest

other than that is there anyone on the yard that could help
 
I don't think anyone has mentioned, but it will also be worth your while to evaluate honestly the driving of the person who normally drives the horse to places - it may be that the horse would benefit from a smoother ride. Worth getting in the trailer while the person drives (or having a friend do so when you drive) and seeing just how breaking, turns, acceleration etc is working out for the traveller. Please note I think this is illegal to do on the roads, but could be done off road on paths or a suitable car park.
 
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