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[RC] I love my hard headed horse - Lynn White

Hard headed horse owners:  Sounds like you were describing my mare Agnes.  My 
mare has panic issues with pulling back when tied.  I believe that she came 
from an abusive home and was traumatized.  The reward/tapping thing just drove 
her crazy and she’d become dangerous.  I think it made her anticipate a 
beating.  I have to be very careful about tying her but at the same time I 
can’t let her break things or she’ll think she can break them all.  The 
whole trick to her pulling is that I don’t tie her to anything unless she has 
to be tied and that she can’t break it.  Once she breaks something she’ll 
pull on everything.  I can never let my guard down and just tie her up and 
forget about her. 

You have to figure out if your horse is afraid to load or is just being 
obstinate.  Have someone drive YOU around in your trailer and listen to all the 
noises and get a feel for what the horse experiences in the trailer while 
it’s moving. You would not believe the clanking/squeaking noises in trailers 
that can be fixed with a can of WD40 or a screwdriver. I drive very carefully. 
No sudden stops, starts, turns etc.  Next thing you have to do is find out what 
sets the horse up for panic and avoid that situation.  The horse needs to feel 
safe.  What you think is safe and what’s in his little mind are two entirely 
different things.  I finally figured that my mare would give a good pull on the 
rope, realized that she could not get AWAY from the trailer, and go right in. 

As for getting my mare loaded,  she usually just goes right in.  When she balks 
I use the dally method WITH ROCK CLIMBING ROPE AND THE STRONGEST  halter and 
clip I can buy. Also, don’t even think of doing this method without a good 
pair of leather gloves.  You have to buy 25-30 feet of good quality nylon rope 
and be willing to replace it BEFORE it gets worn out.  You also have to be able 
to tie a bowline on the stoutest snap you can find.  I have found that my mare 
has broken more snaps than anything else.   Pretend you are a rock climber and 
treat your rope like your life depended on it.  Many of these ropes have very 
high tension strength and can withstand the forces exerted by a pulling horse.  
 Having a good length of dally gives me the option of letting her pull in a 
safe place without too far away from the trailer.   Once she would realize that 
she could not get away from the trailer she’d go right in.  Now if she even 
balks I pull out the
rope and she just walks right in.  People are always telling me that my mare 
could hurt herself pulling.  But like some of the posters on this issue, all 
you have to do is release the rope and the horse is free.  My mare doesn’t 
pull because she’s panicked, she’s pulling because she’s being a nasty 
bitch.  There is quite a difference between panic and obstinacy along with the 
potential of self harm.  This is the safest thing I could come up with for me 
and my horse.  I am away from my horse and I can release her in a relatively 
safe place if things go sour.  I am also right by the trailer door so I can 
shut that as soon as she’s in.  She always has a treat in her manger which  
gives me time to shut the trailer door.   I’m sure there are readers out 
there that tell me this is dangerous, and perhaps it would be for another 
horse.  But after two years of trying this or that it’s what I found to work 
for me and my horse SAFELY.

You have to be creative and think of safety first for YOU and then your horse.  
Once you find that the horse is just being obstinate instead of fearful about 
loading you’ll have to figure out what works best for your horse.  Just 
remember that there is no one way to get them to want to load…it’s just a 
matter of  understanding, outsmarting and outlasting them so they just  resign 
to load.       And with endurance horses, this can take a while and they always 
seem to know when we are in a hurry. 


Lynn






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