Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2009 18:32:57 GMT 1
and the moral of the story is, don't count your chickens!
Today was my second visit to see Storm. Storm had a loading problem, or rather an unloading problem. He was sticky to go on, but showed no hesitation in coming off! Blast down that ramp! So, a couple of weeks ago, I did a first session to work on general leading, including the L shape and backing up, to get Storm loading smoothly, standing quietly in the trailer, waiting while the ramp went down and then unloading calmly. So far so good.
Storm's owner is in no hurry, so we decided to leave it on that fantastic note for the first session, that she would do her homework and get Storm very bored with loading and standing in the trailer, and would build up to moving bars, raising the back ramp, etc. The plan today was that I'd help her break down the process of teaching him to stand on his own in the trailer while she walked round herself to raise the ramp, and then be with her when she first drove with him.
We started off well. Storm loaded first time, not a hint of hesitation:
We then started to break down the process of testing him with someone behind (no problem) teaching him to stand in the trailer on his own (no problem), starting the engine (some reaction but not much), moving a little (a little concern). We'd left the top door open above the front ramp while introducing movement, and I felt that he was a little disconcerted by seeing the world moving so we decided to close the top door, slowly. WOAH!!! Storm could not cope with that AT ALL, from the moment the door came into his view. We settled him and unloaded. To his great credit, he unloaded very quietly.
Now, Storm isn't great in stables. He weaves when stressed although not all the time, and he doesn't like it if he can't see another horse. I think this is probably related. He previously travelled ok-ish but in a lorry and he did often sweat up. It became clear that we were therefore not dealing with a loading problem but more a travelling and possibly confinement problem.
It was also clear that we weren't going to solve this one today. What I decided to do, then, was simply address this top door problem, and hopefully put one element of Storm's concerns to bed. After this fright, he as a little sticky to load, but only for a minute or two, then he loaded again, and again, quite settled.
Because we are dealing with an issue of confinement, I wanted Storm to feel free to express himself and also I really didn't want him to feel trapped. We therefore had the back ramp down so he could get out, and the front ramp down to make it as open for him as possible. I should note here that there may have been a risk of Storm looking for a forwards exit but as you can see he'd really have had to limbo to get anywhere near under that bar. With the back open, he had his exit if he needed it.
I tried with the top door just once but as soon as it came into sight he started trembling, so it was clear I had to think of something else. Fortunately, in the back of Carloyne's pickup was an old bit of wood. Perfect.
So, using this, I built up to mimicking the door coming towards him. Keeping him just on the edge of his concern, he learned that the wood was ok and that it could even pretend to be the door:
He was nervous of it at first, but then decided it was ok. So I then moved onto the door itself. That was a slightly more difficult proposition for him. At one point he considered unloading backwards but stopped himself. He also spent a while looking anywhere but at the door:
but eventually we got to the point that he accepted the door half closed. For me, that was as far as I wanted to go. We unloaded, loaded again just to make sure, and left it there.
So, more homework, to keep practicing loading, to mimic closing that door, to practice loading with the front ramp up and then more mimicking that top door. Lots of standing there doing nothing...
Back in 2 weeks.
Today was my second visit to see Storm. Storm had a loading problem, or rather an unloading problem. He was sticky to go on, but showed no hesitation in coming off! Blast down that ramp! So, a couple of weeks ago, I did a first session to work on general leading, including the L shape and backing up, to get Storm loading smoothly, standing quietly in the trailer, waiting while the ramp went down and then unloading calmly. So far so good.
Storm's owner is in no hurry, so we decided to leave it on that fantastic note for the first session, that she would do her homework and get Storm very bored with loading and standing in the trailer, and would build up to moving bars, raising the back ramp, etc. The plan today was that I'd help her break down the process of teaching him to stand on his own in the trailer while she walked round herself to raise the ramp, and then be with her when she first drove with him.
We started off well. Storm loaded first time, not a hint of hesitation:
We then started to break down the process of testing him with someone behind (no problem) teaching him to stand in the trailer on his own (no problem), starting the engine (some reaction but not much), moving a little (a little concern). We'd left the top door open above the front ramp while introducing movement, and I felt that he was a little disconcerted by seeing the world moving so we decided to close the top door, slowly. WOAH!!! Storm could not cope with that AT ALL, from the moment the door came into his view. We settled him and unloaded. To his great credit, he unloaded very quietly.
Now, Storm isn't great in stables. He weaves when stressed although not all the time, and he doesn't like it if he can't see another horse. I think this is probably related. He previously travelled ok-ish but in a lorry and he did often sweat up. It became clear that we were therefore not dealing with a loading problem but more a travelling and possibly confinement problem.
It was also clear that we weren't going to solve this one today. What I decided to do, then, was simply address this top door problem, and hopefully put one element of Storm's concerns to bed. After this fright, he as a little sticky to load, but only for a minute or two, then he loaded again, and again, quite settled.
Because we are dealing with an issue of confinement, I wanted Storm to feel free to express himself and also I really didn't want him to feel trapped. We therefore had the back ramp down so he could get out, and the front ramp down to make it as open for him as possible. I should note here that there may have been a risk of Storm looking for a forwards exit but as you can see he'd really have had to limbo to get anywhere near under that bar. With the back open, he had his exit if he needed it.
I tried with the top door just once but as soon as it came into sight he started trembling, so it was clear I had to think of something else. Fortunately, in the back of Carloyne's pickup was an old bit of wood. Perfect.
So, using this, I built up to mimicking the door coming towards him. Keeping him just on the edge of his concern, he learned that the wood was ok and that it could even pretend to be the door:
He was nervous of it at first, but then decided it was ok. So I then moved onto the door itself. That was a slightly more difficult proposition for him. At one point he considered unloading backwards but stopped himself. He also spent a while looking anywhere but at the door:
but eventually we got to the point that he accepted the door half closed. For me, that was as far as I wanted to go. We unloaded, loaded again just to make sure, and left it there.
So, more homework, to keep practicing loading, to mimic closing that door, to practice loading with the front ramp up and then more mimicking that top door. Lots of standing there doing nothing...
Back in 2 weeks.