Maybe more like a Loading Question.
A friend called the other day and was telling me about a horse she was trying to load for someone. It hadn’t been loaded in many years. My first thought is, okay, why? Is it because the horse doesn’t load? Once again she was being taken advantage of. She’s a kind soul who is willing to help anyone, when it comes to horses. She doesn’t always make wise decisions about people or horses, but she gets excited and tries her best to help.
There have been many video’s, books, and trainers who have addressed the question of how to load a horse. Many different approaches, many different answers, but it all comes down to the same thing. Respect.
No I can’t give you the secret that everyone has been waiting to hear, but I can give you a few hints, that you need to do no matter what method you use. They are so simple, that no one pays attention to them.
First thing, which is the most important – Never wait until you need to go someplace. Start the whole process of training when you are not pressured for time.
Which brings me to the second tip – Make sure your energy is calm. If you are uptight your horse will know it, and take it for a bad sign that there is a horse eating dragon in that trailer. Or he will just push your buttons.
Third and certainly as important as the first two – Make sure your horse respects you and moves forward on command. If he’s flying backwards and dragging you with him, chances are there isn’t any respect going on there.
Fourth – Always make sure that the trailer you are trying to use is welcoming. If it’s like the abyss, just a dark claustrophobic place, no matter how much grain or goodies you may have in hand, he’s not going to buy into it. He knows that it’s the black hole that swallows horses live. Open all windows, doors, and make it as light as possible. Paint the inside white if you have to. Use a stock trailer if you can, it’s open, airy, and the horse can see outside. Otherwise they believe it’s just an oversized tiger trap, and they are on the menu for the main course.
Bottom line is it’s your whole attitude about loading. First get him to respect you (and I don’t mean fear, I mean respect), make the trailer welcoming, and then go with the attitude that he’s just going to walk into the trailer like he’s done it every day of his life. If you approach the trailer thinking “he’s not going to load” he won’t.
Of course ideally, start quietly and let him look it over. This way he will know that the boogie man isn’t hiding somewhere inside. Don’t let him dwell on it, just walk him by with confidence. Don’t let him think you are trying to load him, just let him pass by and look. Keep walking with confidence, as though nothing happened, or is going to. If it’s a young horse that has never been in a trailer before, I like to feed them in there for a couple of weeks. So it becomes a fun place to be. If it’s an older horse, just walk with the same confidence you had walking by, and walk into the trailer. If he starts with the one foot, two feet, back up thing, you obviously do not have the respect and control you need, so back to square one.
It really isn’t as much about the horse, as it is about you. Keep calm and walk on.