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[RC] Tied in the trailer (was: Horses that pull back) - heidi larsonIt's also still a very dangerous habit to untie, open the door and swing the partition and your horse starts backing up (full speed.) I do untie first, (was just using him as an example) however, I know someone who did not and their horse ended up with a leg under the back of the trailer, jumped forward and screwed up her leg for good. My "technique" for stopping this habit is very simple, untie through the window "as usual", go inside the trailer (he's in the middle or front slant) have the door shut with me in the trailer (my daughter was outside, waiting for me to give the cue to open the door. When I swung the divider, he instantly backed, only he backed into the shut door. Funniest look on his face, he stepped forward and tried it again. His butt hit the door. This time when he stepped forward, he stood very still, not knowing what would happen next. I gave a cue to open the door and once open "asked him" to back up. I did this a total of about 10 times (he progressively got better each time, until he no longer tried to back up.) I waited inside til he was thinking and paying attention to me. I even messed with him more and turned him a couple of times to come out forwards. (Even though I never do this as a routine.) He was so caught off guard with these tactics that he had to slow down to think about what was happening and now he waits nicely for me to swing the divider and waits for me to ask him to back up. When I got a different trailer I had to do this again, as he was scared of how the smaller, more open trailer sounded (single wall, steel, stock type vs an aluminum, LQ) and we had to do this about 2-3 times to reconfirm the going slow, thinking and waiting for me to ask him to back up. Worked slick for this horse that is super reactive. . o o o o . o_ \ \____ o_ \_\ . (*)~(*)\_______/ . / \ . \______/ / . \_______/\ /- . o-- /_/ \ / . / \ / / . o o o-- / . / \ . o o heidi larson --- On Thu, 4/16/09, k s swigart <katswig@xxxxxxx> wrote: From: k s swigart <katswig@xxxxxxx> Subject: [RC] Tied int he trailer (was: Horses that pull back) To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Thursday, April 16, 2009, 6:16 AMHe used to try to blow backwards out of the trailer once the door was open (a huge ?mess if he's not untied) but I've fixed that ?bad habit and he seems to be cured at this point.The other way to "fix" this "bad habit" is to follow what I was always taught as one of the cardinal rules of horse trailering which is to never open the door for the horse to back out until after the horse has been untied. I thought everybody was taught that rule; am I wrong? For me it has always been one of those safety rules that ranks right up there with the one of "don't walk between a horse and something that it is tied to." kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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