Since my last visit, Raf's owners have practiced asking him to load and unload on many occasions and his adrenalin levels are much lower. Today it was time to ask him to accept the back and front bars. This 'swimming noodle' is a great way to introduce or reintroduce the concept of bars given that it is warm and flexible to touch. It's important to desensitise the horse to the feel of it away from the box but then it can be used to check a horse's likely reaction to being contained with bars in the trailer itself. A horse that is forced to stay in a box is one that will think about forcing its way out. In any event, once the proper bars are being used, it's a good idea to warmly and securely pad the front ones as they tend to cause bruising to the chest. We suspect that this is why many horses either give up wanting to load or try to jump over the bars. Note also the dock scratch which can reassure horses that you have a friendly intent when they have been hit or herded from behind in the past. It's important to have somewhere to go (behind the partition) if the horse threatens to kick or barge its way out in this situation.
