Nix Trailering Troubles

Nothing but a Big Circus

When I was a kid, getting my horse on the trailer always turned into a huge tug-of-war. I’d ask her to step onto the trailer, and she’d fight the halter, rear and back up. My entire family would get involved; we’d run a rope behind her butt and try to push her on the trailer. We tried bribing her on with treats. We yelled at her and waved our arms and stomped our feet. There’d be dogs and three or four big rednecks swearing and cussing. The whole ordeal would turn into nothing but a big circus.

For a long time, I thought that was just how getting a horse on the trailer was. You were either lucky and your horse went on a trailer, or you were unlucky and your horse didn’t go on. That seemed to be the case everywhere I went.

It wasn’t until I did my first horsemanship clinic with Gordon McKinlay that I realized how wrong I was. During the clinic, Gordon demonstrates how to load a horse in a trailer. and, more importantly, how to make the horse want to get on the trailer. It blew my mind. Not only could I teach my horse how to confidently load on a trailer; I could get her to crave to be on the trailer.

After the clinic, I went home and practiced getting my horse to load on the trailer. Sure enough, I got the same results Gordon did. I was so thrilled that I could get a 1,000-pound animal to willingly do something that she had previously been afraid to do.

What Gordon taught me was to look at trailering from the horse’s perspective. As prey animals, with a flight or fight response, horses prefer to be in big, open spaces where they can easily see predators approaching them and then be able to make a quick getaway. You’ll never see a prey animal having a rest in a tight, narrow space because if a predator came along, he’d be trapped. That’s why, as a general rule, horses don’t like trailers—they make them feel trapped and claustrophobic.

Not only do trailers make horses feel trapped and claustrophobic, but they’re also a scary object. Horses hate objects. What is an object? An object is anything that doesn’t live in your horse’s stall or pasture. Why is it no longer an object if it lives in your horse’s stall or pasture? Because if it lives in your horse’s stall or pasture, your horse sees it every day and gets desensitized to it. Horses especially hate objects that move and make a noise. A trailer does a little bit of everything. It’s an object, it moves, and it makes a noise when the horse walks up on it and as it’s traveling down the road.

If you put yourself in your horse’s shoes, trailering can be a traumatic experience, especially when the horse doesn’t understand that the trailer isn’t going to hurt him.

Something Bigger

After practicing Gordon’s trailer loading method on my horse, and once I had my family’s horses craving to be on the trailer, I started traveling around the countryside, practicing on all the horses I could get my hands on. I practiced on my neighbors’ horses, my friends’ horses and my cousins’ horses. After about six months of practicing on all the horses I could find, I actually started to get pretty good at loading horses onto trailers.

I decided that I could start to make some money off of my newfound skill. With my parents’ help, I put an ad in the local newspaper stating that for $50 I could get any horse to load on a trailer. For the two years that I was in high school, that’s how I made money. I would travel around to local horse shows and events and offer my services to anyone who needed them.

As I was traveling around and teaching horses to load on trailers, I began to notice that 99 percent of people who had trailering problems with their horses fell into one of two categories. Their horse’s trailering problem was either based on fear or a lack of respect. More than anything, I saw a total lack of respect, and that holds true even today. Nearly all the horses that come to tours for the trailer loading demo don’t have a trailering problem; they have a lack of respect that shows up when they are asked to step on a trailer. In reality, all problems we have with our horses are nothing more than symptoms of a cause. That goes for trailering, biting, bucking, kicking, etc. Fix the cause, which in most cases is disrespect, and the problem will disappear.

That’s why when we get horses in for the Academy Horse Program that have a trailering problem, we never try to load them in the trailer immediately. Instead, we start the Fundamentals with them. We spend a few weeks working on groundwork and building their respect. Trailer loading is the last thing we introduce to the horses, because at that point in their training, once we have the horses’ respect, it takes all of two minutes to get them confidently stepping on and off the trailer.

Before working on a trailering problem, be sure you have the Fundamentals groundwork exercises done well. Can you still get results with the steps I describe in this article if your horse doesn’t know the Fundamentals? Yes. More than likely, you’ve seen me do it at a tour. However, if you’ve got a solid foundation, the process will go smoothly and be less stressful to the horse.

How to Load a Horse in a Trailer: Teaching Stage

Your goal is to send the horse between you and the trailer in a four-foot gap. However, if your horse is truly scared of the trailer, you may have to start by sending him 20 feet away from it. That’s OK. Find a starting point your horse is comfortable with, and then gradually decrease the distance between you and the trailer. Each time you send him from one side of your body to the other, he’ll build a little more confidence.

It’s important to work the horse on all three sides of the trailer because a lot of horses try to avoid the trailer by running around to the side. By doing the Sending Exercise all around the trailer, you’re proving to the horse that it doesn’t matter where he goes; you can always control his feet.

Act like you’re just practicing some groundwork with your horse and the trailer happens to be near you. The more you act like you’re doing a trailer loading session, the more worried the horse will get. The more you act like it’s not there, the quicker he’ll relax and focus on you.

If you can’t do this with your horse, you need to practice more of the Sending Exercise on all three sides of the trailer before moving on to the next step.

Once you have the ramp lowered, start out by sending the horse between you and the ramp. Since you’ve already established control of his feet earlier, he shouldn’t be too worried about this step. However, keep in mind that if the horse has had problems with trailers in the past, he’s going to start to get suspicious when you lower the ramp. If he gets nervous, keep his feet moving and his attention on you.

Then ask the horse to step onto the ramp. This step will help the horse get used to the noise he’ll hear when he walks up the trailer and to the movement he’ll feel under his feet.

If you skip this step and go straight to asking the horse to step onto the trailer, the first time he hears that noise and feels the trailer move under his feet, he’ll panic. In the horse’s mind, when you load him on the trailer, you’re leading him into a narrow, dark cave. Don’t make the experience any scarier for him than what it already is.

Initially, just look for your horse to take a step or two on the ramp. Once your horse takes a step or two on the ramp, instead of forcing him to take another step onto it; do the complete opposite: Back him away from it. He’s expecting you to force the issue on him, so when you back him away from the trailer you’ll build his confidence.

Then ask him to step onto the ramp again. Each time you ask him to approach the ramp, see if you can get him to take another step onto it. Eventually, you want him going around you in a small circle. You want the horse to go around you in a small circle instead of doing the Sending Exercise because you want to work on one side of the brain at a time. (Remember, horses see, hear and think independently on each side of their brains.)

Be aware that in an attempt to avoid the ramp, some horses will push into you and even try to run you over. Pay attention. If you see your horse invading your space, hold your Handy Stick up to block yourself, and, if necessary, tap the horse out of your space with the stick. If you don’t protect your space and instead move out of his way when he comes toward you, he’ll learn that he can avoid the ramp by running you over. Remember, with horses, whoever moves first loses. Don’t let it be you!

When the horse is confident about walking across the ramp in both directions, practice the Sending Exercise by sending him across the ramp in one direction and then yielding his hindquarters and sending him back across it from the other direction. You’re looking for him to confidently walk across the ramp and take his time.

At this point, some horses will actually try to get all the way on the trailer, but I stop them from doing it. Before I let a horse get all the way on a trailer, I want to 9 be sure I can get him off it. There are plenty of horses out there that will willingly get on a trailer, but when you ask them to back off it, they freeze and refuse to move. So before letting a horse get all the way on the trailer and realizing you have a problem, be sure you can back him off it when he’s just got one foot on it. And then when he’s got two feet on it, etc.

When you are unloading a horse from a trailer, only let him back off it. Never let a horse get into the habit of turning around in a trailer and walking off it. If your horse is small and you’ve got a relatively big trailer, that’s not a big deal. But, for most horses, it creates a dangerous situation because they can get stuck trying to turn around in the trailer. Also, some horses get in such a hurry to get off the trailer that by the time you’ve undone the back door, they’re running you over to get out of it. Letting a horse get into the habit of turning around in a trailer and walking off it is just a really bad thing to let him do.

When you back the horse off the trailer, be particular about backing him in a straight line. Horses get good at whatever you allow them to practice. So if you let your horse swing his hindquarters out to the side as you back him and he zigzags away from the trailer, that’s what he’ll learn to do. If you notice your horse backing crookedly, correct him by using the lead rope to pull his nose in the same direction his hindquarters are going. Then hold the Handy Stick horizontally and tap the rope to move his head and neck in the same direction his hips are going. It also helps to actually walk toward his hindquarters. For example, if the horse’s hindquarters are going to the left, pull his nose to the left and walk toward his left hip to straighten him up. When you pull the horse’s nose in the same direction his hindquarters are going, it ultimately straightens up his hindquarters.

By using a little reverse psychology, you’re going to show the horse that there’s no reason to get nervous or cop an attitude when he’s in the trailer because it’s the best place to be—he gets to rest and relax in it. On the other hand, being outside the trailer means nothing but hard work and sweat. Since horses are basically lazy creatures—they’ll always choose the option with the least amount of work involved—it won’t take the horse long to catch on to the lesson.

Outside of the trailer, put the horse’s feet to work. I prefer to use Lunging for Respect Stage Two and the Sending Exercise near the trailer, but as long as you make the horse hustle and work hard, you’ll accomplish the same goal. Keep in mind that this step only works if you really make the horse hustle his feet outside of the trailer. You have to give him a reason to want to be in the trailer.

After repeating this process several times in a row, you’ll notice that the horse will back off the trailer more slowly each time because he knows once he’s outside of the trailer he’s going to have to work hard. Eventually, you’ll have to practically beg the horse to step off the trailer—what I call a good problem to have.