By Ashley Forlie
It’s show day. You wake up before the sun to feed your horse and make sure he’s clean and ready to travel to the show grounds. You put your tack and stable supplies for the day in the trailer. You’ve been practicing for the show ring for months. You’re a little on edge, nervous, and excited with anticipation for the day ahead. You go get your horse and bring him out of the stable and towards the horse trailer. The closer you get, the slower he goes. He feels your nervous energy. He sees the cave on wheels. As a prey animal, the last place he wants to go is into a small cave where he’s sure to be trapped. His adrenaline comes up. He refuses to load onto the trailer. You coax, push, and pull. He rears up into the air almost flipping himself over. Eventually, you may get him loaded, but by this point, you are late for the show and have probably done some damage to the relationship with your horse.
If you’re a horse person, chances are you’ve either seen it or lived it. Trailer loading a horse can be frustrating, nerve-wracking, and even dangerous for both the horse and the handler. However, there are many things you can do to prepare yourself and your horse for frustration-free and safe trailer loading. I am going to give you three things you can do to prepare your horse for trailer loading without even using a trailer.
- Teach your Horse to Stand Tied and Relaxed
Many horses are never expected to stand tied for lengths of time longer than a grooming session until we trailer them somewhere. Tying a horse can cause them to feel claustrophobic since it takes away their ability to flee if they feel unsafe. Add tying a horse while they are in a confined space and it’s the ultimate test of a horse’s confidence. It’s a good idea to teach your horse to accept being tied in a small confined space like a stall for the same amount of time you’d want to trailer them. If you are traveling to a show that is an hour away make sure your horse can stand tied for at least an hour. Better yet, get your horse confident with being tied for two-three hours. Usually, horses that can stand relaxed while tied for three hours could stand there all day.
When you are teaching your horse to stand tied it’s important to set them up to build confidence and to stay safe.
- Tie them high and with the ability to release them if they get into trouble. I like using the Blocker Tie Rings. They are designed to slowly give more rope to the horse if the horse begins to panic and pull back, but still keeps a feel on the rope and doesn’t abruptly set the horse free. The give in the rope will help the horse not to feel completely trapped while also teaching them that pulling back doesn’t give a complete release. The release is in the relaxation.
- Tie them after a training session, when they are more likely to enjoy standing still and relaxing.
- Tie them in a stall to simulate standing tied in a small space.
- Start with shorter increments of time, and gradually work your way up. Start with 10 minutes, then 20, 30, and so on.
- Wait until your horse is relaxed before untying them and ending your session. Don’t untie them while they are still moving around and agitated. Remember the goal is relaxation while standing tied!
2. Build your horse’s confidence going through and under tight spaces.
You can help your horse gain confidence being in a trailer by teaching them to go through and under tight narrow spaces with relaxation. One way to do this is to send them between two barrels. After they go through the narrow space, have them turn around and face the barrels. Wait until they show signs of being relaxed and then send them back through the narrow space from the other side. You should also teach your horse to back through the narrow space since many trailers require the horse to back off of them. The easiest way to teach this is to lead them halfway through the narrow space and then back them out. When that is easy try leading them all the way through the barrels and stopping so the narrow space is behind them. Ask your horse to back between the barrels and out the other side. Do this until your horse is confident and relaxed.
When this is easy for your horse you can make it more challenging by stacking another set of barrels on top of the bottom ones, creating a tower of barrels. Once your horse can confidently navigate the barrel tower try adding something on top of the barrel tower that your horse can go under while they go through the narrow space. I’ve used another barrel horizontally as well as a PVC pole to create this challenging tunnel.
Get creative with building your horse’s confidence going forward and backward through narrow spaces! You can use ditches, wash stalls, inflatable archways, jump standards, and even stalls and gates.
3) Teach your horse to confidently step up onto a platform and to back off of it.
Trailer loading requires a horse to be able to step up onto either a ramp or the bed of the trailer. This is the part to which most horses object to. They don’t trust the change in footing or your leadership in “scary” situations, and sometimes lack the skill to be able to manage their feet while stepping up onto something. Teaching them to confidently step up onto and back off a pedestal, a tractor tire filled with sand, a wooden platform, or a stack of stall mats can help set them up for stress-free trailer loading. Practicing this will not only build your horse’s confidence in stepping up onto an obstacle, but it will also help build your horse’s confidence in you as the leader as you balance responsiveness and relaxation while navigating a challenging obstacle.
The second part of teaching your horse to step up onto something is teaching them to step back down. This part is equally, if not more, important than the first part. Some horses don’t want to step up onto the trailer, or the pedestal, because they don’t know how to get back down. They don’t have an exit strategy. Remember, as prey animals, horses find safety in knowing they can flee if need be. They do not want to be trapped.
Ask your horse to step one foot up onto the pedestal (or whatever platform you choose), and then back them off of it. When they can do that easily ask them to put both front feet on the pedestal and after letting them relax for a minute, back them off of it. When that is easy, try for 3 feet up on the pedestal, and then back off. Eventually, you’ll want to get all four feet confidently up on the pedestal and then back off of it. This same method could be used with the ramp or bed of a trailer as well.
When your horse is confident going through tight spaces and stepping up onto a platform, try combining the two exercises. Here, you can see my student Jess has set up a tower of barrels on either side of the pedestal. She is asking her horse to step up onto the pedestal and off the other side while going through the tight space the tower of barrels has created. This is such a great trailer loading simulation.
Years ago I picked up a horse from a client’s farm that was coming to me for a couple of months of training. The horse followed me right up into the 2 horse straight load trailer and traveled calmly back to my farm. When I asked the horse to unload by backing out he didn’t budge. No amount of pushing, pulling, or rope wiggling could convince him to take a step back, stepping down off the edge of the trailer into an unknown abyss. I had to take apart the center divider in the trailer so that he could turn around to unload. I learned a valuable lesson that day: Just because a horse will calmly load and travel in a trailer does not mean he can confidently back out of the trailer. Now I make sure to test the backing out part before I get the entire horse in the trailer!
Some things that really helped that horse gain confidence with unloading were backing over logs and ground poles, backing down hills, and backing off small platforms. By the time he arrived back home, I am happy to say that he could confidently back out of the trailer.
Get your horse good at tying, going through tight spaces, and stepping up onto and back off of platforms, and your horse will be so much better prepared for the real thing!
