Often, with trailer loading, people focus on just getting the horse in the trailer. And once he’s in, they will quickly close the bar and ramp, preventing the horse from running off.
But it’s not about just getting the horse in the trailer.
It’s about making sure he knows everything he needs to know about the trailer so that he can feel relaxed while getting in the trailer, during traveling and when getting off.
In the three clips below you see me with a mare for which the biggest challenge is not getting in the trailer, but getting past her insecurities when being in the trailer.
When it comes to solving trailer loading issues, it’s important to find out what kind of horse you have.
In the video below I explain what I mean with that.
You’ve got horses that will close their eyes and just run in. And when they open their eyes again, they don’t know how they got in, resulting in a physical state of tension.
It’s important to realize that the state in which you enter something is quite often the state you stay in while you’re in that situation.
So it’s really important that the loading process is covering all the steps needed so the horse is comfortable once he is in the trailer.
The horse has to have control over his own steps and shouldn’t feel like he is being made to go in. In that way, it becomes the horse’s idea to take the steps.
You want your horse to be in a good state of mind when going in the trailer.
When you feel like he’s rushing when he goes in, he’s not facing the trailer with the right mindset. When you ask for one step, he gives you five or just runs in the trailer. It means your horse is not in the right state.
You want to go at a speed where they can process everything and where you can change the direction; that you can take one step in, stop and take two steps out.
Like with the mare in the clip below, the walking onto the ramp isn’t the issue, but it’s how she’s doing it that’s creating the tension:
We have to make sure we treat trailer loading as a training and that we don’t just focus on getting the horse in the trailer.
We have to see what’s really the issue that’s causing the problems.
What information is the horse lacking?
So with the mare, it’s all about getting more patience and finding the rest in her body. And when you accomplish that, trailer loading won’t be a problem anymore.
But to work towards that, you have to take small steps.
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