In a message dated 4/3/99 6:11:59 PM US Mountain Standard Time,
Knaptyme@aol.com writes:
<<
Teddy;
I use the pitchfork for loading (not kidding) I was having trouble loading
Phoenix in a 2 horse straight load...he would continually back up. An old
Nevada cowboy told me to get a pitchfork and hold it just below the dock of
the tail. When he backed up, he would run into the pitchfork, which gave
him
only one option...go forward.
Now mind you, this is a plastic pitchfork...we aren't breaking any skin or
drawing blood. But it does seem to make him more inclined to move forward
and into the trailer. Generally, we only have to do this the first 4 or 5
times we load in the spring and then he gets the idea. Today was the 2nd
time I've used it this spring, and he only had to back into it once.
A friend has given me some other ideas on loading...keeping sweet feed in
there for him. As soon as I can convince someone to spend 5 or 6 hours with
me loading and unloading a horse, we will work with him some more. That
friend will have to be bribed also...maybe a steak dinner will work on them,
because I'm sure they won't want sweet feed :-)
Diane & Phoenix (I will do (almost) anything for sweet feed) >>
Diane;
Are you in the Phoenix, AZ area? If so, there will be on Saturday, April
10th a seminar on trailer loading by the John Lyons trainer I have been
talking about on ridecamp. The cost is only $15 (at the gate) or $10 if you
call ahead and tell her you're coming. Please consider this if you are in
the area. If I've confused you with someone else, my apologies. If you are
in the area and would like more info, e-mail me privately.
If you aren't in the area I would still advise you to at least look at the
John Lyons tape on trailer loading. No gimmicks, no shortcuts, no special
equipment. If you are willing to invest 5 or 6 hours into teaching your
horse to load (and unload) properly then you can't miss using the JL methods.
Contrary to what some have written about the "designer" trainers such as
Lyons and Parelli, I didn't choose JL as THE trainer to follow; I viewed his
methods and saw where they made sense from a reasoning standpoint, tried some
of them myself and had success, watched other trainers for comparison and
made the choice to learn further about JL methods. It wouldn't make sense to
me to take a poll and see who was most the popular trainer and then blindly
do whatever he/she says to do. It HAS to make sense and it has to be
something I can do and understand the reasons behind it. JL or Parelli or
Ray Hunt aren't going to be there when I teach my horse how to do a
particular thing so I have to be able to reason it out and perform it myself.
That was a big draw for me with JL as he doesn't use a lot of equipment,
doesn't require me to rope the horse or snub a horse from atop another.
BTW, he also advises not to use feed as enticement or distraction when
teaching trailer loading. No emergency doors open or even feed doors open.
The horse will learn to load from the cue you teach it. Using feed will work
some of the time but not always. What if you needed to get your colicky
horse in the trailer to go to the vet hospital? Would you risk further
damage to the horse just to get it in the trailer? What about the horse who
gets in because of feed but bolts back out when you go to shut it in? Is it
possible to have the horse eating and distracted EVERY minute it is in the
trailer? I'm not saying don't feed the horse in the trailer after it has
learned to load, only don't use that as WHY the horse loads. Just like the
need to have another horse in the trailer or only loading on the right (or
left) or only in slant (or straight or stock) type trailers, it is a crutch.
If the horse is loading because you have given it a cue to load, it won't
matter WHAT you are loading into or what it might have to eat.
Once the horse is loading calmly EVERY time you ask it to, then you can add
whatever you would normally feed when trailering. Of course, driving
cautiously so as to not make the ride itself frightening goes without saying
(although I just did)! The point is that feed in the trailer is a
distraction from teaching the cue to get into the trailer. So are open doors
and most would agree that it is VERY dangerous to leave the escape door open.
Almost every one has heard a horror story about a horse trying to squeeze
through one. Horses don't need to see that there is "daylight" at the end of
the "tunnel". If a horse rushes into a trailer because there is a window
open then it is thinking about how to get out of the trailer and when that
window is closed the horse will start looking for other escapes.
With the JL trailer loading method the horse gets plenty of time to find out
how easy it is to get in and out hundreds of times (starting with one foot in
then out) before you ever lock it in. Whether your horse is being stubborn
or frightened you use the same cues to achieve a "conditioned response" to
getting into the trailer.
Melanie in AZ