For those of you who don't know--since I haven't updated the blog almost all year--Mort has developed an issue with loading. It's really frustrating and heartbreaking because he was SO GOOD the first 2.5 years that I had him. The day that the new barn owner went to pick him up it took 40 minutes to load him. I was shocked. He seriously had never been unreasonable before. If you let him sniff it he is usually happy to hop right up. Her trailer has a back tack and a ramp so I thought one of those was probably the issue. The next time she was hooked up I grabbed a handful of carrots and he walked cautiously on after about 10 minutes. OK, so he probably was a little nervous from new person and new trailer--easy.
I scheduled a vet appointment. Took me a good 45 minutes to load him and it required a team effort to give him some encouragement from behind (snaking the lunge whip on the ground about 10 feet behind him). He had to be drugged at the vet's for some eye stuff, so on our way out he loaded right up into the trailer with zero issues.
Fast forward a month or two and he had to go to the vet for his hoof issues. I gave myself an hour to load him and after about 45 minutes of the gentle, grain-based method I resorted to some encouragement again. He had to be drugged for x-rays at the vet's so I was hoping that he would get on the trailer as well as he did the last time that he was drugged. That didn't work. He was immovable. He was either frozen with his front feet inches from the ramp or if we tried to pressure him he would explode into a 1200 pound monster.
Mort doesn't like being told what to do. He's a good boy most of the time but if he feels threatened or bullied he changes completely. He doesn't want to hurt you but he also doesn't care if he has to mow you over to get out of the situation. I will point out that I never resorted to painful methods. I didn't lunge him until he dropped. I offered him many treats if he moved forward. We did try a stud chain (something I've used with him before for vaccinations) and tapped his butt with a lunge whip (not hit but just an annoying tap). We tried a rope around his haunches. We tried a rope halter. We tried drugging him again. It just got worse and worse. He was either frozen or angry and fearful.
After some time we decided to give him a break. No one was getting through to him in this frame of mind--he had just shut down. We spend a half hour hanging out and relaxing. We then spend another half hour or more eating our lunch on the trailer ramp while he milled around near it. He'd get a treat or some hay if he'd put a foot on the ramp. I moved this to slowly getting him further and further on the ramp. Several times he was halfway in the trailer with his hind legs on the ramp; zero times did he get on the trailer.
It had been just shy of five hours at this point. It was going to get dark. It was supposed to snow the next day, so we didn't want to leave him at the vet's but it was getting to that point. I decided to try one more thing--a rope twitch. Usually a horse won't move forward with a twitch, but I was desperate. We put a twitch on and I had someone tapping his butt with the lunge whip. He eventually launched onto the trailer. He hasn't gotten on one since.
I fully take responsibility for some of his issues. I shouldn't have scheduled the vet appointments without working with him a lot more. I have 100% made matters worse because now he not only has fear of trailer ramps (I guess?) but also has issues with the whole process. I have a lot of regret and guilt about it. I swear he was never hurt or put in an unsafe situation but it doesn't matter because according to his perspective; he was.
Now that you've heard the terrible back story, you're up-to-date. Steven and I bought a trailer this past winter. My wonderful husband spent many days working on updating it and making it extra safe for Mort. It does have a ramp but no back tack. I'm not sure what it was that Mort was scared of with his first trailer issues but I don't know that it would matter at this point anyway.
I've spent a handful of days working with him in my new trailer. I've made a promise to myself that I won't resort to anything negative--perceived or otherwise. He's only getting treats and affirmations when things go well. I'm trying not to ask for too much. So far I've stuck to this. Our first session he just put his front feet low on the ramp a few times. The second session he did the same but would walk another step further up. By the third session I had his front feet in the trailer and his back feet on the ramp.
Yesterday we went back to the second session's success instead of improving like we had been doing. It had been a month since our last practice so it's not that surprising, but it was still disappointing. The barn owner said that we could find a place for me to park out there so that I can work on it more regularly. I'm really hoping that it helps. I want to just play with it a little every day until it's not a big deal. We'll see. Maybe we'll both just live at the current barn forever with me standing in the trailer and him standing with his front feet on the ramp.
Definitely reason number a million that Mort and I haven't done anything off-farm this year. I honestly wasn't sure whether I was going to post this or not since I'm so ashamed about it, but this blog is to keep track of what I'm doing with Mort and this is certainly what I'm doing right now--good, bad, and ugly.
Working through trailer issues makes me so anxious! Sounds like he does get even marginally better with repetition and that's a good start! Hopefully he learns that it ain't nothing but thing.
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