Horse won't trailer and I've tried EVERYTHING ... Help!

[_Zara]

This is probably a much more “hoke-y” answer, but I’d make it a part of his regular routine to get on. Maybe that is where he eats dinner those days/evenings. It’s not weird to load him and let him hang out, as long as he isn’t thrashing around or going to hurt himself.

As long as trailer isn’t hurting him or otherwise at fault, I’d try to have it associate it with regular life, just like a stall or cross ties.

It truly is a wonder they get in for us though. If I was a horse, and I was looking into a dark weird portable tunnel, I don’t know how excited I’d be to jump in.

[wildlifer]

Since you mentioned that he did better when he realized you weren’t going anywhere, my 2 guesses are -

Visibility. Does the trailer allow him to see all around him? I.e. open sides? If not, he may find it very stressful that lots of loud things “sneak up on him” en route. I have a horse who is normally a great trailer-er but one time we rode with a friend in her brenderup (area around horses heads has no view out) & he came off sweaty & anxious. My trailer is a 2H straight with stock sides & he takes naps in there.

Some horses are very particular about how you drive. Not saying anything bad about your trainer, but some horses will be very unforgiving about a bumpy road taken too fast, a corner with no warning, that kind of thing. Maybe he gets “carsick” & needs an extra delicate ride.

[GraceLikeRain]

@_Zara

This is probably a much more “hoke-y” answer, but I’d make it a part of his regular routine to get on. Maybe that is where he eats dinner those days/evenings. It’s not weird to load him and let him hang out, as long as he isn’t thrashing around or going to hurt himself.

As long as trailer isn’t hurting him or otherwise at fault, I’d try to have it associate it with regular life, just like a stall or cross ties.

It truly is a wonder they get in for us though. If I was a horse, and I was looking into a dark weird portable tunnel, I don’t know how excited I’d be to jump in.

I don’t think that’s hoke-y at all but common sense.

I brought a horse in on trial who did.not.load. After a lot of ground work with someone far more qualified than I she would load up and then immediately back herself out. The trainer never stopped the backing but just calmly loaded her back on. The next step was hanging out in an open trailer and getting to eat some grain and then being asked to back out. Next was the butt bar up and a snack. This progressed to fully closing up the trailer and then immediately opening things back up to a trip around the block and then back out. It was done in little bits over a few weekends and by the time I sent her tail back to the seller for other reasons, she self loaded and reloaded like a champ.

[luvmyhackney]

@GraceLikeRain

I don’t think that’s hoke-y at all but common sense.

I brought a horse in on trial who did.not.load. After a lot of ground work with someone far more qualified than I she would load up and then immediately back herself out. The trainer never stopped the backing but just calmly loaded her back on. The next step was hanging out in an open trailer and getting to eat some grain and then being asked to back out. Next was the butt bar up and a snack. This progressed to fully closing up the trailer and then immediately opening things back up to a trip around the block and then back out. It was done in little bits over a few weekends and by the time I sent her tail back to the seller for other reasons, she self loaded and reloaded like a champ.

That’s what I did with my pony. He trailers like a dream now, but still likes windows open and it to be a very airy trailer.

[AnotherRound]

I think from everything you’ve said, OP, the problem is with the traveling/trip. You can get him in when he thinks he’s not actually going to be going anywhere; you can train him to load fairly quickly with some focused retraining, only to have the actual trip untrain him again. You need to take a trip in that trailer and see what’s going on.

I bet its either he’s tipped up, down, or sideways, or, your trainer’s driving isn’t good enough, or both. You need to see what its like riding in that trailer.

[x]

One answer: Open stock trailer. I have had good luck with problem horses in this trailer–they load and ride good.

[Bluey]

@x

One answer: Open stock trailer. I have had good luck with problem horses in this trailer–they load and ride good.

Careful which kind of stock trailer.

Practically all horses we hauled were happier in our stock trailers.
Regular full top trailers were ok, but the pasture half top ones, we had one show horse we were starting as a ranch horse that was fine in any trailer, except on the back, open part of a stock trailer.
There he would rock the trailer hopping around and trying to jump out, would have if he had been able to get front feet over the side.
We learned not to put him back there and he was perfectly fine any other place?

Horses are odd, they have their own foibles we some times can accommodate, if we can figure what to do about it.

The OP doesn’t seem to have tried other trailers, that could be a good first step, see what happens then?
Just don’t push it if the change seems worse, stop and re-evaluate.

[Palm_Beach]

It’s a bit silly to go out and buy a new trailer every time you encounter a horse that doesn’t load or ship well. Train the horse. It’s a lot cheaper, too.

[ThreeFigs]

Sounds like she’s doing that, PB. Trying out other people’s trainers is a good idea, though. A mare I owned did NOT like my old Imperial two-horse side by side with a ramp, but walked right on a friend’s open-sided two horse trailer. So I got one similar to it. Problem solved until I bought my extra-long Hanoverian who barely fit in it.

[_Zara]

@Palm Beach

It’s a bit silly to go out and buy a new trailer every time you encounter a horse that doesn’t load or ship well. Train the horse. It’s a lot cheaper, too.

Coming back off lease, my mare that had spent all show season traveling around would not get on the hauler’s trailer. It turned into a 3 hour battle… which ended with the mare being sold for a MASSIVE loss to the leasee. Like, a one figure sale price. It appears she wasn’t into the ramp, even though she’d been on ramped trailers before her lease. There was no training her out of this, from what I hear, she was rearing and striking at everyone plus kicking.

If I had a ramped trailer, and I still wanted that mare, I’d be getting a new trailer.

[kande04]

@Palm Beach

It’s a bit silly to go out and buy a new trailer every time you encounter a horse that doesn’t load or ship well. Train the horse. It’s a lot cheaper, too.

One doesn’t have to buy trailers to try them, and if it is the configuration of the trailer then trading it in on one that works may very well be less expensive than spending time and/or money on training.

[Palm_Beach]

@_Zara

Coming back off lease, my mare that had spent all show season traveling around would not get on the hauler’s trailer. It turned into a 3 hour battle… which ended with the mare being sold for a MASSIVE loss to the leasee. Like, a one figure sale price. It appears she wasn’t into the ramp, even though she’d been on ramped trailers before her lease. There was no training her out of this, from what I hear, she was rearing and striking at everyone plus kicking.

If I had a ramped trailer, and I still wanted that mare, I’d be getting a new trailer.

Sounds like a bunch of people who don’t know what they are doing, and a leassee who made out like a bandit.

[_Zara]

@Palm Beach

Sounds like a bunch of people who don’t know what they are doing, and a leassee who made out like a bandit.

No. F’ing. Shit. :eek:

I still to this day wonder who was in cahoots with who.

[Arelle]

My first horse (a kind, 19 year old, 15.1 hh gelding) refused to load onto a two horse straight load, the first trailer we ever bought.

Disaster. Tears were shed. Horse was upset. Trainers were involved. Disaster.

Imagine our surprise when, several months after the latest horrible attempt, a family friend offered their three horse stock to try to move him to our new home a couple of hours away and he walked right on without so much as a hesitation.

We sold that crappy two horse trailer the next day. :lol:

I’m of the opinion that if a horse is good with almost everything else in life, they can be a little picky about how they travel. Should every horse be trained to load onto any trailer in a moment’s notice for emergencies? Absolutely. But, loading any horse on a two horse straight is just not a hill I’m willing to die on. It’s not even a hill I’m willing to run sprints on for exercise, if we’re being honest.

I’ve never had any troubles with any horse using my trusty three horse slant. Foals, Old Horses, Big Horses, Small Horses, Blue Horses, etc.

I realize people will think I’m an elitist for that point of view, and I’m not trying to be. I’m not saying you need a new trailer, or a giant truck, or anything else. I’m just saying that for basically the same price as a two horse straight, you can find a two or three horse slant and make your entire life easier.

OP - is it EVERY trailer he does this with? Or just yours?

[demidq]

My daughter had a thick -as- a -brick mare who fell in a 2h straight load trailer, never did figure what happened ( we were driving slowly on a nice smooth straight section of road when there was a CRASH from the trailer and there we were!)
After that she WOULD NOT travel in a straight load despite weeks working with a trainer. I finally tried a 3 horse slant and never had a problem again.
Just to say it might be the trailer configuration as mentioned by others above. Doesn’t hurt to try other trailers!

[Bluey]

We were at a two day NH clinic and this lady had a 15 year old OTTB.

It was a long day and she lived close so was hauling back and forth.
The horse had given her trouble with the new to them stuff they were trying, was not very cooperative and the clinician had taken the lead and fought with him and only got him more unhappy and resistant.

At the end, she was trying to load him in a little rickety old two horse trailer as I walked by.
She had seen me help others and asked me to help with her horse.
She said some times he went in, others he just didn’t want to and then she could not make him without a battle.

I took the lead and walked horse around and to the trailer and horse was resigned and not scared or really resisting wildly, just totally unhappy with the bummer of a day and now being asked to get into that trailer he didn’t care for in the best circumstances, this time not at all.

I questioned her about if she really had to haul and in that trailer that the horse clearly just didn’t like.
She was adamant.
I didn’t want to pester that horse any more, so told her I would get the clinician to help her and did.

He worked with the horse, that again didn’t seem to like him and in a few minutes he had the now sweaty and disturbed horse loaded.

Lady didn’t come next day, so will never know what happened, but I felt sorry for both of them.
She was a very nice person and obviously loved her horse.
He was trying but hit his limit that day.
That happens some times, but that horse was right.
That was not a good trailer for him, too tight, I expect not balanced well and rough traveling.
He had to work extra hard to keep his feet under him while moving down the road.

A situation of when a horse tells you something, believe them.
That is easy to miss some times.

Without being there, is hard to say why the OP has trouble, but there have been enough guesses to maybe find a new way to make it happen?

[endlessclimb]

Trailer loading is like… my thing. I’m not good at much, but this is where I shine. I also do not tolerate (my own) horses not loading. I don’t even tolerate hesitation at this point, that they’ve been with me 17 and 3 years.

First, ride back there for a minute and see if there’s an issue. Though… I bet this horse has holes elsewhere, like every other horse I’ve worked with that won’t load.

If you set up a really tight chute, tight like a straight load, in the arena using poles and barrels and cones, would he walk through without a fight? Can you send him through alone? Stop him in the middle and have him stand? If you put down a weird surface - an old tablecloth, for example - can you get him to stand on it in 5 seconds or less? Does he understand that pressure on the poll means forward right the heck now?

If you were on a trail ride and your horse saw something scary, can you get them to approach it without being worried he’s going to lose his cookies? Can you get him to touch it? Walk through water with minimal fuss? Cross through footing changes without balking?

Is your horse respectful of you, seeing you (not your trainer, YOU) as the leader and not just a buddy? Or are you a treat dispenser with occasional requirements?

How often does this horse tell you “no” in his day-to-day life? How often do you have to nag him to get him to do something? Have you ever sacked him out and taught him how to handle his feelings? How often do you go out of your way to accommodate something he doesn’t like instead of teaching him to cope?

These aren’t questions you need to answer for any of us, because no one here can help you load a horse who so consistently says no. But they are questions that you ought to be honest about when working with this horse on a daily basis, and when you’re trying to find the root cause of his loading problem.

[Charliehorse01]

Warwick Schiller.
He has an online videos of him working with real horses, real problems, shown in full length no edit.
No gimmicks, no show, just good solid horsemanship. He has hugely helped me and my horses.
My horses main problem wasn’t the trailer, it was actually the fact that he is very herd bound.
THEN he had a pretty bad accident in the trailer. Double whammy. After going through the groundwork and sorting his other issues out I finally came back to try to load and he stepped right in.
It’s still a slight work in progress but this horse would see the trailer form 50ft away and start backing up trying to run away and now he just takes a minute, has a sniff, steps right in himself.
His anxiety when off property is also way batter. I hauled him out to the mountains and my friend rode him, he was perfectly fine the whole time.

[wb_amp_ponybreeder]

Once my friend had a mare that wouldn’t trailer. We parked the trailer in her paddock and fed her in it. She eventually went in on her own.

[joiedevie99]

Does this horse pass a basic neurological evaluation? Clean blood test for EPM? Inability/fear of balancing in the trailer is one of the earlier signs I’ve seen. No problem at all by day 5 on Marquis. Obviously much of the time it is training, or broken trailer, but its worth considering.