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The trailer: for some horses it can be their worst nightmare.
If that’s the case for your horse, you’ve come to the right page.
Your horse might be difficult (or impossible) to load, refusing to move his feet or running out as soon as you want to close the ramp.
Maybe your horse is getting anxious while travelling, so he’s pawing the floor all the time or rearing up whenever he has the chance.
There are also horses that load like a dream and stand very still while travelling, but bolt off the ramp as soon as you remove the bar, hurting themselves and others in the process.
So how do you deal with that? How do you get your horse relaxed in and around the trailer?
First, you have to find out what’s causing your horse’s behavior.
Why is he so difficult to load? Why is he so anxious while travelling? Why is he bolting out the trailer?
And because he misses the information, he will rely on his natural instinct.
His natural instinct will tell him to either fight or flight, which can lead to very dangerous situations for both you and your horse.
So… does your horse really know the trailer?
The fact that your horse is probably missing information, might also be causing the anxiety while travelling or the running off as soon as you remove the bar.
Your horse feels confident while loading, but doesn’t know how to manage himself as soon as the trailer starts moving.
Or your horse is relaxed during the loading and travelling, but doesn’t know how to deal with the anxiety of arriving at a destination.
So your horse is getting stressed in or around the trailer because he is missing parts of information that he needs to know.
The information on how to be confident and relaxed about trailer loading, traveling and unloading.
That doesn’t mean you haven’t tried to give your horse this information! But it’s probably not the information that will lead to a relaxed horse.’
And we’ve all been there. We’ve all made these mistakes, including myself.
Curious what mistakes I’m talking about? Brett Kidding has given a nice demonstration about it:
One of the most common mistakes we make is to use a tool to get our horse on the trailer. Food, lunge lines, other people adding pressure, etc.
However, all these tools have the purpose to make your horse do something.
And it’s important to know that there is a difference between asking a horse something and making him do something.
For example, you’re using a big lunge whip. It’s not the whip what’s the problem, but it’s the intention you have with the whip.
You’re making him go on by making him afraid of the whip.
Using treats to get your horse on the trailer is actually the same concept.
It’s taking his attention away from controlling his feet and it’s giving him something that indices him to go in.
I talk more about this and 2 other mistakes we make in the video below. It’s a clip from an Online Masterclass I’ve given recently.
So, now that we know what causes our horses to be stressed in and around the trailer, what can we do to solve this?
The first step is to approach the trailer in the correct way. If your horse is already looking past the trailer or turning away, he has no intention of going in.
Make sure you keep your horse’s focus on you and on the trailer before thinking of getting him in there.
Then you have to get control of the feet. It is important that you are able to control every step your horse takes and your horse is feeling relaxed at all steps.
Because when you have control of the feet, you can ask the horse to go in or out.
So what to do when your horse gives the wrong answer and rushes out? Make him work, so he understands that it isn’t much fun out there.
But make sure to give him rest when he comes towards the trailer again, so he understands the difference.
Step number four is to keep control of the feet. Because every horse has a point in the trailer where he doesn’t want to stand still: they either want to get all the way on, or all the way off.
Once you’re able to control every step your horse takes in and out of the trailer and he’s relaxed in every step, you can practice closing the bar.
Don’t skip this part, because the horse might feel trapped and get stressed again!
The last step is to simulate travel and practice the unloading of the trailer. If you practice travelling, you teach your horse the meaning of a destination.
The unloading is also very important. Your horse might become anxious because he wants to get out of the trailer and you want him to be relaxed every step of the way.
In the video below I will show you exactly what I mean with these steps and how you can perform them.