Ruby had never had much trouble getting on a trailer until a few years ago. Typically, I walk her up to the trailer, go inside in front of her, ask her to "step up," and she comes in (both ramped and stock trailers). However, Ruby and I boarded at a barn where the owners (although super nice people) were not comfortable handling her...and one misunderstanding led to another until Ruby started picking up her old shying/pulling away habits. Although Ruby has a history that obviously caused her to be skittish around people, she is also smart- let her get away with something and she will stomp all over you! I have a suspicion that this is what happened, but back to trailering:
I was getting ready to leave one barn and go to another. A friend brought a trailer for us to use- a small, bright yellow stock trailer that we referred to as the "flapping banana" (the window flaps were also yellow tarp). To cut a long story short: Ruby would have NONE of that. After a few hours of lunging, coaxing, bribing, and pulling, we gave up and decided Ruby there was nothing we could do short of sedating and dragging Ruby into that trailer. Another friend came with her trailer- a white, two-horse ramped trailer.
Considering the bad start already, I knew getting Ruby on this trailer would still be a struggle. Here is what I ended up doing with her:
1. Walk up the ramp as far as we could until Ruby either stopped or balked
2. At the first sign of refusal, I asked Ruby to back up, and made her walk backwards down the ramp
3. Repeat until front feet were in the trailer
4. Backed her out
5. Repeat until all four feet where in the trailer
6. Backed her out
7. Circled her around the trailer until she walked in freely behind me without hesitating
Now, this was a very time-consuming process- about four hours. Could I have lunged her until she almost dropped and dragged her in? Yes. Could I have had people stand behind her with a rope and forced her in? Yes. Could I have given up and waited to try another day? Yes. So why did I spend all that time getting her to do something so simple? Because in the long run, you want your horse to trust AND respect you. The aforementioned methods do not teach the horse the correct response, and I have see too many riders out there use those other "tactics" as shortcuts. Shortly after this escapade, I trailered Ruby in another stock trailer- she went in with very little hesitation. She made it to my church to give a riding demonstration and to give pony rides to little kids! Despite how much I wanted to strangle her that last time, I firmly believe that taking the time to work with her made her subsequent trailer experiences hassle-free.
Ruby and I at church, riding bareback in a halter
No comments:
Post a Comment