Richard Maxwell loads the reluctant Eric

30m 8secs
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Made by:Horse Hero

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A difficult loader is one of the most traumatic and stressful experiences for horse and handler, and it's surprisingly common! Sarah demonstrates the problem with Eric, who has been difficult for years. Horse behaviourist, Richard Maxwell sets about understanding Eric's evasions and finding ways to counter them. "The horse's smartness is his ability to look stupid, so it's important we respect his intelligence. It's like playing chess", says Richard. Using a training halter, he starts a dialogue with Eric that involves being able to move his feet and increase the speed of his responses. Richard applies this, with dramatic results, to loading!

Comments

Maryblueroan 1 Jun 2010 Mary Owen 01 June 2010 - I scrapped my old Bedford TK and bought another 7.5 tonne box with power steering. My homebred horse is now 19 years old and has always travelled happily in the Bedford with no loading issues. Amory went into the new box to go to a training session but refused to load to come home again. I increased the space between the partitions for his journey home, but it took nearly two hours to get him in the box. Today,having watched this video twice I loaded Amory by this method. It took one and a quarter hours to get him in the first time. It took two attempts the second time and then we did fifteen loadings very easily. I am having some alterations done to the partitions as they have rubber lower sections which probably move when we corner, so I am having them replaced with timber before I actually try driving him anywhere in the box again. Thank you so much for such a useful video.

bellini 10 Mar 2010 oooh... I'll try that tomorrow and see how it goes. Looks very good!!!

Bella 18 Jan 2010 Absolutely brilliant as always. I watched you loading at a demo which was very similar to the video. I started to practise with my mare in October and she's a different horse.

LynH 14 Jan 2010 I have a mare who would not load at all until about 5 years ago when Richard came out for a loading session at our yard. The process shown here took hours rather than minutes but Richard used the same calm quiet method throughout. My horse tried numerous ways of evading and all were dealt with in the same manner. The 20 times a day for 10 days was vital to her success and now she loads perfectly and happily 95% of the time. The techniques Richard showed me that day are easy to use and a quick session like the one shown here is enough to get her back on track if she gets upset and refuses to load. I can honestly say the session I had was life changing for me and my horse as we had never been able to leave the yard before and I am now able to compete and enjoy her. I am delighted to see this video here and wanted to say that this method works on horses alot more resistant and persistent than Eric! Thank you.

Silver Snaffles 14 Jan 2010 Very interesting. I have one pony 100% at loading . I have another who loads 99.9% of the time but occassionally won't, she is a red head!!!!!It has happened three times. Once the event turned out to have been cancelled. Once there had been an accident on route, and the other time we put her back in the stable , had a cup of coffee went out again and she loaded without a problem!!!!! I'm glad to hear others are bought to tears with some of these videos - me too!