Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I guess I shouldn't wade into this.....but I have to agree with Carol, and a little with Ed too.....

 

I really think the inportant thing is to deterimine if the horse is truly frightened or just being ornery.

 

Trying to force a horse into a trailer that has had very little handling or ground work is entirely unfair to

the horse.  Any horse deserves some reasonable, slow, "training" on how to get into a trailer.  One hour

or even day is just not right.  Hopefully all YOUNG horses before weaning can be taught to load and unload

safely, as part of the the halter breaking and ground work they need just to be safely handled!  The added

incentive of having their mothers in the trailer with them will encourage this.....

 

However, with a spoiled or ornery horse that has some years of being hauled around and is walking all over

you, well I agree with Carol.....set the loading up to get the horse in, etc.  Even if a horse is scared or ornery,

there is no way i will allow one to walk into my space or kick or threaten me.

Karen

----- Original Message -----

From: Carol

To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 9:08 PM

Subject: Re: [RC] Getting in the trailer

<The consistently worst mistakes I have seen are:

<1. Using force  If you use a whip or a butt rope as a "go forward" cue, you
<are trying to annoy the horse into moving, even a little bit.  You are not
<trying to hurt, scare, or force movement.  Lots of "natural horsemanship"
<books videos show how to do this.  Clicker training should also work, but I
<don't do that stuff.

 

Ed, I don't agree. You're dealing with a thousand pound animal. You need to be in control of him or he will walk all over you. Too many people are not dominate over their horses. These are the ones  that are getting pushed all over the place by their horses. The horses have absolutely NO RESPECT for them.

Carol