Tuesday, September 18th, 2007...5:48 pm
Horse training problems / problem horses – a beautiful solution
Breaking news!
We’ve decided to use the comments section of these pages as a horse problem solving question and answer section.
So if you have a question about some kind of problem or training issue, scroll down from here to find “leave a reply” write your question and you’ll be able to see the answer to your question next time you come into our site. I’ll do my best to be prompt, given my working schedule.
If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, there’s a button on the right hand side to subscribe to this site, under the heading “Feed it”. This will keep you posted with anything new.
Anybody reading the question, feel free to explore the issue as well and contribute.
While you’re here, there’s a whole book full of beautiful answers that give you the secrets of great horsemen and women (even if they don’t know it!) The electronic book, “Bobby’s Diaries – Straight from the Horse’s Mouth to You”. Click here for more information about this simple, practical book that is written with an earthy sense of humour.
7 Comments
December 4th, 2007 at 1:35 am
Here’s an e-mail from a reader who had been solving catching, saddling and mounting probelms brilliantly and the horse has gone backwards – and my coaching reply. This might help someone else in the same “boat”.
“Parker is doing really well. Have taken him on some long rides and he hasn’t put a foot wrong. He’s starting to lose weight too.
He is appreciating me more too. He walks to me in the paddock which is nice. I went for a ride once and the next day he didn’t want to know me but after a few days came around – he is a sensitive wee thing.
Like when I put the saddle on and lead him off he gets a fright like he has just realised he has a saddle on. Cheryl suggested I tap the saddle and move it a bit so he realises it is on his back before we walk off. So will try that. He is obviously still not totally comfortable with the saddle so still working on that.
My reply:
Great to hear from you!
Re saddle thing – his fright response would suggest that he has “shut down” about the saddle rather than put it absolutely in his comfort zone, so that when he walks off, he “wakes up” and shows the fright.
See if you can pick the point at which he stops blinking and stops thinking and shuts down. He’ll probably look a little “starey”.
If you’re having trouble picking it, ask Jo if she can help cos she got EXACTLY the look I’m thinking of with Jygs and about his saddle too.
Also, when you deliberately “tune in”, maybe with the meditation if you need to, you’ll probably feel the fluttering of his fear. If you back off at that point to wherever you have to to get the flutter of anxiety to go away, even all the way to taking the saddle off and walking away for a few minutes, he’ll find his deep comfort zone with the saddle.
Parker’s such a gentle little soul that he’s shutting down rather than telling you that he’s not comfortable/happy enough yet. What a dear little thing!
January 8th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Just an update for you on Parker. I think I have finally got him comfortable with the saddle now. I believe he had been shutting down once it was on and after leading him off he got a fright because he realised something was on his back. Will now I let him know the saddle is on and move it a bit and also give him a carrot to let him know he’s a good man. This really works and he no longer has an issue – I am wrapped!
January 9th, 2008 at 1:01 am
Way to go Deb!!! Good stuff. I can only imagine what a big deal this is to Parker to have truly found comfort with the saddle. There is no doubt in my mind that this has improved his life and made you safer. I bet he’s enjoying the riding more now too. It would have been pretty difficult for him to enjoy you riding in something that he was so afraid of. Well done. Jenny
September 4th, 2009 at 8:33 am
i have a pony who will load but starts to scramble and trys to lay down when you close the trailer and get ready to leave. What do i do about that, many people have said to try a stock trailer haven’t tried that yet. Any suggests would be helpful.
thanks adele
September 4th, 2009 at 9:07 am
I’ve come across a bunch of different reasons for behaviour like that, Adele, but it’s always huge fear, even terror, behind scrambling. Here’s a list of possibilities that I thought of straight away:
* Horses who have been forced onto the float, they know they have to get on, but aren’t enough in their comfort zone to move their feet easily, they’re kind of frozen there, so when they do move their feet (like when you are cornering and they have to) they panic – and thus the scrambling.
* Muscle problems, pain such as arthritis. I had one old guy, Carlos, who as he got older had to have the whole float to spread his legs and get comfortable. And again, when they can’t move their feet quickly enough and relaxed enough, they panic. Scrambling is always about panicking in terror – that’s a terrible thing for them to be going through. So opening the divider and tying it across or even taking it out altogether can give these horses enough room to spread their legs and travel better.
* The size of the divider can be a huge problem for some horses. If it’s too long, too close to the ground, the horse can’t spread their legs, so when anything goes wrong (you have to brake a bit hard or turn a corner fatsre than you would like) then they can’t spread their legs for balance and panic and scramble.
* Sometimes I’ve found the driver to be the problem. Cornering too fast, braking too hard – these are both big problems for many horses. When towing a float, the driver has to keep a good space from other traffic, giving themselves plenty of room to brake slowly and always watch the traffic ahead of the car in front so as to give themselves time to avoid problems without throwing the horse around in the float.
* I had a horse that I float trained for somebody else who used to panic in the float because he was terrified of the traffic coming zooming towards his eyes – the float had a really big window. We taped up a lot of the window and horse was fine.
* Something physical about the float that might be a problem – for example with a pony the chest bar might be too high and catch him in the throat when you brake a little hard. I had one horse I went to float train who wouldn’t go in the float because the floor was rotten. Have a look around the float and see if there’s anything like that.
* The lying down when you close up the back of the float – sushine he’s telling you in the only way he knows how, how bad this problem is for him.
I’ll email you the chapter from Bobby’s Diaries about float training, which will help you get some more ideas on how to go about solving the problem.
How old are you Adele? And do you have access to a float, to float train him with nice and slow like it sounds that he needs?
Come back to me and talk about how you’re going and get some more help if you need it. All problems are solvable, we just have to figure out how…
Cheers jenny
October 13th, 2009 at 5:13 am
Hi I have a 14.2 welsh cob x who’s 18 years old, I’ve been travelling him for years but only about 6/7 times a year, he used to hate loading and would run off but now he walks in beautiful, but the last two time’s I’ve loaded him he walked in as good as gold then as we pulled off he started straubing so badly i thought he was having a fit, so i got him out and didn’t take him off in the trailer i just rode him at home to see how he was and he was totally fine. So i went to take him out again and this time i stayed in with him, he seemed to lean on the partition and put his feet up against the opposite side, then he’d stand on his own feet, panic because he couldn’t move them and scramble about until he stood up, then he’d do it all over again. it was the worst thing I’ve ever gone though. robin loves to jump so much and as soon as we got to our destination he couldn’t Wait to go, even after such an awful journey. he has always got sweaty traveling so i know he doesn’t really like it, but i really believe he loves going jumping so much he allows himself to go though it. I love him more then anything and would never go out in the trailer again if i thought this is what he has to go though but if there’s anyway we can make him safe and happy traveling so we can continue to jump together, until he doesn’t wont to any more i would do it. Please can you help i never wont to see him like that again it broke my heart. many thanks
Anita.
October 13th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Hi Anita, I sympathise with you. It is such a scarey thing to happen – their terror (and terror is what it is) is contagious and frightening and a very big deal. Horses injure themselves very badly with this kind of thing and you are right to be as concerned as you are.
I think you have hit on exactly the right answer in your question to me. You know he’s never liked travelling, because of him always sweating up, he has always been afraid. And by the sounds of it, he also loves jumping with you enough to have just bottled up his fear so that you could get out together.
But the trouble with bottling up fear, is that sooner or later the bottle is full and when you try to force more fear down inside, the explosion happens – there just isn’t any more room for any more fear.
Look sunshine, I’m sorry if it sounds like I just want to sell you a book, when I tell you that when you live so far away from me, that Zen Connection with Horses will give you the answer that you are looking for. It has eight audio lessons on a CD in the back, that are like having a private lesson with me and your horse.
And the lessons are about understanding why our horse feels fear, how we can help them and us and what action to take. It is very easy to takes what you learn in those lessons and apply it to float loading. The lessons are about a lot more than that, but you WILL get a very big understanding about your horse’s fear.
In the meantime, I am going to send you the chapter on float loading from another one of my books, Bobby’s Diaries – Straight from the Horse’s Mouth to You. Actually, I just made an executive decision to send you the whole electronic book of Bobby’s Diaries – an early Christmas present from me to you and your horse.
I like your attitude Anita. Your horse is a lucky boy to have you. Keep up that great attitude, sunshine, jenny
P.S. Let me know what happens and feel free to come back with any additional questions.
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