Trailer Loading for the Nervous Horse July 6, 2022 July 6, 2022 Monica Raymond

Loading a horse that does not want to get on the trailer can be extremely frustrating. You are really excited about going on a trail ride, perhaps you are meeting others and have gotten a late start, and then your horse doesn’t want to load. Erghhh! And of course, when we get tense, it only adds to our horse’s fear of the trailer, just making things worse, but we just can’t help it, right?!

I have a solution that I am passing on from horse trainer Don Jessop. I recently attended a clinic he gave, where one of the attendees had a horse with loading problems. Don believes that in order for us to develop partnerships with our horses so that they willingly do what we ask, they must be comfortable doing it. We don’t have to fight with them. By practicing patience, we can gently guide them and allow them the time to check something – such as the trailer – out and realize on their own that it is safe.

The only requirement of you is patience. More patience than you think you have. Also, you must practice the technique at home without any time pressure, before that big trail ride, multiple times until your horse loads easily.

Below is a video of Don helping a nervous horse get on – and stay on – a trailer. It takes time; in this case, about 45 minutes. But in the end the horse is very comfortable and calm. The next time the horse loads, it will take less time. And the next time, even less, until finally it will be a non-issue.

If you have a horse that does not load easily (or you just want to better understand natural horsemanship), try to set aside 45 minutes to watch this video from start to finish. Or, watch 15 minutes a day for 3 days. If you are like me it’s hard to find 15 free minutes in a day, much less 45. But if it takes you half an hour to load your horse every time using a carrot and/or a stick, in the long run you will save time, not to mention a lot of frustration. Think of the video as a mini-clinic that you can audit for free from the comfort of your own home. I was there and I learned more in that 45 minutes than I can say – about horse training in general; my horse doesn’t even have any loading problems.

Tip: when you watch the video, watch Don, don’t watch the horse. Your goal is to emulate what he is doing.

Here are some of my main takeaways from this lesson:

  • Be patient and relaxed at all times.
  • Stand in the same place the whole time. You do not need to go around to the other side of the horse to move him/her towards you.
  • The goal is to allow your horse to relax and gradually face and move into the trailer one small step at a time.
  • When the horse gets nervous and backs up or move sideways, do not push them back on. Allow them to move for 3 to 5 seconds before redirecting them – this is extremely important.
  • Do not ask for more until they have relaxed for at least 10 seconds.
  • You will see improvement, backsliding (what Don calls a “valley”), then improvement, and backsliding, and more improvement. This is expected and backsliding does not mean that you’ve lost all the ground you’ve gained.
  • Resist the urge to push the horse on the last little bit or quickly put the butt bar up. Let them get off if they want and gently redirect them on until they willingly stay on without any pressure.
  • You can do all the steps in one session or just do a little bit each day. For example on day one you might spend 15 minutes and get the horse to stay calm looking in the trailer. The next day you might get them to be calm with both front feet in. And so on.

Happy Trails!

Monica

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