mtcanchazer - 2016-07-28 9:15 PM I'm not buffaloed, so I'm not going to stop until I eventually get her in there, but I don't want to rush her or give her the idea the trailer is a scary place, so I keep trying patiently.  My next step will be a corral and put the trailer in it and put feed and water in the trailer. Tonight I was getting some willingness out of her with the front half in the trailer, if she wouldn't go I'd swing a lead rop at her hip, and she'd go, but I'd always ask first, and I got an almost step with the back half. The willingness is a good thing, so I think we are making a little progress. I wish I knew what I did a week and a half ago to make her load right up without a fight and I'd do it again. 



I tried the butt rope, but with no success, I'm not coordinated enough to do that...too many ropes with lead rope and butt rope for me to handle.  

Runninbay - 2016-07-30 11:03 AM

So you mean to say you didn't get her on the trailer at all? I think that's the worse thing you can do for a horse...especially a young one. You need to stop babying her. Don't end a session until she gets her butt on that trailer. Even if it takes you 5 hours. You are essentially rewarding her for saying no. I'm not saying to bully her into it, but she needs to know that she does not have a choice. Just my opinion. 

 

Runninbay - 2016-07-30 12:03 PM

So you mean to say you didn't get her on the trailer at all? I think that's the worse thing you can do for a horse...especially a young one. You need to stop babying her. Don't end a session until she gets her butt on that trailer. Even if it takes you 5 hours. You are essentially rewarding her for saying no. I'm not saying to bully her into it, but she needs to know that she does not have a choice. Just my opinion. 

 

r_beau - 2016-07-30 10:24 PM


I disagree completely. 

There is nothing wrong with ending a session when I asked the horse to put one foot on, one foot off, one foot on, and one foot off, etc. and they did EXACTLY as I asked. They get rewarded when they do as I ask. We quit and go do something else, or they are done for the day.

Would you drill your horse for 5 hours on the barrel pattern until they got it right? Of course not ..... So I don't understand the logic on why it would be productive to drill the horse for 5 hours until they load into the trailer; especially on a young horse that doesn't have the mental attention span for that long of a session. You'll fry their brain.

To each his own, I suppose.


 

mtcanchazer - 2016-07-31 12:29 AM

 After reading the replies to this thread, I think I'll have the trainer work with this horse. It appears to me I'm not equipped to handle her at this point in time in this regard. I don't know if she is smarter than me, or if we are having a personality clash and I just don't know how to work with her. I wish they were all simple (comparatively), like the gelding last year who decided it was easier to get in the trailer than to longe in a circle...I've tried that with her. I am continuing to try the approach and retreat method, but it sounds like I'm doing nothing but teaching her its okay to not fully load in the trailer. I can not figure out what motivates this filly.

cheryl makofka - 2016-07-25 12:26 PM Rbeu's method is a good one, but very time consuming., and sometimes doesn't work. There are horses who don't fit into the same cookie cutter training method, you need to figure out how your horse learns best. There are some horses who have great groundwork, but are terrified of the horse trailer. There are some horses who cannot be thumped on at all or the problem is exacerbated. There are some horses that are spoiled brats that need displine. I have had ones of all personalities, the flighty ones I find are some the hardest as well as the alpha females. Last year in all my years of having horses, I spent days with one attempting to load in the trailer, no success. I did back up the trailer to the round pen, and I did place the feed in the trailer. How Rbeau finds this animal abuse I am uncertain, as I was not beating on her with a stick. Each day I moved the feed back a little, so by day 3 she could no longer reach it and had to put her front feet in. I continued this for a week, she was comfortable with the trailer at this time. Then I could go back and work on loading and unloading her on my command, it worked, she now loads pretty good, she is only 2 this year.

mtcanchazer - 2016-07-31 11:48 PM


 We did this today, only not to a round pen but to the horse pasture, and put some sweet COB in there, a little at the front, and more towards the back. Tonight we already watched her *gingerly* load herself the whole way in the trailer to eat the COB. That way she gets a special treat going in the trailer. Hopefully once she is more used to the trailer, she won't have many issues with loading and unloading on command. I'm still going to have the trainer work with her on this when she goes in Sept., as he is a good trainer and I think he can get her really solid loading and unloading.

cheryl makofka - 2016-08-01 2:00 PM What I would do is keep doing what you are doing. After a few more days, see if she would follow you into the trailer, if she does, great. Then the next day I would try and load her, but have the grain in the trailer as a reward. After you do this for a few days, then load and unoad a few times, only giving her grain once in awhile, not every time. It is not the ideal way to train a horse, but at the end of the day if it get the job done who cares how you got to the end point. Don't sell yourself short, some horses are challenging and you need to think outside the box.

Tdove - 2016-08-01 5:14 PM I hate to say this, but every time you work on trailer loading and don't get the whole body in the trailer, I think you are teaching them "not" to load. There will be other areas of the horses life where it needs to trust you even when it doesn't want to. By doing the feed thing, I am afraid you will just have to work on that issue more in the future. Teaching your horse to load now, will be a valuable training lesson that will benefit it in the future. It can be challenging, but you "must" win...every time. If you don't have the time to devote to it that day, it is best not to attempt it. If you find that you are not going to get the horse in the trailer right then or you don't have time, then you need to find a way to end the lesson where you tell the horse not to get in the trailer. Sometimes, you can use reverse psychology, by not showing that all you want is for them to get in. It takes a lot of reading your horse to know when to do what or change tactics. Sometimes they need you to say, "don't you want to get in the trailer" and sometimes you say, "get in the trailer now". This can even be a few minutes apart, and depends on the horse's mentality at that moment on what it needs. From your description, you have emboldened your horse's desire to say no and dictate the terms of training. All of this is not just a trailer loading exercise and every horse's psyche is different. Edit to say that if you don't feel comfortable with this horse teaching it to load and the feeding in the trailer technique works and is your preference, then I am not telling you not to. We don't do it, but many people feel it is the best for them.