>From: "Barbara Williams"
>Subject: Staying in trailer
>Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 10:43:55 -0500
>
>I read the response to your recent question about your horse staying on the trailer and thought I would add my two cents worth. The person from Ohio hasn't tried the method she suggested, but I have and it does work.
>
>Pat Parelli teaches this method. It teaches the horse that to be in the trailer is a good thing and it also gives you an opportunity to develop a back-up cue when you decide it's time for the horse to unload.
>
>What I did when my horse would barrel off backwards was calmly drive her in circles, disengage her hindquarters, anything that would be considered work to her and then cue her to enter the trailer. In other words, make it rather unpleasant for her outside the trailer and pleasant for her (you're leaving her alone) inside the trailer. This can take awhile, but is worth the effort in the long run. But as Pat says, in your mind it is going to take two days and proceed on that assumption. (It shouldn't take that long, but take as long as it takes). As long as she stands in the trailer, she doesn't have to work. I don't raise the butt bar at this point. She has a choice to make - whether to back off or not to back off. If she decides to back up without my telling her to, she does more work. If she stands there calmly, I just wait until I think it's time to ask her to unload. Pretty soon she is hopping in the trailer and likes it so much she doesn't even want to back off when I cue her! (It really shouldn't be necessary to use food as an enticement for her to stay.)
>
>When I decide to ask her to back up, my cue is a verbal "back up" with a slight tug on her tail and she now will slowly back off. There is no more pushing at the butt bar and barreling off as soon as it's lowered. To teach her not to lean against the butt bar I would shake it without taking out the pin and if she leaned I would not lower it. When she stood without leaning I then would lower it and ask her to back out.
>
>I love John Lyons' method of trailer loading and it works as well as Pat Parelli's. I'm now working on Level 2 of the Parelli training system and to pass one is required to load his horse sitting on the fender of the trailer. I've gotten to about 10 feet away from the trailer on a circle and she loads and am working towards getting to the fender. This is a horse that absolutely wouldn't load well when I bought her a year ago. I have a two-horse step up trailer. It is possible to train or retrain your horse to load and unload safely.
>
>Hope this helps and good luck!
>
Thanks Barbara, I guess I've been trying to get away with being lazy! I've had success with the 'it's more work to be outside than inside' method before, but the 2 horses I tried it with weren't being conditioned for endurance! Two or three circles each way were enough to convince them, not this mare! But reading your description made the lightbulb click on. This mare likes to go like the wind when I lunge her so I get dizzy very quickly, but I guess I could add backing, disengaging, sidepassing, just make her know that it's WORK. I was trying to keep her calm rather than getting her more wired up, (she had gotten herself so stressed at one unsuccessful attempt that she reared straight up, almost flipping herself) but maybe wired OUTSIDE is ok, wired INSIDE isn't. I probably can get her to stand & calm herself a few seconds before walking in. Anyhow, I'll see how much time I can devote to it after work today... I'm running out of time. I want her to HAPPILY travel to our first endurance ride on Feb 1... right now I know I can get her in the trailer to go there but worry that she'll give me trouble when it's time to bring her home.
Someone else on this list had mentioned combining the John Lyons & Pat Parelli methods but I didn't have any documentation on PP's method. I'm going to a 2 day demo with Pat Parelli himself next month - can't wait for that! I already know the outcome will be that I'll want to attend the certification clinics... another posting to the Horse category in our bank books!
Thanks!
Bany in Fla