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[RC] hard-headed horses - aarenexThis has been an interesting topic. Thanks, everyone.
Here's a twist for you:
I've got a young-in-the-brain mare who was a determined "I won't load and you can't make me" horse when I got her two years ago. She is 15.3 hands, about 1100 pounds. I am 5 foot 2inches, <undisclosed> weight, and a librarian by trade. "Muscling" is not an option for me. <G>
For months, I worked to load this horse the way I had been taught: make sure she's solid about leading, and make loading an extension of leading by hopping in the trailer with her beside me. However, when we got to the trailer, she wouldn't budge in without an assistant standing behind her to tap-tap-tap for ages until she would finally leap in, often on top of me (slant load trailer, very wide, lots of room).
What was happening?
I finally figured out that this mare had been taught to load in a STRAIGHT load trailer...on the driver side. She was trying to get in the way she'd been taught, and here I was, standing in her path like a, well, like a soapdish. <G>
I got out of her way. She got in the trailer.
Everyone sighs in relief.
All was well for more than a year. Recently she hopped in the trailer, snorted hard, and backed out fast. She did it twice more until I got in the trailer and coaxed her in. (By now she knows that the trailer is a slant and that there's room for both of us in there.) With me standing there, she got in calmly. But the next day, same routine: hop in, snort and back out.
What was happening?
I finally grokked it when I saw the nearly-flat trailer tire: there was a leak in the tire under her head, and when she got in, it hissed. I couldn't hear it, but she could. With me standing on top of the hissy thing, she was confident about getting in. Without me there to stand on it, it was just too scary.
Sometimes there are reasons for them being hardheads. Sometimes the reason is...us.
laughing all the way,
Aarene
--
Don't just follow where the path may lead. Instead, figure out where you want to go, and build a sustainable trail to get there. --Ron Silvern aarenex@xxxxxxxxxxx
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