I'm hoping some of you will be able to help me think through my next course of action with my mare who used to be a superb self-loader and is now a
frightened mess. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm going to assume it's nothing SHE did and has everything to do with something *I* did.
Here's the story:
In early January, we started trying to load my mare at 2:30 p.m. We finally got her on the trailer at 5:30 p.m. At that point, she was soaking wet with fear sweat, my feet were numb and it was well beyond my pre-arranged lesson time. We closed the doors behind her, and she flipped out. My husband felt we just couldn't trailer her at that point because he was afraid to drive with her going crazy in the trailer. I'm amazed she didn't get seriously hurt or seriously hurt one of us.
I'm not sure what happened, but I know as with all things horse-related, it's most likely our fault. There are few bad horses and lots of terrible horsemanship. The thing is: my mare has always been nearly self-loading. She has always been curious and funny and willing to hop up. I am just heartsick about this. I think we totally blew it on this one, as I have some ideas about what may have happened. Three trailer-rides before, we rode with the owner of my boarding barn. She has a ramp trailer, and her horse is young and not a great loader. In addition, it was super slippery--glare ice--in the area where we loaded. She loaded her horse first, and her mare was being a brat, kicking and rearing up to try to jump over the divider. I was nervous about going in the trailer and about the ramp (my mare had never loaded with a ramp), so I'm sure my fear was transmitting. In addition, we were in a hurry. (You can probably see where this is going...) Anyway, my mare refused, so I did what many guides say: I circled her and led her up again. She refused again. So, my husband took her lead rope and stepped into the trailer. (He could see I was too freaked out about the other mare trying to climb up and over the divider to be a good leader.) Then, a bystander who was there said "Somebody get the carrot stick." My mare has a known fear of whips, but I was feeling awful about the situation, so I used the carrot stick to make her go into the trailer. She was scared to death, trembling and sweaty. I felt terrible about it, and I was pretty sure I had messed up.
She was hard to load on the way home that time, and she was even harder to load the next time. And then when we were coming home from our trainer's barn on the day after Christmas, we probably spent an hour and a half trying to get her into the trailer. I finally had to scare her into it. (Gettingbetter hangs head in shame.) On the night in early January, we tried and tried and tried to get her to go in, and finally our barn owner came out and took the carrot stick and flicked it on the ground. My mare had the white rolling eye and was almost rearing, but she finally launched into the trailer. We shut the back end, and she flipped out big time.
Julie Goodnight offers what seems like some great advice on her Web site. She suggests starting far, far away from the trailer and leading up to it slowly, stopping to soothe and let the horse relax. If the horse tries to go backwards, she says to use a plastic bag rattles to keep the horse moving forward in the direction of the trailer. She said this can take a LONG time, but once you get the horse into the trailer, have some hay and some grain in the feed bunk so the horse can associate the experience with something good. Does that ring true to you?
Things that I think could have caused her fear:
1) Use of carrot stick.
2) Bad footing each time we were loading and unloading.
3) My fear transmitted to her.
4) We have the center divider taken out of our two-horse. I had read that leaving it in can be dangerous when hauling only one horse. Our barn owner suggested horses can use that to lean on and steady against when hauling and that it might make loading less scary.
5) Our driving may not have been great (although this has never been a problem before, but it was icy and yucky out and the roads were a mess every time we had driven).
God, sometimes I feel like such a novice. I want to be the owner my horse deserves, and I know I'm nowhere near that. There are so many ways to mess crap up, and I find myself doing ALL of them. I think one should have to get a license or something to own a horse, as it's much harder than people realize. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, creative help, etc., I'm willing to listen. We haven't attempted anymore loading or unloading since then partially because the footing has been pure ice, and I didn't want to take a chance of freaking her or me out any more. Anyway, thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give me.
In early January, we started trying to load my mare at 2:30 p.m. We finally got her on the trailer at 5:30 p.m. At that point, she was soaking wet with fear sweat, my feet were numb and it was well beyond my pre-arranged lesson time. We closed the doors behind her, and she flipped out. My husband felt we just couldn't trailer her at that point because he was afraid to drive with her going crazy in the trailer. I'm amazed she didn't get seriously hurt or seriously hurt one of us.
I'm not sure what happened, but I know as with all things horse-related, it's most likely our fault. There are few bad horses and lots of terrible horsemanship. The thing is: my mare has always been nearly self-loading. She has always been curious and funny and willing to hop up. I am just heartsick about this. I think we totally blew it on this one, as I have some ideas about what may have happened. Three trailer-rides before, we rode with the owner of my boarding barn. She has a ramp trailer, and her horse is young and not a great loader. In addition, it was super slippery--glare ice--in the area where we loaded. She loaded her horse first, and her mare was being a brat, kicking and rearing up to try to jump over the divider. I was nervous about going in the trailer and about the ramp (my mare had never loaded with a ramp), so I'm sure my fear was transmitting. In addition, we were in a hurry. (You can probably see where this is going...) Anyway, my mare refused, so I did what many guides say: I circled her and led her up again. She refused again. So, my husband took her lead rope and stepped into the trailer. (He could see I was too freaked out about the other mare trying to climb up and over the divider to be a good leader.) Then, a bystander who was there said "Somebody get the carrot stick." My mare has a known fear of whips, but I was feeling awful about the situation, so I used the carrot stick to make her go into the trailer. She was scared to death, trembling and sweaty. I felt terrible about it, and I was pretty sure I had messed up.
She was hard to load on the way home that time, and she was even harder to load the next time. And then when we were coming home from our trainer's barn on the day after Christmas, we probably spent an hour and a half trying to get her into the trailer. I finally had to scare her into it. (Gettingbetter hangs head in shame.) On the night in early January, we tried and tried and tried to get her to go in, and finally our barn owner came out and took the carrot stick and flicked it on the ground. My mare had the white rolling eye and was almost rearing, but she finally launched into the trailer. We shut the back end, and she flipped out big time.
Julie Goodnight offers what seems like some great advice on her Web site. She suggests starting far, far away from the trailer and leading up to it slowly, stopping to soothe and let the horse relax. If the horse tries to go backwards, she says to use a plastic bag rattles to keep the horse moving forward in the direction of the trailer. She said this can take a LONG time, but once you get the horse into the trailer, have some hay and some grain in the feed bunk so the horse can associate the experience with something good. Does that ring true to you?
Things that I think could have caused her fear:
1) Use of carrot stick.
2) Bad footing each time we were loading and unloading.
3) My fear transmitted to her.
4) We have the center divider taken out of our two-horse. I had read that leaving it in can be dangerous when hauling only one horse. Our barn owner suggested horses can use that to lean on and steady against when hauling and that it might make loading less scary.
5) Our driving may not have been great (although this has never been a problem before, but it was icy and yucky out and the roads were a mess every time we had driven).
God, sometimes I feel like such a novice. I want to be the owner my horse deserves, and I know I'm nowhere near that. There are so many ways to mess crap up, and I find myself doing ALL of them. I think one should have to get a license or something to own a horse, as it's much harder than people realize. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, creative help, etc., I'm willing to listen. We haven't attempted anymore loading or unloading since then partially because the footing has been pure ice, and I didn't want to take a chance of freaking her or me out any more. Anyway, thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give me.
