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Various Articles ... by KT Rhys ... and Horse Tales

Being a natural writer, and a broad spectrum thinker, I'm bound to comment on a variety of things I find interesting. There's no telling what you may find in this section, so if I step out of your interest zone, please just jump ahead ... or move along to a different part of the site. This section is warmly dedicated those late night insomniacs who have asked me to contribute more stories and epiphanies to the site!!

Horse Tales about Loading - for the Thinking Horseman
Elton & Gem ... with introduction.

Some Stress Free Techniques for Loading 'Unloadable' Horses

Introduction:

Having grown up around horses, I've seen some things.
Some of those things, I wish I'd never seen. Some, I'll never forget - like the poor horse who flipped himself upside down, in one side of a two-horse trailer, still tied to the front of the trailer. That horse got so scared in that little space, that he just tried to walk right on the ceiling to get out of that thing, and there wasn't a thing anybody could do to stop him. This kind of thing does happen, though, and it's always a very hard thing to see.

I've seen some interesting things, too, that are worth noticing - for the thinking horseman. For instance, did you know that a horse left loose in an undivided trailer will almost unfailingly choose to travel backwards? This is true even when the hay net is in the front of the trailer. He will bumper his rump against the front of the trailer for stops, and use his front feet to brace himself for take-offs. Presumably, horses have preferred this style of travel since we started hauling them. But we still design most horse trailers to travel with 'old Joe' (The Horse), facing front.
It makes me wonder, who is it, here, that isn't learning?

Having owned a good sized horse boarding facility, I've learned to keep my mouth shut and let folks do things their own way. Clients won't thank you for interfering, and you stand to lose business by butting in. But it's hard to stand by and watch a wreck in the making when old Joe is involved, because we all love old Joe, my own affectionate name for The Horse.

So this series of thoughts and insights into his world is mostly written for old Joe. To help folks see him as he sees himself, and maybe help make life a little easier for Joe and his human friends in the bargain. Certainly, there are plenty of things I haven't done with horses, but so far, I haven't met the horse that couldn't be loaded humanely and without injury.

You go with what you know.

I'd like to introduce you to a couple of unloadable horses, that I managed to load without the slightest trauma to anybody. These horses, without exception, loaded ever-after in the same way, and in most cases are eventually taught to travel by conventional methods, after overcoming their fears. I'll tell you what I did, and why I feel it worked. Many of my methods are not traditional, but that's why they work. Possibly, if you're reading this, the traditional methods have already failed your horse, so we can begin by noticing what doesn't work.

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Lily

Honey

Loading Elton - and thinking it through, in some detail.

"We flipped him over three times!"

   One day, while living in Wales, which is right next-door to England, I got a call from a gentleman of means, whom I'll call Steve, because that's his name. Steve was an absolute novice horseman, and I admired him right away, because he owned up to that without self-consciousness. He had found out I was involved with Western riding, and thought I might be able to help him.

Unloadable horse, trailer, quarter horse, problem loader, flipped over, dangerous, coffee technique, unloading horse, loading horse, travel backwards, afraid of dark places, cave thing, fear of waving arms, waving ropes, leg wraps, trauma, remedial loader

John and 'Elton'

   Steve wanted to travel to America and participate in a ranching holiday ... but he hadn't ridden a horse before. He didn't want to embarrass himself, and wanted me to teach him to ride Western ... just enough to feel confident in front of the cowboys.  When Steve told me his height and stature, I declined, because I didn't have a horse large enough to accommodate him.

   But Steve wasn't daunted. He would just go out and buy himself a horse to learn on, and keep it at my place until he learned. What kind of horse should he buy?  Since Steve was a beginner, I suggested an American Quarter Horse over ten years of age. I didn't honestly expect to hear from him again, but two days later, Steve called me back. He'd bought a Quarter Horse, and was bringing him down to my place. Steve was my kind of go-getter.

   Steve had bought Elton, a Quarter Horse standing about 15.2 hands high. He was a well made sorrel (red chestnut) gelding, with a white star, and strip.

   When the lorry arrived with Elton, the driver didn't want to attempt my driveway, which had a sharp drop on one side, preferring to unload Elton on the country lane that served our little farm. It was a woman driver, full of confidence and apparent competence, so I was surprised when she hollered, "Everyone get out of the way, and get ready to catch him! He'll probably jump the ramp!"

   Elton jumped the ramp all right, and he disembarked trembling, sweating, and scraped up. We caught him without any difficulty as he just stood there shaking.

   "I hope you don't plan to send him anywhere again," offered the driver cheerfully, "cause we flipped him over three times just trying to load him. But we got him here! Now it's up to you."

       The woman driver's callousness hit me like a slap.

     In all fairness to Steve, he had never seen a horse loaded before, and had no framework for 'normal procedure' during horse loading. For all he knew, this woman's methods had worked, in the long run, which was clearly what she'd told him. Steve was in the awkward position of having to trust the professionals. And that's what we do, isn't it? We trust the professionals.

   Elton was a sweetheart. He was a little nervous at first, but he soon learned to trust us, and willingly performed everything we asked of him. Steve learned to ride Elton, and he undertook to build Elton a state of the art stable back at Steve's home, complete with cable TV and nightlights. Elton was going to be loved and spoiled ... if only we could get him loaded again.

   As the day approached to send Elton to his new home, Steve became worried, because he wasn't aware that I'd done any work on loading him. I assured Steve that Elton would load.

   Steve was competent to drive a trailer, and owned a 4x4 jeep, so I gave him specific instructions. I asked him to arrive with a trailer, not a lorry. This was partly because I wanted a whole change of gestalt - no association with past lorry experiences, and partly because I wanted the trailer to have a jockey door in the front, not an off-loading ramp.

   I asked Steve to make sure there was no divider, or breast bar in the trailer. I never use these devices with a horse who is reluctant to load or travel. If the horse is scared, a divider is just stuff to get hurt on. I learned that from Upside Down Joe, the horse I mentioned in the Introduction to this story, and who largely inspired my whole way of thinking about loading horses.

   The last thing I asked Steve was to plan to spend the entire day loading Elton, and have no other agenda for that day. When working with remedial loaders, it goes like this: If you allow all day for the job, it will often take only a few minutes to get loaded. If you arrive expecting to load the horse in a few minutes, I can guarantee it will take all day.
   The good news is that, using some of these methods, your horse should only ever be a remedial loader once. So think of all the time you'll save later, when you have a show, or other event to get to. Later on, you can gradually introduce dangerous things like dividers, if you like.

   For Elton, there were a few basic things to consider.

   1) Horses naturally distrust dark places, like caves, which can be inhabited by lions. This is not a sign of stupidity. It is a sign of great intelligence in the horse. Joe knows to avoid dangerous places. Clever Joe. While we often forget that Joe is just a big rabbit, who tastes good, Joe never forgets this. He is prey and he thinks like prey. When the pressure is on, old Joe prefers open spaces and plenty of escape routes. Ever notice how many escape routes your horse can clock, in three seconds?

   2) Old Joe is not afraid of stables. Generally, this is because nobody hardly ever stands around trying to herd him into a stable with ropes, and waving arms, and clucking noises to urge him forward. We just tug gently on the rope, and wait for him to walk forward. Then we give him his food in there.

   3) If you want results, fast, it's always best to make the choices very clear for Joe. So the right choice is made easy, and the wrong choice is designed to be either impossible, or ... not so much fun for Joe.

   That's pretty much it. Armed with these few tools, we were ready to load Elton.

Jessi

Ruby

Sarsi

Loading Elton II:
The Coffee Technique

   Steve was expected to arrive at about 11am, so I put Elton into a stable at 9am. By the time the trailer arrived, I wanted Elton to be good and bored in that bare stable. I chose a stable that we could back the trailer right up to. This kind of stable is an invaluable tool for working with remedial loaders. It is much easier to load a horse from a dark place to another dark place, because of that cave thing. Trying to get him to walk into a dark place from broad daylight is infinitely more difficult, because it looks like a trap. Again, this is a sign of Joe's great intelligence, so I respect it, knowing it could someday alert me to a danger I might otherwise miss.

   I gave Elton a half bucket of water, and absolutely no food. No bedding. No other horses in the barn. Just Elton, with not a lot to do, except look out the stable door. For the two hours until Steve arrived, Elton waited, while I went to have a cup of coffee and some breakfast.

   When Steve arrived, we set about making the trailer look just like a stable. We put down some nice cozy bedding, and hung a hay net in the far corner, near the front of the trailer. Elton watched, as we made these preparations right outside his stable door. By now, Elton was pretty bored, and eager to see some activity - not to mention the prospect of some hay!

   I held Elton, letting him watch while my husband opened the stable door. The door opened flat back against the side of the barn, so we did not have to remove the stable door. Steve backed the trailer as near as we could get to the stable door still leaving room for the loading ramp. I wanted Elton to see the moving trailer, and understand that it could still be a safe stable. It wasn't my intention to trick him.

   We used two field gates, which we secured to the trailer on either side of the ramp, to create a little courtyard between the stable and the trailer. We secured them at the barn end by tying them to the building, and we stacked several large bales of straw against the gates. Tie rings are easy to attach to any barn, but if it's a brick barn, please make sure the brick is securely embedded into the wall.

   Caveat: Obviously, it's important to make sure the gates are set close to the side of the ramp, so that the horse's leg can not become stuck between the gate and the ramp. If needed, straw bales can be used to fill any gap between the gate and the wall. I was not planning to put any pressure on Elton, or the gates. It was my intention to let Elton load himself, in his own time. We were going to have a cup of coffee.

   I removed Elton's halter, so he couldn't get caught up, and let him loose. Despite the beckoning call of the hay at the far end of this new 'stable' and his rumbling tummy, Elton was having none of it. He looked nervously at Steve, myself, and my husband, and backed away into the far corner of the unbedded, empty stable where he had been waiting for two hours.

   Now, it's easy to misinterpret Elton's apprehension, at this point. You might well think that Elton was afraid of the funny moving stable ... but remember your tools. Joe is not afraid of stables. He has no reason to fear stables. Joe is afraid of the ropes, and the waving arms, the excited voices, and the clucking noises that refuse to let him assess the danger he perceives in his own time.

   The key tool in this method of loading is the cup of coffee. Bye-bye, see ya later. Have a nice time loading yourself. Completely remove the human element from this equation, and let the horse figure it out. He will never be afraid of the trailer again after he is allowed this opportunity.

   We watched from my kitchen window, and it took Elton a full fifteen minutes to walk into the new stable. He kept checking to see if anyone was coming! Then he walked in, grabbed a mouthful of hay, and rushed back to the safety of the unbedded stable. For a few moments, he stood in the unbedded stable, feeling a little silly, because the food was in the trailer, and nothing was trying to trap him, or eat him. Before long, he was walking in and out calmly, between mouthfuls. He was pausing to look out over the field gates; he was calling hello to the horses in the field ... telling them how clever he was. Before long, he disappeared into the trailer, and we didn't see him again for quite a few minutes as he munched his hay in earnest. In all, we left him alone for about 35 minutes.

   The next step was to introduce a trusted human into the equation. I had worked with Elton for several weeks now, and he knew me well. As soon as I arrived, however, he returned to the safety of his unbedded stable, and waited to see what I would do. I asked Steve to open the front jockey door of the trailer, and stand outside, but in the doorway, with a slice of apple in his hand. I normally avoid hand-feeding, but this was a calculated exception. I wanted the jockey door open, so that Elton would see the trailer was not trap. I also wanted to make it less dark, because I was now introducing humans into the equation. Here's how I thought it through, and the basic assumptions I used to decide upon the lesson plan.

I'm only asking you to take one step.

   Now it was time to adjust my goals. When working with remedial horses, it is important to break the exercise down into small, achievable steps. At this stage you can lose a lot of ground, if you think the next step is to get the horse into the trailer. It isn't.

   The next step is to get the horse to take one step toward the trailer, on the lead. That's all. I don't want to aim any higher, or I could introduce the pressure of my expectations to the situation. It seems a slow way of working, but often with horses, what seems slow is really very fast, when you contemplate the alternative, and the longer term gains.

   At this point, to it may be helpful to read the side-bar at right, which deals with the horse's perception of leading, and then return to this point in Elton's story. Usually, a loading problem is really just a leading problem, exposed. In most cases, if a horse will follow you anywhere on the lead, he will load anywhere, too. For those who just want to read the story ... feel free to continue below, as you like.

Body Language and Loading

  So when I ask Elton to take a step forward, I'm only going to put pressure on the halter until he shows me that he is thinking of moving forward. I will reward even the thoughtof moving forward, so he knows this a right thought. I'm going to turn my body halfway between facing into the trailer, and facing Elton. I turn my body into a neutral position. If I were to turn directly to face Elton, I would be telling him, Stop. Wait there. I'll tell you when to proceed further.
That's clearly not the message I want to send.

By our unconscious body language, most of us have already taught our horses that they are not to run over us.
When we turn to face them, they are expected to stop, and await further instructions. That is how we have told old Joe that we want him to behave. At no other time - except when loading our horse - do we simply stop, turn to face our horse, and expect him to proceed anyway!
No wonder he gets confused on the ramp.

Because we forget that loading is just leading, when we step onto the end of a trailer ramp, we seem to feel the need to turn and face the horse. Then we are surprised when he does exactly what we have taught him to do, in response to this cue. We are surprised when he stops and awaits further instructions. Sometimes we even get annoyed with old Joe, who is usually trying his best to please us.

If I were to face directly into the trailer, I would be disconnecting from Elton, literally turning my back on him. So by turning my body in between these two positions, I am showing him that I'm with him, and aware of him, but that I want to move toward the trailer. This will give Elton a clear signal of what I'm trying to achieve, and the gentle pressure on the halter tells him I am asking him to do something. I always assume that he doesn't know what I am asking ... just that he knows I am asking something. It's up to me to help him figure out what I'm asking.

When I begin to put pressure on the halter, at this point, I know that the horse may well back away from me, and that's okay. I don't get excited. I just go back with him. I don't release pressure on his halter, but allow Elton to slightly increase the pressure on his halter by pulling backward. I certainly don't release the pressure one little bit, not even for a second. For as long as he continues to go backward, I just go with him, and maintain steady pressure. I do not pull against him.

If I were to pull against him, I could cause him to rear and twist. These behaviors would tell me I am resisting him, which is not my objective. If he starts to rear, I ease the pressure just enough that he returns to simply backing or pulling. Working from inside a stable, there is really nowhere for the horse to go, so none of this should arise, and with Elton, it doesn't. He just resists for two or three seconds, and then takes a single step toward the trailer. Before he can even take a second step, I completely release the pressure on his halter, and reward him with a scratch between his eyes, and a kind word. I do this without turning completely to face him. I keep my body in neutral position, ready to move on. After two seconds, I ask for another step, and continue to repeat this process. When a single step comes easily, I will ask for two steps before rewarding him, but I always release the pressure immediately when he responds correctly. He should take subsequent steps on a slack rope ... not by being pulled along.

Caveat: It can be useful, also, to cluck or make kissy noises ... a consistent noise while you are asking the horse to move forward, but it's important, then, to STOP making the irritating noise the moment Joe responds. Sometimes you can irritate a horse right into cooperating, just to stop that infernal noise in his delicate ears - as long as the stopping of the 'bad noise' is completely consistent with his responses. One trainer I know uses a loud snapping of his fingers that I can't seem to produce.

Two year old stallion Mac learns how to give to pressure on the lead. He is relaxed, and taking time to figure it out.

Using the halter's side rings, and pulling to the side gives a much clearer signal for the horse. So, we always teach him to yield to pressure first to the left, then to the right, then to step backwards, lest he walk over us when he comes forward! and finally,
to walk forward.

A Loading Problem is really
Leading Problem ... exposed

The importance of leading properly
can never be overstated.
This is the single most important lesson
for any horse, ever.

The next step really exposes a little understood fact for what it is.

A loading problem is mostly
just a leading problem.

Knowing this, I had previously spent some consistent lessons exposing Elton to moderately demanding leading situations, like walking over a pile of gravel stones, walking over a saddle blanket, etc. I hope the experienced horse folks will just read along with us now, while we talk about teaching a horse to respond to lead-line pressure, because this is the single most important lesson you can ever teach your horse.

A good leading horse is almost always a generally good horse to work around. It's like money in the bank.

But just because a horse generally follows you on the lead doesn't necessarily mean he understands what you are asking him to do. He could just be following you because he likes you, which is absolutely not the same thing.

This is because "I like you" leading is neither consistent, nor dependable.  Let's slow down just for a few paragraphs, to talk a little about responding to cues. When you cue your horse to do something, like take a step forward, your horse MUST understand:

1) what the cue was, and
2) that he has responded correctly to the cue.

So, how does he know that he has given you the right response to your cue?

This is a very important question, because until you know the answer to this one question, you can not really be certain your horse has learned anything ... anything, ever. If he does not know it was the right response, how can he give you the same response again, consistently, in answer to the cue?

Just responding correctly by random trial and error is the most common reason for a horse performing inconsistently. He doesn't really
know for sure that his action was the right response to the cue ... even though he gave it.

Eventually, your horse may usually get it right, but you need to him know for sure that he has given the correct response. After all, how sure and confident would anyone feel, always guessing, and never feeling confident that they know exactly what's expected of them?

So:
How does old Joe know that he has given you the right response to your cue?

How he knows is, you stop asking.

If I ask you to hand me my jacket, and you hand me my scarf, I'm likely to ask you, again, for my jacket. Maybe you don't even speak my language, but you know I want something, and the scarf clearly wasn't it ... because I'm still asking.

So you look again, and come up with my umbrella. You hand it to me, but I put it to one side and reach out my hand again.

The third time, you try the jacket. What happens now? I take the jacket, smile at you, and walk away with the jacket. I stop asking. That's how you know it was the jacket I wanted.

If we pull on a horse's halter, and he takes a step forward, what do we do? We continue to pull on his halter in the hopes of getting another step.

So how does he know?
This is the single greatest reason some horses have to be dragged along on the lead. It's because they have always been pulled along.
Simple as that.

So the answer is to pull gently, and steadily, for as long as the horse is not moving, and immediately allow him to walk on a totally slack lead when he is actually moving forward.
Ask repeatedly, rather than keeping constant pressure on the halter.
As Willie Bear would put it,
"Nothing is forever."

Back to Loading Elton

   As soon as I notice that the horse has stopped resisting the walk onto the trailer, I just lead him in as I would lead him anywhere else. I don't stop and look at him, or teach him to anticipate stopping all the time. By not making a big deal about this step, we don't get stuck on the ramp. Of course, in Elton's case, it helped tremendously that he had already walked on and off the trailer many times, and that he was used to being led by me, so it only took those first three seconds of hesitation for him to 'join up' these two things in his mind.

   After the first stop, and scratch between the eyes, Elton walked right on. Steve gave him the apple slice, and then we just turned around and walked right back off again. Because there was no divider in trailer, turning was not a particular issue. As long as the body fits, the horse will figure out what to do with his head.

   It can be a tight turn in a trailer. Even an empty one, but that's okay. We don't want a horse to be afraid, or panic, in tight spaces. We want him to calmly assess whether or not he can turn, and accept his findings. If the horse needs to do it in a couple of moves, we can just wait patiently for him to figure it out. He will. In Elton's case, he had already been turning around on his own for 35 minutes, so this was not an issue. The cup of coffee is a wonderful tool.

   We walked Elton in and out of the trailer, giving him slices of apple five times (Pavlov would have been salivating). Then I held him in the stable, while Steve and John, my husband, removed the gates. We loaded easily five more times. Then I put Elton back into the stable, and closed the door.

   We moved the trailer forward five feet. We loaded three more times at the new distance, without the gates. We did this again at ten feet, fifteen feet, and then left Elton in his stable, briefly while we made sure the trailer and hay net were now safe for travel.  We did not use leg bandages.

   Sometimes, it's necessary to assess what is likely to happen in a given situation. If a horse is traveling with dividers, he has a greater chance of banging up his legs. If he is traveling loose in an empty trailer, he has very little to bang his legs on. Also, once the trailer starts to move, even a horse that is used to leg wraps can feel that his legs are trapped, and begin to kick. This will actually increase the likelihood that he will cause himself damage, especially if the leg wrap becomes loose, and causes panic. As a result, much of our carefully planned trust-building exercises could be compromised. The horse would prove to himself that trailers are scary, and decide he was right in the first place not to trust us about this issue.

   Elton was taking a journey of about 45 minutes, and Steve was going to drive slowly and carefully. We opted not to complicate the situation with leg bandages.  In our desire to always do the right thing, we can overcomplicate a situation by introducing too many rules. I don't really like to ask a traumatized horse to accept two relatively new things at the same time, especially if the object of his trauma is involved - in this case being hauled. New is anything he has learned recently. Wearing leg wraps for two hours does not, in my book, make them familiar in a pressure situation.

   I am a great believer in making things as uncomplicated as possible, and just avoiding some things that introduce an element of risk, by potentially going wrong.  At twenty feet from the stable, Elton loaded quietly on a slack lead, and was left in the trailer untied, but with his halter on. We made sure there was nothing for him to get hung up on, and I walked out through the jockey door.

   Elton turned around, to look out of the space above the loading ramp, which was now up and closed. We ensured this space was small enough that Elton could see out, but that he would not consider as a possible escape route. Besides, Elton was quite calm and relaxed. The next journey would be time enough for Elton to learn to travel tied. Tomorrow is another day.

   I'm not a great lover of rules, preferring to assess as I go along ... but here's one I've etched in stone:
   Never tie a horse in a moving trailer unless he's totally comfortable being tied outside the trailer
   ... AND he understands how to step into pressure on the halter. Never.

   Steve moved the trailer forward gently a few feet, and stopped gently, for Elton to get his sea legs. He did this three or four times. Elton did not complain.

   I told Steve when he got to his location, he should go in through the jockey door, and tie Elton in the front of the trailer, just while he opened the loading ramp. Then Steve should walk in through the jockey door, and lead Elton out of the trailer, as he would lead him anywhere else.  As I had anticipated, Elton unloaded beautifully, and was very impressed with his new satellite television set-up.

   Of course, we had taught Elton to UN-load, while we were teaching him to load, by walking him in and out of the trailer.So unloading was not an issue for him.

   Forty-five minutes to an hour is an ideal trip length for a first journey. Too short a first journey, and a remedial or first-time traveler is not likely to have settled into the "just is" phase of traveling. That is, he comes to a point where this thing that is happening to him "just is" and he stops worrying about it. Too long a first journey, and the horse may start to believe that he will never be getting off this thing. This can cause him to suffer mental fatigue. He needs to know this will be over sometime soon. We started giving Elton the idea that his time on the trailer would be temporary by walking him on and off the trailer during his initial loading exercises. It is very important for him to understand this is only a temporary situation.

   In all, we loaded Elton inside an hour, without raising his blood pressure one single pip. Elton never had a loading problem again. In the near future, Elton could learn to travel happily with leg wraps, and to travel tied up, and to travel happily with a divider. He just didn't have to get it all done in one day.

Click here to read a shorter tale about LOADING GEM ... at somebody else's facility, where I had less control.
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