tractors

landyandy

landyandy

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can anyone help with advice with tractors, i have just bought the most adorable cob who is perfect in every way except tractors, when he sees them he panics and tries to run away from them, i keep him in a small farming village so it is impossible to hack out without seeing at least one, he is not a ploddy cob. i want to keep him so would value advise.
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see if you can ask a local farmer if you can hack him or lead him in hand around his tractor shed whilst the tractors are in, if you explain your situation they are usually very obliging. I had similar problem with one of my horses and I took him up to our local village farm and walked him all around the machinery, I used to put bits of carrots on the tractor bonnets and get him to eat them off in the end! after a few days of this I then got the farmer to start the engine and walked him around it. It takes time but it will help if you take him to see them most days for 2-3wks.
 
If your horse is anything like mine, tractorphobia will be a permanent affliction! We actually live in a farm cottage, so there are always tractors going right past the yard. Plus I often take her up to the farmyard to walk her past the tractors, even when they are running, to try to get her used to them. Every now and again I think I've made a breakthrough, then all of a sudden she decides they're about to eat her!
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Silly horse!

Mind you, tractors are nothing compared to the terror that is The Field Sprayer
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i keep him on a farm and the farmer is fantastic with us, so will ask him if he will work with me, my cob is ok if the tractor as no engine running. thankyou
 
Believe me he will never get used to them.I bought my boy knowing he doesnt like tractors,and thought i could cure him,as i live on a farm.He sees tractors evey day of his life.I have even tried feeding him tip bits/treats etc on them/near them.My OH has taken tractors up to the yard and left them outside his stable,but all a waste of time!!!
Sorry,but i think you will just have to get used to the fact that he is going to be scared of them!
 
thankyou, only had him a couple of months didn't really want to sell him on but looks like if there is no cure i have no option. unless i ring all the farmers up to tell them i am going for a hack and to have a day off( that would be nice)
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You didnt say how old he is?My horse is now 15,but if he is young there may be hope.Dont give up on him just yet if he is young,try everything i have done first.It may work on a young horse.I certainly wouldnt get rid of my horse because of it.(Although i threaten him sometimes!!)
 
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You didnt say how old he is?My horse is now 15,but if he is young there may be hope.Dont give up on him just yet if he is young,try everything i have done first.It may work on a young horse.I certainly wouldnt get rid of my horse because of it.(Although i threaten him sometimes!!)

[/ QUOTE ] he is 13 years old, i will work with him,thankyou
 
I would try and work with him,but at the age it may not work.Just because it didnt work with my 14 yearold (when i got him)doesnt mean to say it wont work for your horse.All horses are different.As your horses trust gains in you he may improve.......2mths is only a short time.
I know how frustrating this is,especially if you have found the perfect horse.Im very lucky in the fact that i live on a farm,and have 100 acres of woods right on my door step,so no on road riding for me.Yet when i take him hunting he is totally different,and will pas the biggest of tractors with no problems!!
I hope he comes right for you,but i think give him work and time on his tractor fear before deciding what to do,be prepared for the fact that it may not work.
Fingers crossed for you.
 
If this gives you any hope at all, I have an 8 yo gelding. he used to be OK with tractors, until the New Forest Show last July which was a total mud bath and we had to be towed in and out by tractor. Basically he got very upset and freaked out in the trailer (not like him at all) and after that got upset and scared whenever we met one on the roads - like you we're surrounded by farms here, so there's plenty of tractors about. It gradually got better - at first he would spin round in the road and try to leg it and we improved from there to standing stock still in terror and then with positive riding assisted with the stick as a reinforcement of the leg aid to very hesitantly going past them. It has helped that I have become more confident in riding him past them, after the first spinning episode I would freeze in terror as well as him at what might happen next. I've also been lucky that the tractor drivers have been very kind and understanding towards us, and many have switched off their engines and waited until we're past . He's more or less OK now with them as long as I keep talking to him, no longer is it the worst thing that we could meet out on a hack. Oh, and I also moved him to the front field next to the road, so he would be close by as they all went up and down every day. Once he got to the stage of ignoring the tractors when he was out in the field, that made me feel a lot better about taking him out. I would say it's taken a good 8 months to more or less sort this problem out.

Good luck with him, I hope you can reduce his fear of them.

ETA it's the lime green ones he hates the most (same as the ones at the show, so he definitely remembers his trauma still)
 
Good luck and please keep us up to date on his progress.Hopefully its just my horse that is going to be a first class whimp for the rest of his life!!
 
My cob was 13yo when I had him and though not perfect with tractors he is a lot better now (I've had him 3 years). I am still aware that he could still have a paddy so I continue to ride him forward etc when we see one but I can't remember the last time we had an issue.

I would keep working on it, you have only had him a short time so he needs to build up trust in you. I used to keep my pony down the lane from an Agricultural Contractors so I HAD to do something as I love hacking. He is not the type to gain confidence from others so we had to sort it on our own.

As you said, ask the farmer to help him get used to the tractors in a safer environment rather than out on the road, though my pony doesn't bat an eyelid when tractors are in his field, he just panics when we are down a narrow lane - he used to spin and try and head the other way.

Try and get 'friendly' with the drivers - it's usually the same ones in a small village - and explain the situation to them, I promised a pint to most of that stopped for me, that usually made them smile and remember me
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Good luck.
 
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