Problems loading at a show-why do people try to take over?

Brightbay said:
I feel your pain - like Jinglejoys, when faced with this kind of situation my tendency is to take horse off somewhere quiet, allow them to graze and let everybody else go home. Once things are quiet, loading can be done with minimum stress for all involved.

My suggestion ;) which doesn't involve lunge lines or whips :D is that if possible you do your loading practice both at home (with loads of rewards for doing the right thing - a whole apple to crunch while standing quietly in the body of the trailer as well as a good handful of pony nuts for brisk approaches to trailer and calm walking on ramps - then take the show on the road. If you can find places that are slightly familiar - spots on your regular hacking routes for example - ride horse out, meet trailer in non-yard but familiar location, load, reward lots, drive home... then ride out, meet trailer in strange but quiet place, load, rewards lots, drive home, repeat until horse is trotting eagerly up ramp wherever the trailer appears... *then* try again at a busy showground.

The issue with non-loading when out is basically that the horse will load at home when calm but still has reservations about it. When out, add a hefty dose of adrenalin and all their reservations appear with shiny brass knobs on ;) So if you can do a two pronged approach of removing the hesitancy at home and making the trailer a lovely place, while starting to do the same thing in places that aren't quite as adrenalin loaded as a showground, when you eventually get to the showground you have a better chance of things working :)

Humans are the same ;) Take contact lenses - while you might trust your partner to find the contact lens that's slipped when at home, there's no way on earth you're going to allow them to poke around in your eye while you're standing in the middle of a crowd in the middle of a street parade (have been part of that situation so know it's the same thing!).
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This is a great post! :)

We recently purchased a tricky loader. We have been working with her at home and daughter is eager to start getting out and about but I wasn't sure how to deal with the 'loading away from home' issue. Riding out and getting picked up in the trailer along the way is a great idea and will hopefully help her get used to 'strangers' being around when she goes on the trailer! :)
 
My Ffin usually loaded fine but every now and again he would just refuse. The trick was to apply pressure from behind but not too much, if you did he would do a big scary rear to show you how big he was. When I first started doing shows it was not an issue as I went with two friends who knew how to help, later on when I went on my own it was a bit of a pain as most "helpers" felt that hitting with a whip was the answer. In order to feel able to go on my own I needed to find a way I could do it on my own. My answer was a new market chain over his nose , it worked for me as I only had to use it once and he never bothered to argue again, although I always used it to load.


My new boy is loading well, although I must admit he has only just worked out what the ramp is for, he has been jumping in! :o
 
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bakewell said:
We actually had a sandwich board made with caution! stallions!* Perhaps you could consider "nervous horse in training" (/battle of wills, private) I know it's the people that are the problem but anything that makes them at least ask is better than barging in.

*I had a parent plop their child on top while I was brushing out feathers on the other side.
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Ha! You beat me to it - I was actually thinking the same thing :).

Oh, and parent plonking their child on pony would get short shrift from me . . . actually, no - said child would hit the deck before I'd even noticed - Pops doesn't DO bareback and will swiftly get rid of any bareback jockeys - child or not. Oh the cheek!

P
 
My boy is now fine to load, patience and practice. But I have been the last one on the field to leave, absolutely soul destroying. My hubby used to stop anyone interfering, he would just say " thank much my wife is fine, horse will go in eventually " . Nobody argued, as I think they could see I was on the edge of losing "it". lol.
 
I generally ask if help is needed but never feel offended if not accepted. If they want help i also ask what do you want me to do its your horse you know it best.
I did once have a livery who spent 2 hours trying to load her piss taking horse who went straight in when I growled at him
Horses eh 😅
 
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I would offer help/ask if they're ok and only participate if invited to re: difficult loader.

In your situation I'd have had my '**u* off' head on if people waded in on their own back aggravating the situation.
 
I actually hate being asked to help by strangers. Without knowing the horse I think it's dangerous, and quite often the method being used to load the offending horse isn't one I'd use myself. I won't offer help to strangers on this basis, but I also won't refuse if they bag me, so I've been in a couple of difficult situations. I ended up on one occasion leading a horse onto a trailer with the front ramp down, using a plain headcollar and short rope. Madness. The horse dragged me through the front ramp and nearly broke my arm. The owner was round the back out of harm's way. That was actually someone I knew, and she was scared to lead the horse on herself - I should have refused and in future I will.

There's surely a legal issue here anyway. What if someone offers to help, then ends up being injured? Or you ask someone to help, and likewise they are injured?

I have refused all offers of help with my difficult loader - I NEED to be able to load him myself - and after some patient work, I have successfully done so on our last several outings, and it gets easier each time.
 
If I thought I could help I would offer and not feel offended if refused.
We had a bad loader and time and patience were the only way we could get her to load. Practised loading at home and no problem but loading for home could sometimes be difficult. We may sometimes have been the last to leave but at least we left with a calm unstressed horse.
 
I totally agree with micramadam that is is important to keep stress levels low if at all possible, and with Southern Comfort that it is worth taking the time so that if at all possible the horse regards the lorry/trailer as a lovely safe place. My son's eventer now usually has a nibble of hay and then dozes off in the trailer between phases. My old lad is NOT a dressage fan and at the end of a test would quickly load himself DEMANDING to be taken home. We had one very embarrassing outing where several people were trying to coax a reluctant loader onto their lorry while we were yelling at my lad to get out of ours!!
 
I've offered help before and been approached for help! I think people are genuinely just trying to help out as many have experienced the frustration and exhaustion of a problem loader, so can sympathise. Of course many others just have something to prove and want to look like the heroic magical horse whisperer or tough horse breaker who can knock a horse down a few pegs.

Went hunting last season and when we returned to the lorry park it was pitch black. Our interior light didn't work in the trailer and the mare just would not load at all, she is not very good at the best of times. A few people had an attempt but it was doing no good so someone who worked at the hunting yard told us to park in the floodlit yard and try there. Still no good, so then three people pushed her from behind , two pulling, then someone got on her and whipped her, she still didn't move and was terrified. I then saw the huntmaster stride out of his tack room with a massive hunting whip, cracking it behind her to try and get her in. We should have said something but there was that many people and it just happened too fast, in the end everyone gave up and an old bloke took the rope and she just followed him in! Thought she'd never load again after that but she's never had a problem since so maybe it traumatised her that much she's decided its best to just go in- not that I agree with that treatment in the slightest! but seems it worked!
 
I think most people have experienced a tricky loader at least once in their life and are just trying to help. If I see someone struggling I offer to assist if they think it will help. I don't all the time, some of those tricky horses can be dangerous! I pick the ones I think I may be able to make a difference with. Sometimes just taking a stressed handler out the situation can help.

Best one I've seen recently was someone who just cameover with a jumper, blindfolded the mare, turned her round a couple of times and went straight up the ramp.
 
I have to confess I've interfered with a loading, but it was just the once, and only after watching a brat of a young teenager punching her pony in the face because he wouldn't load. The brat's parents were standing by looking helpless so I asked them if they needed any help. Brat looked daggers at me but the parents made her give me the pony, I led him around a bit and calmed him down, all the while I could hear brat verbally abusing her parents using the most vile language. As pony obligingly started walking up the ramp the brat picked her whip and started banging the side of the trailer to put him off, at which point her parents took the whip off of her and locked her in the car.

Pony loaded eventually. The parents were mortified at their daughter's display of temper, they said the pony was on loan to them but would be returned to the owner the very next day, I really hope he was. As they drove off the child was giving me the V sign......how delightful!
 
tricky one, I don't go to shows currently but may start up with a few fun rides and low level endurance in the next year, I always used to pick a moment and say 'if you would like a hand please ask I am happy to help, I am at the ???? trailer/box' and then leave them to it. I have dealt with many poor loaders over the years. these days I would be unlikely to help after a woman at our yard broke both ankles, crushed both knees, broke her femur and hip after loading a known to be difficult mare, once the mare was on she lifted the ramp but with no bum bar the mare ran out backwards and her (unwisely) being under the ramp got crushed.

you cannot be sure the trailer or box is in good condition let alone predict the horses behaviour, I also worry about the amount of horses that are sedated to travel-I will not load or help load something that does not have full control over its body-I was taught that at 16
 
I don't understand why anyone would let someone just march up and grab their horse or pony. That's the answer, don't let them. If they hang around giving advice just calmly stop and ask them to piss off.
 
Tinypony I agree with you and I wish I had refused but I was trying to avoid a scene right next to the ring and she was pushiness personified.......I will never ever let it happen again, i just wasn't ready for the volume and intensity of the interference. Next time I will move the trailer to a quieter spot away from the crowds.
 
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