'Teaching a Refusing Horse to Load into a Float' by Glen Denholm

“Always look for what is and not what you think should be.  Never anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen.  Always keep in the sunlight."

Here is a problem I see a great deal of the time at shows and other events where the horse is displayed and people have a desire to display and work him.

To load a refusing horse is for the main, a job for an experienced person.

All manner of problems can and will arise.

Let me make this suggestion to you:

- Teach your horse to lead and tie up.

- Where possible use a knotted headstall with a 10 foot lead when handling him.

- Understand that refusing is a vice and will not be tolerated by you.

- Understand that you will have to work hard to correct this form of a vice.

- Understand that this is a very bad habit and it will be difficult to cure in the early days.

So, in preparation, sprinkle some horse manure on the tail gate and open the side or front door of the float.

Put a good knotted rope head stall on the horse.  Have a short whip, about 5 feet long, with you.  Lead the horse to the float with the thong trailing behind and lightly flick him on the hocks and lower legs.  Be careful though he might bounce forward on you.  Be ready.

Do not have assistants there.  If you have, get them to stand away from the float and never behind the horse.  Get them to lean on the fence and have a yarn about football or something other than what you are doing.

You have to be focussed on what you are doing with the horse and the horse must be focussed on you and what you are doing with him.  You do not what any distractions.  His sole focus must be on you and going into the float.

Lead the horse to the back of the float and see what reaction you are getting.

You must have the attitude right here and now that the horse IS going to lead onto the float and that the horse IS going to be obedient to that request.

Read the horse’s demeanour. See if his attitude is changing as he approaches the float.  Try to read him before you get in position.

If all is good, just lay the thong of the whip down his near side on the ground, just gently, just sort of “flop” it down there.  He might look at it out of his near side eye and move away to his off side.  If he does this, quickly change hands and “flop” the whip down on the ground on the off side, and tell him “get over.”

Growl at him softly and show him, by your eyes, that you mean what you are saying.

Stand him to the float again and ask him to come forward, but don’t pull on his head.  He must come forward of his own volition and he must move forward and be obedient.

All sorts of things might happen.  He could rear, bite, strike or just swing away.  If you can, you must be ready for these little issues and correct them immediately. 

Have answers for the questions he is asking you.

Don’t hit him, use your voice.

Let us say we get to a stage where the horse has two feet on the tail gate.  If you have achieved this I would give the horse some reward like a little bit of grain.  If he refuses to eat from your hand, he is anxious. If he eats he is not anxious, but could be planning his escape route or some other little exercise to alter the odds to be in his favour.

Some people believe that the horse does not plan things.  I am not so sure.

If they have a learned behaviour which they interpret as being a good thing and that it is something that has benefited them on a previous occasion they will do all in their power to implement that situation again, have no fear of this.

So then we can return to the situation where we have two feet on the tail gate and we get him into the float.  Sensational.  We have won.  All of a sudden, at warp speed, the horse races back off the float and tries to get away.

You do two things then.  One, you stick him back in his yard because it is all too hard, or Two, you make the place where he is at that moment, very unpleasant.

If he will lunge, then make him work.  Lunge him around the rear of the float, making him go close to the tail gate.  Lunge him for 10 minutes, make him work.  Make where he is a bad place to be.  If he will not or does not know how to lunge, then flick him about the front legs with the whip.  Sting him around the cannon bone.  Impress on him the error of his ways.

Immediately bring him back to the tail gate of the float again and ask him to come on.  Do not pull his head, lay the thong beside him and ask him to come forward.

If the horse goes on and races off again, go with him and repeat the process.  Either lunge him or hammer him around the front legs with the whip.  Just flick him about the cannon bones.

Ask him to come forward again and repeat the request.  If he goes on and races off again, repeat the process.

It will not take long for the horse to realise that, if he stays on the float which is a good thing to do, he will not be made work or punished which is bad for him.  Horses are lazy all they want to do is eat, sleep and be left alone.  You see how long it takes him to work out that if I stay on the float, it will be good.

I have had horses that when I have showed them the error of their ways, they are not too inclined to come off the float and in fact will nearly push you out of the way to get on to the float rather than be made to work.

Horses have to have a leader.  If they have no leader, then by their very nature they must take control of a situation so that they can be confident.

To achieve what you are setting out to do, you must be a confident leader of the horse and in doing this, a confident horse will be the result and they will be happy to do anything you ask of them.

In most cases if you show a horse the error of his ways and prevent him from doing something, he will nearly always stop doing it. When they realise that they cannot they generally will not.

For instance, I had a situation once where a mare would kick out violently when she was asked to go onto a horse float.  She would get to the tail gate, then refuse and start to kick out behind with both legs.

She wanted to stop people racing up and belting her with whatever armament they had at their disposal at the time.  The resulting behaviour was a direct cause of her apprehension of being flogged.  Not unreasonable I would have thought.

I put float boots on her hind legs and a set of chain hobbles on her rear cannon bone on her hind legs.  I hunted every helper away and made sure no one approached from her rear.

I let her get used to the rear hobbles and then asked her to come forward onto the float.  She bounced a little and when she felt the restriction of the hobbles she went forward onto the float without problem.

My mare Trinket will kick another horse next to her in a float.  I back hobble Trinket and the problem is solved.

An 18 month old half draft filly that I own, who is named Grace, I taught to lead with the whip and go onto the float.  Grace has never had a bad experience and will run onto the float because we go to exiting places. New places for her to see.

I make a point of taking all my young horses out in the float when I visit friends.  The young horse goes to places where other horses are.  The young horse sees and experiences different sights and sounds.  Eventually when you take her to a show, in her mind all she is doing is visiting some friends place that has more horses than other places and the whole thing becomes all very “ho hum” to her.

There are no secrets in the handling of the horse, but there is no how.

It is just that some people have more no how than some others.

If a person with brains cannot get over a horse with brains then the man with brains should give the horse game away and never go near them again.

Glen Denholm Dip Ag,

Richmond TAFE,

Equine Studies.

(02) 45-707050