I LOVE teaching horses how to stand on Pedestals! Not only is it fun, but it allows you to improve your squeeze game, and prepare for tailer loading. Often times trailers require the horse to take a step up into to scary cage on wheels. With the pedestal you can practice building your horse’s confidence with stepping up onto tight spaces. Obviously the surface area of the pedestal is much smaller than a trailer which is great! You want your horse to be so prepared and confident that by the time you ask him to lead into your tailer he will say “really, is that it?”
With the Pedestal you can isolate each foot, asking the horse to first put just one foot on the top. As your communication gets stronger you can add another foot, then another foot, till you have all four balancing on top of the squeeze.
I was fortunate enough to have one built for me this last year and I use it as part of my training with all the horses! Another popular design is a round surface with openings in the siding. Although you will see this around, it is not ideal as the horse could get a foot caught while getting up and down. Click on the green text at the top to view attached instructions and see how easy it is to make yourself a safe and fun DYI Pedestal!
Awesome – thanks!
Kellie
great post! i have a wonderful little pedestal made out of a bobcat tire with an inch and a half of plywood on top. i can roll it around to move it and it doesn’t squish when billy stands on it 🙂 it’s the BEST!
I can no longer access the plans, can you make it accessible? Thanks!