problem loader

J

jennyshadow

New User
Joined
22 February 2007
Messages
8
Visit site
hi i am new here and hoped you could help. i own a gorgeuos part bred arab. however i am having major problems loading her into both horsebox or trailer. i have tried a number of methods including lungelines to guide her and feed etc. i ahve also tried a chifney bit to try and calm down the rearing invovled. we have travelled her a couple of times, however each method only seems to work a couple of tomes nefore she learns how to evade it. when she does travel she travels well is doesnt seem anxious. i am at my wits end as each time i try she seems worse and the rearing and spinning etc is becoming more dangerous.

any suggestions or if anyone knows of anywhere i could get some help would be greatly appreciated.
thankyou for your time
 
I've got an Anglo Arab that sounds exactly like your part-bred!! She argues and goes up too. The best way to get her in that I've found is to get the trailer into a space that is not much wider and put two lungelines round her bum and just haul . . . she quite often gets a big clout up the bum just to speed things up. She's an absolute witch and it is pure spite and temperament. I tried all the nicely-nicely approaches but when she was rearing and trying to come down on my head, I got tough and she basically just gets thrown in now, bang up the ramp and off you go. I think it's the thoroughbred in her as she reminds me very much of another TB that I had - he was a pig-headed sod too!

I forgot to say that a friend of mine has a purebred Arab mare who was a pig to load and she has had very good results using a pressure halter. Apparently there was some resistance to begin with but now she only has to produce the halter and the mare walks in!! I think I might give that a go too!
 
I have exactly the same problem, one who resolutely refuses to load if we apply any pressure, in fact she react quite violently. We end up waiting an hour or so until she gets bored, then she just walks on. Mine travels calmly too and has never had a bad journey.

I am hoping to start some loading practice with her tomorrow for this season and have bought some special herbal nice smelling mix she will only get in the trailer. Hoping for a bit of a Pavlov style response..she will love it so much she will be running up the ramp..

..well, I can hope! Will report back tomorrow.

Alternatively if you can find one of those intelligent horsemanship types, they seem to reckon themselves pretty good at getting horses to load. Being of a less sensitive disposition I am recruiting a VERY DETERMINED local hunting lady to help. I expect her to bark orders and the horse will just slink onto the box..making me look like a complete wuss.
 
Does she travel alone at all? If so you might like to think of taking a companion horseon your travels. Put the companion in first and then attempt to load her. With a our latest purchase, who also was a problem loader, we used to put her in the horsebox everyday. We would keep her in for about 10minutes and feed her in there. We did this for about a week, and slowly she got better. All it is is patience as you are going against the horses natural instinct!
 
What about a be nice halter ? ...


I had a mare that wouldnt load but unlike you we had the problem resolved , we got intouch with previous owners who where reluctant to tell me that she didnt load very well ... cut a long story short we heard from some one else that the mare had got squashed when a big grey that was in with her caused the divider to fall onto her thus causing her not to like loading ( who can blame her ) ...So with patience and no divider it worked ( my hubbie was the life saver to be honest) .... If i went near her she wouldnt go on at all ... So i carried on getting stuff ready to go to shows and hubbie would just be gentle and work with her and he would get her on himself .


Make sure there is no underlying problem ( may not have ) but just give them the benefit of the doubt before you try anything else .
Good luck x
 
thankyou for your speedy replies
i am in the northwest - lancashire area.
think i am going to have be a little tougher as the rearing etc i getting dangerous and she is either going to hurt me or herself. she is a typical mare! i really want to show her and do some dressage as she really is a dream in every other and very beautiful (not at all biassed).
we have tried her following company into the box hoxever this usually results in one very bored companion and shadow still dancing around the ramp at the bottom.
 
i have tried a dually headcollar with no success. i got to the point where i am considering selling her!
dont think i would be able to locate a determined hunting lady. could be fun trying though!!!
can see it now
WANTED: ONE DETERMINED HUNTING LADY TO LOAD ONE EQUALLY DETERMINED MARE
 
I'm not keen on forcing horses into trailers - it is naturally an environment that they wouldn't want to be in and by fighting with them beforehand they will associate the fight with the trailer. Have you tried the desensitisation - eat dinner on the ramp each day, then gradually into the trailed for their dinner?
 
have tried this however she is never really interested in the food. its a case of "well id rather not eat, you'll feed me anyway even if i don't go up the ramp". think this may be worth more time as this is the best approach without me feeling cruel. if any force is applied she reacts quite violently
 
I had the same problem with my 17.2 ID! He was so strong that when he said no I had no chance. I got a monty roberts/kelly marks trained lady out who spent about 2 hours with us and by the end I was standing in the trailer with him at the bottom of the ramp attached to a lunge line, as I picked up the lunge line he walked himself in!! Now we have no problems! I must be honest I didn't think it would work as the more pressure I put on him before the worse he got but now I always load him in the dually headcollar and he is a saint! Nobody could believe the difference in him - it cost me only £120 and I must say it was well worth the money. Give it a go - you'll be amazed at the results!

Sorry for the essay!!
 
I had this problem too i tried for 5 months with very little sucess and my horse just panicked when she came out.

UNTILL i got my local nh trianer out ( she is listed allong with many others on the intelligent horsemanship web site ).

Sorted the issue that very day with no force and teaching her on the ground then working to the lorry. She now doe it like an old pro.

This was taken the day after she came and i went back into the school to practise again. Youd never belive i got smashed against the side of the box, the breast bar got ripped out of the wall and she came out the lorry off the frount without so much as touching the frount ramp!.

This is what the difference a professional made to us.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v410/claireandcappelli/?action=view&current=P1090003.flv

highly reccommend an IH associate mine was very professional and didnt just train my horse but me as well.
 
I always try loading mine even if not going to show. The youngsters are fed near the ramp then on the ramp then in the box. Load and unloaded, load then unload, weekly if you have to. Dont wait untill you want to go to a show. your horse should load and unload ok before you intend to go to an event. good luck...
 
Have just read that you are quite a way away so i'll try to give you some tips from what I saw today.
He worked he quite hard on the ground first lunging in tight circle backing her up moving her forward and from one side to the other generally getting her to listen. He then placed her at the foolt of the ramp and made sure her concentration was focused upon him of the trailer at all times giving her a gentel nudge on the halter if she faltered. This went on for 10-15 mins and then he took her away and worked her again, this allowed her to make a decision she would rather be going in box than working hard. When she did go in her took her straight out aftre giving her a good pat and some praise then worked her again making the trailer a more comfy place to be he took her in and out like this about 4 times and on the last occasion she literally jumped in. Will let you know what she is like when I pick her up from his place in a fortnight. Good Luck with trying and I would definatly advise getting someone like him out to help you.
 
I would be tempted to go back to complete basics and deal with it using time and patience, if your facilities allow.

Feeding near box, only if its a couple of handfulls, getting horse not bothered about being near box. Carrots, polo's anything to be around the box without a fight. Your horse sounds clever and it looks like it has learnt that its strength wins and can throw a strop when it does not want to do something.

Feeding from the ramp and gradually inside the box, to my mind are the only calming ways to sort out this sort of problem, as you have been having battles which you cant win with this horse.

You say the horse is'nt interested in food near the box, could it be that it is being nappy? In that case, load its friend and feed from the box that way.

I really feel for you, because its difficult and time consuming to sort. I have just sorted out one of my horses. She would half load and then plant herself, until she was ready to go in. I did'nt fight with her, too big and she would win. It was just a case of keep on feeding her and playing the game. After a few weeks, of each weekend doing this and taking her out somewhere nice for hack, we have cracked it and she now walks straight in.

I am currently teaching my arab foal to load, by feeding her in ramp and box. I will do this over a period of weeks/months until I feel confident that I can travel her.

Its not always possible to get a box out several times a week to do all of this, I am lucky enough to have a trailer on my home drive which I can leave positioned everyday for my training. I know how stressful it is, and unfortunately horses sense this and re-act.

Good luck, I hope you get some good advice here on the forum.
 
I hate to admit it but get an IH person out. i dont agree with a lot of their stuff but they can load horses and give you a long term solution. I've always found the crossed lines/chiffney/force route may work for a while but they then just come up with more evasions.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I hate to admit it but get an IH person out. i dont agree with a lot of their stuff but they can load horses and give you a long term solution. I've always found the crossed lines/chiffney/force route may work for a while but they then just come up with more evasions.

[/ QUOTE ]

Me too.

I got my RA out (Emma Halliburton) and I've never looked back with George. She's a really lovely person too and may cover your area.
 
My horse used to refuse to load in friends lorry. Then we got her loading by parking up between 2 other lorries so she could not run out. She used to walk straight up eventually but would never settle once loaded. I then looked for a lorry for myself that was either forward or rear facing (friends was herrinngbone). The day we got it has side loading so we reversed up to the muck heap. So she could only run out to one side. Dad loaded I was at the side to stop her swinging out. We have a few temper tantrums and strops. However we did not punish her but also did not let her get away with it. Anyway eventually she decided to load and we practised and practised. We did come unstuck at a show recently when we could not reverse to something and she could just swing around. I got 2 lunge lines clipped either side of the ramp and then crossed them over behind so she could not swing out. She reared once then realised could not get away and then went in.

Since then we have been precticing at home, first with a barrier and then we would move the barrier. As soon as she is in we praise her, give her a reward then start the process over again for about 15 trys. Hope this makes sense and helps.

Any stressy horse is not worth beating etc, just patience and stand your ground.
 
My TB is the same, he had loaded in a box without any problems so it was a surprise when we moved yards that he wouldn't go into a trailer. He kept rearing, spinning round and galloping off. MOre and more people kept comong to give their "advice" lunge whips/ lunge lines, someone tried putting his bridle on and then threading the leadrope through the bit and round his nose and yanking on it. Still no chance, he would get up the ramp following a bit of carrot but would not go in. Anyway we had been at this for about 2 hours, we even lunged him for 30 mins in the hope that he would be too exhausted to run away still no chance. Then someone else came along and using a lunge line (rather than a leadrope) as you have a better chance of keeping hold of them with a longer rein and talking to him softly he had him in the trailer within 30 mins. Open the partition as wide as it will go and have the front ramp open too (keep the bar up though) and using food just keep at it. As soon as the horse is in get someone to put the rear ramp up, don't try to put the bum straps up or straighten the partition until the ramp is up otherwise you will give the horse a chance to back out.
 
I would make sure not to make it nasty for her - ie. dont force her by using the usual lunge lines / yelling / smacking etc. I would park the trailer in a corner somewhere so she cant reverse up much - so the ramps down facing the corner of the yard. It just helps a bit as there's nothing worse than those horses who get so peed off they just start reversing until they are miles away from the ramp!!

Id open up the front ramp as well and take out the partition so its bright and airy inside. Then I would get a bucket of feed and place it on the ramp, maybe half way up it. Id have a long lead rein and just hold the end of it giving her no pressure at all. Id lead her as near to the ramp as possible then just let her decide she wants to find out whats in the bucket. She'll probably just stand about since your not asking her to do anything but she should (in theory) get seriously bored and eventually approach the bucket. This may take some time though. We've done this and if its really taking a long time and the horse isnt interested then Ive got someone to lay a little trail of feed to the bucket! This has worked. Then I simply let them eat and thats it for that day. Every day Ill move the bucket slowly up the ramp and into the trailer. Hopefully she'll get the idea that its nice and relaxed in there.

Otherwise if you have a starvation type paddock (or something with not much else to eat really so maybe an outdoor school or something. I have tried putting the trailer in the paddock with the horse (on its own), then Id open it up and put the horses usual feed on the ramp and then inside once it got the idea. This way, it can take all day but usually the horse will eventually give up! It'll soon get used to it to the point you can start standing about while its eating, then standing with him in a headcollar etc. so your slowly making it like it would be if you were loading.

It takes ages and a lot of effort, but there isnt a shortcut with really bad loaders.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top