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

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!

TinkerBell 13 Jan 2010 May be finally I am the person who Richard is looking for in his guest feature on the same subject, as one debating the pressure halter. I might be missing something or am getting something completely wrong, so please bear with me. This is what I notice in the video which puts doubts into my head. When Sarah was trying to load Eric for the 1st time, poor soul, she did not belive at all that he will load, one can feel it in the video. I found Eric licking and chewing before any re-education started. I found him quite cooperative with everything that Richard asked, for the horse who was doing all this for the 1st time. So I think he is brilliantly clever. On the other hand I find that backing horse that often and almost each time for more then 4 steps, is not really good for his legs. I do not see what purpose the horse sees in backing and coming forward exactly form where he has started. May be this is why he is resisting, because he just can not see the purpose? The distance to which Eric was allowed to come and crowd Richard was different all the time, so I am not sure Eric got how much he can "crowd" Richard. It is true that horses have limited number of choices nowdays, but I do not like the phrase which Richard said at the end that we should trick the horse into thinking that he made a choice (the one we wanted of course). This is a typical female joke about husbands! What I definetely agree with is that re-educating a horse is a long process, accompanied by a lot of patience and calmness - there Richard is brilliant. I do not say that Richard's method should not be used or is bad. I just prefer what and how Sarah Fisher does. It is a personal preference. Sorry if I disagree with other users, but this is really how I feel.