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Horse Behavior and Training

Loading Problems

By:

Rhubarb

Date:

2018-Jan-29 at 02:12PM

Dear All
I have a mare, who has loaded all her life, calmly and sensibly without problems. Following recent vet trips, she has decided that she doesn't want to go in the trailer. She hasn't been to the vets for a while and I've been taking her out and about, however, we still have problems loading. (Except coming home and she walks straight in).
On loading, she plants both front feet on the ramp and locks her hind feet. I can move the front feet but not her back feet. I use a Dually and walk her up and back her off etc. I have tried using panels, which worked initally. Then, everytime, after 40 minutes, she calmly walks in. Any suggestions

bahila73 2018-Feb-02 at 03:42PM

Hi Rhubarb;
The first thing that comes to mind is that your horse probably had, what she thought was a poor experience, at the vets and has associated that with the trailer. Remember that horses are great anticipators and they can be jumping ahead in their thoughts when we are asking something of them. They do this with the intention of having a SAY in what we are asking of them. That is NOT a bad thing, however, because if we re on top of our training, we can ease out horse into being part of our request by calling on her thoughts that precede her movement.

My suggestion to you would be very clear and incremental with everything that you ask of your horse when next trying to load her into the trailer [go back to the beginning as if she has never loaded before]. This mindset will help your actions through the step by step loading procedure as it will keep your thoughts from entering into the arena of frustration [knowing that she has and can load without difficulty]. Remember the deep breathing technique that Monty talks about in his lessons to keep yourself CALM.

Once your mare starts loading, repeat the process over and over with pauses after entering the trailer and after walking out of the trailer. This will help you and the mare with a start and stop procedure as it takes on the overtones of a transition. Remember, that horses learn from the transitions that we do with them when training. I would do this for consecutive days until you and the mare can`t get it wrong. If you are diligent with this approach, I believe that better days will be ahead when it comes to trailing loading this mare.

Good luck and please let us know of your results.

Bud