A lot of good stuff here. When I picked up my
youngster from the trainer in an xtra wide, xtra tall two horse straight load
she went in no problem. (Actually she loaded and unloaded at the trainers
with no problem when we took her there to begin with)
After our 4 hour drive home, I opened up the manger
door, untied her, put down the ramp and touched her butt and said BACK.
Nothing happened. Tried this several times...nothing. Tugged on her
tail a little...nothing. Then I opened the escape door and stood on the
fender of the trailer and tugged on the lead rope while repeating back.
Nothing happened.
So here is what we did. We left her untied
with the ramp down and the doors opened for about 1 hour. I went about
doing my business, unloading the truck and what not. She never backed
out! Finally I had enough ands napped two lunge lines on either side
of the halter and "drove" her out backwards.
After that we spent a few hours using a dressage
whip (or you could use the PNH carrot stick or whatever clinician's prop tool is
available to you...I find a dressage whip works fine as an extension of my
arm). And we practiced the go forward cue and the go back cue. One
of the go forward cues is tap tap tap at the hip until they take a step and stop
tapping. One of the go back cues is tap tap tap on the chest or upper
front legs until they back up then stop tapping. Remember TAP not
WHACK! very important to remember that the dressage whip (or similar tool
) is simply an extension of your arm and
we don't use it to spank, whack or "whip" as the
name implies. After awhile you just have to motion to them and not really
even tough them and they will move forward and back with simple
motion.
Now mare comes out and goes in trailer just like
all of our others with a slight tug on the tail and the command
"back".
