Backwards in slant load?

[Jumpingranch]

Working with my lease horse and her fear of trailers, good news is she’ll hop right in the 3 horse Shadow stock trailer, it’s a slant load. Bad news is she immediately spins around, into the correct slant position, but with her butt where her head should be! I don’t like the trailer because I don’t have an escape route, and she turns around so suddenly getting squished against the wall is a real concern BUT she’s been very good pausing mid panic turn for me to maneuver past her.

Tried the obvious of walking her in up against the wall so she would have to turn the right way, she just proved her flexibility. Any tips? I don’t think hauling her backwards is safe since there’s no tie spot on that side, and the head wall divider isn’t there although she’s not one to nip other horses so I don’t think she’d be a menace to them.
Hauling solo in the stock is not an option.

Advice? Do you all think there’s a best position to put her in, first middle or last horse? She’s very nervous, super looky so wondering if she doesn’t like the head divider that keeps her from looking over. Maybe load her as the last horse?
Thank you!

[Flyaways]

I have a mare who was more comfortable backwards in a slant load. It’s been a couple years since she rode in a slant load but I think we were able to rig up some kind of tie on the “butt” wall for her head. She was always the first horse in when we did it and the next stall was either empty or we strung up a webbing (like a stall guard type thing) so she couldn’t nip the horse next to her.
I think you would definitely want her to be either the first or the last one so there’s only one “wall” you have to make

[cedarlake]

I always haul horses backwards. They ride more comfortably and why not? In my slant I even took out the dividers unless I really had a dumb dumb and they all would ride together like a dream, even animals that never touched noses before. But I also never ran into too many sharks.

[beau159]

@Jumpingranch

Working with my lease horse and her fear of trailers, good news is she’ll hop right in the 3 horse Shadow stock trailer, it’s a slant load. Bad news is she immediately spins around, into the correct slant position, but with her butt where her head should be! I don’t like the trailer because I don’t have an escape route, and she turns around so suddenly getting squished against the wall is a real concern BUT she’s been very good pausing mid panic turn for me to maneuver past her.

Obviously you are still working through some training items.

Because she’s panicking when she gets inside and thinks her only option is to spin around. Which is dangerous, for obvious reasons. She should be listening to you and paying attention to you.

Keep working on getting her to listen to you. She shouldn’t be turning at all. Don’t let her!

If she instead decides to back off if you won’t let her turn around, then you Back. Her. UP. Keep backing her until she doesn’t want to back anymore and then back some more. Make it unpleasant and uncomfortable. Then go load her again. The trailer should be a space of calm and quiet IF she does the correct thing that is asked of her. If she chooses a wrong decision, then address it by making it hard and uncomfortable, and repeat the quiet opportunity for her to do the correct thing on the trailer.

Why don’t you work toward teaching her to SELF-LOAD? You should be able to “send” her onto the trailer, and then you close the divider before she even turns around; and then you are in a safe zone (not in the trailer with her).

[Jumpingranch]

I’ll have to try backing her up before she turns around, I don’t know why I never thought about that!

I would love to get her to self load but she is terrified of the trailer, hence the baby steps of eating halfway in, or getting her to take a step forward then let her graze.
Last attempt to haul her had the ever so helpful barn crowd think that they knew how to load her 🫠 2 broken halter, 2 broken lunge ropes, 5 people with rope burned hands, 2 people with crushed feet, and a horse drenched in sweat and trembling with stress diarrhea. I came back 4 hours later and just sat on the wheel while she figured out she could approach the trailer again, ended when she’d step 2 feet on but I think the straight load is poisoned now.

Would those rail hanging feed buckets fit in the window of a slant? Her food motivation is unmatched, thinking I could hang her grain in the right spot and see if she would walk in and stand the right way to eat. Hay net didn’t work since she could stretch and pull from it.

[gahorseygal]

I always feed on the trailer (I am all about bribery to get on the trailer and it works). I think the idea of the feed bucket is great. I just always pull the buckets out before driving away for safety. This is also how I train them to hang out on the trailer. They eat breakfast and dinner on the trailer when I’ve got it hooked up to train!

[Jumpingranch]

So, feeding in the slant worked. I actually didn’t even enter the trailer, just had the rope around her neck and let her walk in. Took her a couple of tries to realize that I needed her to move her butt over, not to spin around, but groundwork paid off and she remembered that she could step her hind end over!

New problem though, while in the slant with the dividers up she tried to turn around, panicked and almost got stuck with her neck bent against her side. Was such a strange position I don’t even know how to describe it, she’s 15.2h and wide like a stock horse, not like she’s a lithe pony. Her nose was wedged against her shoulder. I got her head shoved back straight, opened the divider immediately and we stood facing out for a minute, wanted her to calm down a bit before jumping out.

Now normally the horses aren’t hard tied in here because it has the head separaters on the dividers and the tie ring is almost on the ceiling. But talking with the owners and thinking she’ll have to be tied tight and high to keep her from snapping her neck, just hitting the brakes could kill her if she does that again.

Advice? Tips? Was discussing if she should be first, closer to the truck so it’s more stable if she gets fidgety, or last so that she could look out the back and front vents.

Here’s the chunky lady and what the trailer looks like, she was only in the middle for training I don’t think we’d haul her there

[4horses]

I deliberately load mine facing backwards sometime. They should be able to ride in any position I put them in. I’ve also loaded them in straight with no divider and the pony on the short side.

If she’s just getting used to the trailer, leave the divider open and let her turn around and drive around the block and let her back out. Feed in the trailer (as much as possible).

My friend had the most difficult horse to load in the world. She would kick the inside of the trailer to hell and she would kick out just being tied near the trailer. When you rode her back to the trailer she would try to flip herself over on the rider (or look for a spot to lay down in)… That horse had major trailer phobias. My friend fed her in the trailer every day for a year or more. I would have given up. It did pay off in the end. The mare never did have an issue getting in the trailer- she would go right in and then start kicking. Now she might kick the trailer once and that’s it.

She no longer tries to lay down rather then go back to the trailer. For some time, my friend would simply get off and walk her back on rides to get her back safely when she started looking for a place to either rear or lay down. Talk about dedication and persistence!

[NaturalSelection]

I recommend even more practice in the trailer. If she’s panicking and pretzeling with the divider, then she’s not ready for the divider.

I have a horse who I’ve owned since a 2yo (he’s now 9yo) and has never had a bad experience in the trailer to my knowledge, but he used to be terrified. Hard to load, panic once he was loaded.

I spent the summer of his 4yo year practicing trailer. Started with just getting him to get halfway on, progressed to standing with trailer fully closed up, dividers up, munching hay alone for 30 min while I did morning barn chores. I practiced about 3x/wk for about 10 weeks. Small changes, staying under threshold. If horse is too worried to eat, they’re over threshold. If horse is panicking then way over threshold.

Best investment ever, this is a horse that will walk on every time, hauls alone. So much better.

Your horse may progress much faster than mine, but if you listen she will tell you how much she is ready for.

[Jumpingranch]

So what’s there to do if they panic after they load? She gets extremely nervous, Dancy and even tried to turn around while tied. Shaking, breathing heavy, whole nine yards of panic once she was in and the divider was closed.
Should I skip the divider step, and try loading and leaving her loose in the trailer while driving around the property? In case it’s a balance issue? Or is it better to just secure her with the divider, tie her and I stay back there while someone drives us around? I’m aware of the safety concern with being back there, I’d only do it if she’s tied and I’ve got my helmet+ steel toe boots on!

Is there any calming supplements that people think might help, that won’t affect her much if we’re hauling to a show? Local show so no concerns about drug testing. I don’t think loading her up on magnesium would do anything, cbd maybe? Hell any pharmaceutical recommendations?

[NaturallyHappy]

I wonder if you could try Trazadone for training purposes. You absolutely cannot show on it. Talk to your vet about it.

[OzarksRider]

@Jumpingranch

Hauling solo in the stock is not an option.

Just curious . . . why can’t you haul her solo in the stock? Does she panic in a stock trailer? Have you tried hauling her loose in a stock trailer and letting her ride backwards if she wants? From your description, it seems that she’s claustrophobic in the slant load, so I wonder if she would relax more in a stock trailer.

[Jumpingranch]

I don’t own the trailer OR the horse, only time we go off property is with other horses. Not worth it to the owner to give 1 horse the whole 3 horse trailer when she could stay behind and 3 other horses could go

[NaturalSelection]

@Jumpingranch if you’re asking about my method with regard to the following:

@Jumpingranch

So what’s there to do if they panic after they load? She gets extremely nervous, Dancy and even tried to turn around while tied. Shaking, breathing heavy, whole nine yards of panic once she was in and the divider was closed.
Should I skip the divider step, and try loading and leaving her loose in the trailer while driving around the property?

My advice is if the horse is panicking after loading then you have already gone over threshold. Load as far as the horse can without panicking, then unload. Keep trying to encourage the horse to get on farther and stay on longer each time, but unload before full panic. This will not be solved in a single session, or a day, this can be a long process.

During my “summer of trailer” I was able to load horse and he stayed in completely untied/unrestrained while he ate his grain and I walked around the trailer. I basically gave him the option to leave if he felt he needed to. Only after he was comfortable in the trailer fully open did I work towards closing the doors and dividers.

I know you said this is not your horse or your trailer. May be difficult for you to fully resolve this horse’s problems given your description, the horse sounds terrified, does not sound like she’s ready to be hauled around the property, may not be helping her feel better. This horse’s reaction is similar to a person that has claustrophobia, fear of heights, etc. once they panic it’s hard to calm down.

Warwick Schiller has some videos demonstrating trailer loading staying under threshold that you might find helpful:

Trailer Loading While Staying Below Threshold