Posted by freyafjord on 4/17/2007 on freyafjord's blogMy 4 year old fjord loves trailers. To her they are fine restaurants and fun places to go, at least if they aren't moving. When she was little, I trained her to go in a trailer by tapping her behind. Eventually she loved trailers so much I didn't worry about loading her. She just went in. There is often food there. But I didn't take her very many places and driving made her so nervous she ended up dripping sweat. I recently had to take her to a saddle fitting clinic about an hour and a half drive away. We did a short trial run with her a few days before and she ended up dripping wet. Then I decided to get her a mild tranquilizer from the vet. This worked great and she ended up at the saddle fitting clinic dry. She had a great time there. There was a stallion tied to a trailer. She was in season. She met her first boyfriend. He left after awhile but there were so many other new horses around. It was such fun. When it was time to go home she decided she wasn't getting in the trailer - no way. I was baffled because she had always loaded so easily. My riding instructor came to the rescue and spent most of an hour teaching her to load. She said 4 year old horses always do this and usually at the worst possible time. When we were home she had no problem getting in the trailer again. I expect she may pull this again sometime away from home. Has anyone else ever had this happen?
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emily says:
Yes!!! When I first got B, he loaded great. Jumped right in. Then something happened. I don't know what--he just stamped his feet and said, no way, no how. It got so bad, i started leaving him overnight if I had two days in a row of lessons, even if the place was just a few miles from my house. When I did try to load him, it would be a big pulling and rearing and flying around drama.
I had a "cowboy" friend- a Parelli disciple, help me with him. That worked for awhile, but then it stopped working. And then one day I was at a horse show and a friend was watching me struggle with him. She said, "let me" and I said, "gladly." She picked up my long dressage whip (don't worry,there's no violence) and walked him far away from the trailer. THen she stood beside him, tapped him a bit on the haunch, and the two of them walked really fast from one end of the parking lot to the other and right into the trailer.
And that was the end of that. Now he gets right in. All I have to do is lead him with purpose.
I'm not sure what she did, or what clicked in his mind, but it worked.
Reva's mom says:
We were doing very well with our 2 yr old. She too thought the trailer was a great place to get treats. Then we took her to Lory park which is an hour away for the day. When we were done (and all our friends had left) she said "no way!." We spent about 4 hours trying to load her until it got dark on us. We ended up sleeping in the cab of the truck (ouch!) and trespassing in the vacant horse rental stable for the horses. The next day was the same thing, "no way, no how!" We ended up having a friend with a stock trailer come to rescue us. She walked right in like she never had a problem in the first place! How embarrassing! We found that our horses don't like the old fashioned 2 horse trailers as well as the stock trailers. A new trailer isn't in the budget, so we still struggle with this one.
Beissin says:
You may have tried this, but how about taking the horse for a short grazing session, to get her mind off of the trailer business, and using a blindfold to get her in. Of course, you would have to lift one front foot up at a time, and there is still no guarantee of getting her in, but it is a suggestion.
I had something similar happen to me this past summer, when we were trying to unload a two-year-old gelding off a two-horse trailer with another horse on it. He would NOT GET OUT! There was a high platform that he knew he'd have to step down off of, and it took us FOREVER to get him to back on out!
SOME ADVICE FOR ALL OUR RACING FRIENDS:
If you have a horse that could possibly be trouble to unload and your other horse has to get her lasix medication at a certain time, load the lasix horse on LAST, or make two trips. We found out the hard way!
freyafjord says:
I could try a blindfold but the trailer has a ramp and she would probably know what's going on. My trainer/riding instructor said horses need to be trained to go in a trailer so they will do it everytime. I took my fjord back there for a lesson. She got in the trailer okay at home but down there she wouldn't go in again. This time I worked with her until she went in, about an hour. My instructor said the way to do it is to hold the horse with a rope, but don't pull. Then tap on their rear with a whip until they step forward, then stop tapping immediately, repeat until they are in. This is easier said than done, but it eventually worked. My instructor is a big fan of positive reinforcement, but said that sometimes negative reinforcement is needed. This method is also described by John Lyons and I taught my fjord to load using this method early on, but I guess you have to reteach under stressful conditions.
However, my fjord isn't the biggest problem. I have an appaloosa that is terrified of being confined in a trailer. I've had her in many times but as soon as I tried to close her in she panics. She is also terrified of any pressure on the lead rope as she is going in. I'm making some progress there, but it's slow. Maybe in 5 or 10 years I'll be able to trailer her, or maybe she will die here.
BettyJ
emily says:
I had a mare once who was also terrified. I could close her in, but the minute we arrived at our destination she'd begin to panic, so it would be a real production to get her out. Someone would have to untie her, and then I would open the back door and stand out of the way while she flew out backwards. I tried for years to fix this problem, but horses never seem to forget.
Sounds like your appy may need to be "driven in" instead of lead--I have no real suggestions--trailer loading is one of those sticky wickets best left to the experts.
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