OK I am out of Ideas! suggestions are welcome
This mare knows how to load. She has been hauled hundreds of times without problems. Until yesterday... I got up at 6 am to get ready to take her to a lesson. She refused to get in the trailer, I tried to convince her for 3 hours. She will ease all the way up to the edge and refuses to go any further.
I have tried several strategies.
Ive stood in the trailer with a bucked of feed gently tugging on her lead rope until she takes a step forward. as soon as she moves forward i stop tugging and give her a few pieced of feed out of my hand. then begin tugging again. if she takes a step back I get out of the trailer and lunge her in a small circle for a few minutes right behind the trailer then we start again. This worked pretty well up into the point she learned she could just not move (forward or backwards) and there wasn't much of anywhere to go from there.
Then I tried holding the lead rope in the trailer with someone behind her with a lunge whip. never touching her with it just as encouragement. this didn't really work well because my other person was my fiance and he is not very horsey. It turned out to be better to just not have him help because I was having to deal with her and watch to make sure he wasn't standing in any danger zones.
I then went back to my original attempt
So after three hours I just decided to end with her finally walking up to the back of the trailer to stand calmly. It wasn't a terrible note to end on but definitely NOT what I wanted. But the horse was drenched in sweat and I was hot.
Today I tried again with a new idea. I ran the lead rope through the trailer window and stood beside her outside the trailer with the lunge whip . I started out just swinging it behind her to encourage her to move forward and moved on to gently tapping her behind the legs because she was ignoring it. She gets super nervous and starts sweating like crazy and will paw and rear and wiggle around everywhere. I worked with her for two hours. The most we accomplished was standing with her feet as close to the edge of the trailer as possible.
The problem is if she feels to much pressure she will rear up, I don't want her to flip over.
I don't know what to do. This horse KNOWS how to load. the trailer is new ( to me). I have had it about 3 weeks. I have hauled her in it about 5 times with no problem until now. I am a very careful driver when I'm hauling the horses. The trailer is definitely big enough its 7 ft tall, slant load with drop down windows. I keep all windows open when I'm loading. and I know one of the first things someone will say is a horse that has trouble loading has holes in her groundwork. This may be true but up until now I have never had any issues with her so there has been no signs of leading problems.
I am open to any ideas on how to work with her. what do you do with a horse that knows how to load but refuses to!? The hardest part is that I'm on my own. I have no horsey people at home and no one within an hours drive that would be willing to help. I have searched the trailer and cannot find anything wrong with it!
This mare knows how to load. She has been hauled hundreds of times without problems. Until yesterday... I got up at 6 am to get ready to take her to a lesson. She refused to get in the trailer, I tried to convince her for 3 hours. She will ease all the way up to the edge and refuses to go any further.
I have tried several strategies.
Ive stood in the trailer with a bucked of feed gently tugging on her lead rope until she takes a step forward. as soon as she moves forward i stop tugging and give her a few pieced of feed out of my hand. then begin tugging again. if she takes a step back I get out of the trailer and lunge her in a small circle for a few minutes right behind the trailer then we start again. This worked pretty well up into the point she learned she could just not move (forward or backwards) and there wasn't much of anywhere to go from there.
Then I tried holding the lead rope in the trailer with someone behind her with a lunge whip. never touching her with it just as encouragement. this didn't really work well because my other person was my fiance and he is not very horsey. It turned out to be better to just not have him help because I was having to deal with her and watch to make sure he wasn't standing in any danger zones.
I then went back to my original attempt
So after three hours I just decided to end with her finally walking up to the back of the trailer to stand calmly. It wasn't a terrible note to end on but definitely NOT what I wanted. But the horse was drenched in sweat and I was hot.
Today I tried again with a new idea. I ran the lead rope through the trailer window and stood beside her outside the trailer with the lunge whip . I started out just swinging it behind her to encourage her to move forward and moved on to gently tapping her behind the legs because she was ignoring it. She gets super nervous and starts sweating like crazy and will paw and rear and wiggle around everywhere. I worked with her for two hours. The most we accomplished was standing with her feet as close to the edge of the trailer as possible.
The problem is if she feels to much pressure she will rear up, I don't want her to flip over.
I don't know what to do. This horse KNOWS how to load. the trailer is new ( to me). I have had it about 3 weeks. I have hauled her in it about 5 times with no problem until now. I am a very careful driver when I'm hauling the horses. The trailer is definitely big enough its 7 ft tall, slant load with drop down windows. I keep all windows open when I'm loading. and I know one of the first things someone will say is a horse that has trouble loading has holes in her groundwork. This may be true but up until now I have never had any issues with her so there has been no signs of leading problems.
I am open to any ideas on how to work with her. what do you do with a horse that knows how to load but refuses to!? The hardest part is that I'm on my own. I have no horsey people at home and no one within an hours drive that would be willing to help. I have searched the trailer and cannot find anything wrong with it!
