Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2010 15:24:55 GMT 1
Sometimes horses live up to their names. I'm sure there have been times when Mischief was mischief, but that wasn't this morning. Instead, he was willing and tried very, very hard, even when things went awry. What a very good horse indeed.
The problem with Mischief was loading. His way of showing that he didn't want to load was to rear, to the point of going over backwards. Although Karen had had some success in teaching him to load at home, he was still not very good at loading away from home. His loading was also still very hit and miss, probably with more misses than hits.
The very first thing we talked about was safety. For any loader, you have to keep as safe as you can but with a horse who is known to rear over backwards, you have to be ultra safe. He was kitted out with boots and poll guard and Karen picked a spot of relatively flattish ground in his paddock so we were on a softish surface and he was away from any hazards.
The first thing I noticed when I met Mischief was that he is very much on high alert. He was fidgety, head all over the place, looking around. Karen confirmed that he's usually a fidget and will spin around to look at things. He faffs with the farrier, he faffs with his bridle, he faffs when you put boots on him... he just doesn't really stand still.
The first thing we needed to do, then, was just simply get his attention. Just standing still, if his head went off away from me, I brought it back. If his feet moved, I put them back. As he started to think about me, he started to relax a little already. Good. Then we started leading (attention on me all the time please, Mr Mischief), and doing some very gentle backing work. Karen has already been working on her groundwork and his backing is lovely and light. The main thing remained keeping his attention.
When he was more focused, then, we moved to the trailer. His alert mode returned and he again tried to look elsewhere, and move elsewhere. So, back to what we were doing before, bringing his head back to me, then working on just one little step forwards, one back, one forwards, one back... almost rocking him back and forwards until he relaxed. Once or twice he tried to squirm sideways, just to test, but by keeping light control of his movement it was easy enough to bring him back to the trailer. Back and forwards, just one step, very lightly, and soon he was no longer trying to find something other than the trailer to focus on, he was now looking forwards, into the trailer, quite relaxed.
At that point, you could feel a change in his mental direction, you could feel that he was ready to load. From there, it took the lightest finger pressure on the line to say "come on then", and on he hopped.
It seemed for a short while that Mischief's problem with loading was simply a result of applying too much pressure to him, pressure he felt he needed to fight. There was, though, more to the story.
Karen's trailer is a Fautras with only a rear load/unload. It does have a very small ramp but Karen doesn't use it - Mischief just steps up into the trailer. The horses travel facing diagonally back, which means that Mischief has to load and turn round in the trailer. He's a big boy, 16.3hh, and when he turns he's bumping himself. Loading, then, isn't actually his big worry, it's the knowledge that when he's loaded he's going to have to turn and bang his bum. What happens is that he loads nicely but then blasts round, getting the turn over and done with as quickly as possible, and if given half a chance would the like to blast off the trailer too.
To make matters worse, probably as a result of this I think, Mischief now has a problem with knocking his sides even when travelling. I won't bore you with the details, but he's clearly not happy travelling even when he loads ok, and that's really what we've got to deal with.
So... I tried to see if I could get him settled to standing straight on in the trailer, then turning quietly. What I wanted to do was go back to the one step forwards, one step back... that worked so well in relaxing him outside the trailer. The problem was that if he backed off, there was a clear foot drop and I didn't want him to injure himself. We therefore fixed the ramp to give him something to step back onto. Oh heck! That ramp is so slippy!!! After doing some nice forwards and back, he put a back foot onto the ramp and it slipped away from under him. Poor lad. But bless his heart, he still loaded again beautifully, even after that.
We have some work to do, then. Karen is going to practice the really precise leading and ask for focus to become the habit for him, and then in a few weeks we will start to find ways to teach him, if possible, to turn in trailer quietly so he's not bumping himself, and that he can have things against him without it being a trauma.
I should, of course, answer the question in Karen's original post in the Horse Help. The greater problem was loading on the way home. My guess is that he's much more distracted and alert when away from home. The close focus leading work should, I hope, help that too.
No photos, I'm afraid. My camera wasn't playing ball. Karen has taken some video though and if it's suitable we might post it later.
The problem with Mischief was loading. His way of showing that he didn't want to load was to rear, to the point of going over backwards. Although Karen had had some success in teaching him to load at home, he was still not very good at loading away from home. His loading was also still very hit and miss, probably with more misses than hits.
The very first thing we talked about was safety. For any loader, you have to keep as safe as you can but with a horse who is known to rear over backwards, you have to be ultra safe. He was kitted out with boots and poll guard and Karen picked a spot of relatively flattish ground in his paddock so we were on a softish surface and he was away from any hazards.
The first thing I noticed when I met Mischief was that he is very much on high alert. He was fidgety, head all over the place, looking around. Karen confirmed that he's usually a fidget and will spin around to look at things. He faffs with the farrier, he faffs with his bridle, he faffs when you put boots on him... he just doesn't really stand still.
The first thing we needed to do, then, was just simply get his attention. Just standing still, if his head went off away from me, I brought it back. If his feet moved, I put them back. As he started to think about me, he started to relax a little already. Good. Then we started leading (attention on me all the time please, Mr Mischief), and doing some very gentle backing work. Karen has already been working on her groundwork and his backing is lovely and light. The main thing remained keeping his attention.
When he was more focused, then, we moved to the trailer. His alert mode returned and he again tried to look elsewhere, and move elsewhere. So, back to what we were doing before, bringing his head back to me, then working on just one little step forwards, one back, one forwards, one back... almost rocking him back and forwards until he relaxed. Once or twice he tried to squirm sideways, just to test, but by keeping light control of his movement it was easy enough to bring him back to the trailer. Back and forwards, just one step, very lightly, and soon he was no longer trying to find something other than the trailer to focus on, he was now looking forwards, into the trailer, quite relaxed.
At that point, you could feel a change in his mental direction, you could feel that he was ready to load. From there, it took the lightest finger pressure on the line to say "come on then", and on he hopped.
It seemed for a short while that Mischief's problem with loading was simply a result of applying too much pressure to him, pressure he felt he needed to fight. There was, though, more to the story.
Karen's trailer is a Fautras with only a rear load/unload. It does have a very small ramp but Karen doesn't use it - Mischief just steps up into the trailer. The horses travel facing diagonally back, which means that Mischief has to load and turn round in the trailer. He's a big boy, 16.3hh, and when he turns he's bumping himself. Loading, then, isn't actually his big worry, it's the knowledge that when he's loaded he's going to have to turn and bang his bum. What happens is that he loads nicely but then blasts round, getting the turn over and done with as quickly as possible, and if given half a chance would the like to blast off the trailer too.
To make matters worse, probably as a result of this I think, Mischief now has a problem with knocking his sides even when travelling. I won't bore you with the details, but he's clearly not happy travelling even when he loads ok, and that's really what we've got to deal with.
So... I tried to see if I could get him settled to standing straight on in the trailer, then turning quietly. What I wanted to do was go back to the one step forwards, one step back... that worked so well in relaxing him outside the trailer. The problem was that if he backed off, there was a clear foot drop and I didn't want him to injure himself. We therefore fixed the ramp to give him something to step back onto. Oh heck! That ramp is so slippy!!! After doing some nice forwards and back, he put a back foot onto the ramp and it slipped away from under him. Poor lad. But bless his heart, he still loaded again beautifully, even after that.
We have some work to do, then. Karen is going to practice the really precise leading and ask for focus to become the habit for him, and then in a few weeks we will start to find ways to teach him, if possible, to turn in trailer quietly so he's not bumping himself, and that he can have things against him without it being a trauma.
I should, of course, answer the question in Karen's original post in the Horse Help. The greater problem was loading on the way home. My guess is that he's much more distracted and alert when away from home. The close focus leading work should, I hope, help that too.
No photos, I'm afraid. My camera wasn't playing ball. Karen has taken some video though and if it's suitable we might post it later.