3 Tips To Prepare Your Horse For The Trailer
Do you struggle to get your horse into the trailer? It doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve seen several horses and people hurt with silly trailer loading tactics because they didn’t take the time to break things down into simple steps to help their horse understand. Most of the time it’s the handlers fault for the horse not wanting to get into the trailer because they rush them.
Horses are claustrophobic and need time to understand what the trailer is all about. The biggest mistake people make is not teaching a foal how to load into the trailer with good results.
Think about it, would you like to be rushed into something that worried or scared you? I know I wouldn’t! The horse trailer is like a big dark cave with lots of noises and is scary. Before you jump into loading your horse onto the trailer, here are a few things you can do to prepare them before you go near the trailer.
Think about it this way you didn’t go from kindergarten to college, so why do you expect your horse to do the same thing when it comes to getting them into the trailer if you haven’t properly prepared them?
Tip #1
Before you think about getting your horse into the trailer, get them used to walking over a sturdy piece of plywood or a bridge. This helps build their confidence going across something that makes a noise and with a bridge it gets them used to stepping up on something. This is where clicker training will make a huge difference because they start offering to go over the object instead of being forced to do it.
Tip #2
When your horse is confident going over the plywood or bridge the next step is to get them to stop, settle and wait quietly on the plywood or bridge. When they stand quietly then ask them to back off of the object.
It’s important that your horse understands how to back out of the trailer and what a perfect way to practice before they get into the actual trailer. If you have a bridge that they have to step down off of that would be great to simulate the feel of stepping out of the trailer.
Tip #3
The next step would be to simulate the confines of a trailer. You can do this by taking four barrels and placing two on each side, two at the front of the bridge and the other two at the back of the bridge. When the barrels are in place then put a pole on top of the barrels to simulate the walls of the trailer. Now have your horse walk over the bridge. When they are comfortable doing that with the poles up then stop them on the bridge and ask them to back off of it.
Follow these steps to help build your horse’s confidence before asking them to load into the trailer. Go slowly and take the time your horse needs it will make a huge difference. Most horses try very hard to do what we ask and given the time trailer loading can become easy.
If you want to make trailer loading even easier then give clicker training a try. If you’re interested in learning how to use clicker training contact me by phone or email.
What challenges do you have getting your horse into the trailer?
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