Re: horse and trailer

["April Lee" <adlee@bigfoot.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Kirsten Foruria <kirsten@vermilion.reno.nv.us>
> Maureen Mathisen wrote:
>
> > OR--get someone to help you, have them hold the rope run through the
> > front, and you take a long carriage whip and gently"tap" her on the rump
> > over and over(DO NOT hit her, but just make it annoying"")  if this

> The only difference is that instead of tapping the rump, I usually tap
around the
> hocks and cannons (it seems to be slighly more annoying <G>).  The key is
not to

This sounds like the John Lyons method of loading horses.  Although, as I
recall, he advises taping a spot just above the horse's hip bone.  The
reason he gives for not tapping lower on the legs is that the horse is more
likely to kick out at something tapping at the legs.  That defeats two of
John's rules: (1) that the training must be safe for the human and (2) that
the horse is calmer after the lesson than before.  Calm horses don't kick.

I'm not saying that tapping below the hip bone will cause every horse to
kick, just passing on what I read.

Also, John advises taking the horse into the round pen or another semi
confined space and working on getting the horse to move forward everytime
you tap that spot above the hip.  Condition the response before it's
necessary to use to get the horse into the trailer.

He explains this step-by-step in the February and March 1999 issues of
Perfect Horse.  It's call Trailer Loading Without A Fight -- Parts 1 and 2.

April
Chattanooga, TN


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=