Trailer-Loading Trouble

If you're having problems loading, or re-loading, your horse in a smaller trailer, consider asking a friend with a stock trailer, like this one, to help. Sometimes horses will easily load in a bigger compartment with more room.

Without a doubt, trailer-loading issues commonly try the patience of many horse owners. These are the scenarios: You're ready to load up and head off with friends to enjoy a great trail ride on a beautiful day, but your horse balks. Or you've had a successful day competing at an open show in the arena across town, but now your horse refuses to get back in the trailer. Or the clinician you've been dying to work with is finally coming to your area, but you can't get your horse to load despite weeks of trying.

We've all experienced loading woes at some point in our own horsekeeping lives. Trailer-loading problems are best addressed right when they happen, so your horse doesn't develop the habit of refusing to load. With some help from these three expert trainers-Sue Truitt, Kathy Huggins, and Leslie Desmond-you can nip these problems in the bud.

Question: What are the two most common issues you see from the handler when someone is having problems loading their horse in a trailer?

Sue Truitt: A common issue is that the energy level of the handler elevates due to frustration, which in turn elevates the energy level of the horse.

Along with that, I see the handler using too much force. Often the handler puts himself in a dangerous position by using his bodily force to move the 1,000 pound animal (get real…not a good match) or hitting the horse, venting his frustration, hoping to teach the horse a lesson in submissiveness.

Kathy Huggins: The first is the handler trying to rush the horse into doing something he has never been taught to do. The horse may be afraid, willful, untrained, or absolutely terrified from a prior trailering experience. The handler will often try to overcome the horse's objections with either force or coaxing, neither of which works very well. Whenever there are several people trying to "help," it's not a good sign.

Another issue is if the handler is trying to teach the horse to load using John Lyons' method, that is, by guiding the nose toward the center of the trailer and getting the horse to step forward by tapping on his hip, sometimes the horse will put his front feet in the trailer and "get stuck." At this point, the horse may think he's only supposed to put his front feet in the trailer. So the next "mini lesson" is to teach him that he must go forward even though he is already part way in the trailer. He may back out instead, so the handler must move with the horse and keep tapping that hip persistently, until the horse takes one step forward. Immediately stop the tapping as a reward. If the person stops tapping and tries to pull the horse forward when the horse backs up, the horse gets confused and doesn't recognize that the handler wants him to go forward into the trailer.

Leslie Desmond: The main issue I see is a lack of understanding of the horse's point of view. The horse might wonder, "Why are you upset with me, and why is someone hitting me when I do not understand what I should do?"

Another situation occurs when, after a cautious horse has put a foot on the ramp, many people attempt to finish the job for him. This brings on a lot of anxiety for a willing horse. If he has the time to explore-and by this I mean to place or re-place his feet in and out, in and out, a few times in a few different ways (left front foot first, then the right, for example)-then he is on his own, moving toward your goal of gaining the sureness he needs to load himself safely into the trailer.