Loading by yourself, what’s your process?

Teach pony to walk up the ramp himself. Use treats etc…
Toss lead rope over his back so if he dives out down the ramp you can grab it.
Stand at the back and “send him up”.
Put up butt bar.
GO around and clip halter to tie. Give big treat cookie every time.

Reverse to unload. Grab the rope as he comes past you.

2 Likes

My pony doesn’t self load yet.

That is exactly what I was describing the training process for.

My mare came to me very traumatized about trailering. She now self loads, calm and happy. I hauled her alone recently to my vet and was so impressed she unloaded and later loaded to come home again so calm and relaxed. What a victory. Only some 50 sessions probably? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

It takes daily work - short sessions (5 min) - staying under thresh hold - and all very positive.

For the past week I’ve worked on loading my two alone and now it was my old retired guy who was all upset. So, we started practicing 3x/day until we got it down and he’s calm.

My point is saying this is once again it was daily work - just load up - everyone calm - and get off. Then carrots. Over and over.

1 Like

And teaching self load for me has been I open my arm and point into the trailer. I point into the trailer and any movement forward gets a cluck and hay pellets (positive reinforcement).

I also use the hand point cue for other things like leave this spot, go in that direction etc.

Yes! Daily work. Do not make the training sessions a marathon. I would put up the buttbar and let the horse stand in the trailer and eat alfalfa. And always backed them out BEFORE they decided to do it themselves.

1 Like

So, my approach is to lead pony to trailer, while holding a dressage whip. Pony is allowed to take his time, sniff the ramp, etc but he cannot look around other than inside the trailer. Head faces the inside of the trailer. Period. He’s allowed to stand as long as he is sniffing the trailer (dude, it smells like you. No one has been in the trailer except you in four years) or otherwise appears to be giving the idea of loading some serious consideration. If he tunes out, I tap the ground with the whip to get a step forward, or I back him up gently a few steps, and then immediately right back toward the ramp. Basically, he has to move his feet after a minute or two of pondering. He used to try to run me over and duck out the side of the trailer, but, he’d smacked on the shoulder for that. Eventually, it is too boring to resist and he saunters on. He is allowed to back off the first time or two but I say “back” so he thinks it was mommy’s idea. He gets comfortable that he can get on and off without being attacked by the ramp or a pack of mountain lions or whatever. But, right back on. We do this enough so he knows loading as a series of steps. Then, he stands there while I do up the butt bar and the ramp. Then I start incrementally sending him the last few steps alone, then we graduate to self loading.

I think the “new” Warwick Schiller (the new, kinder, gentler, post-yoga-mindfulness-therapy version) has some good YouTube’s on low-stress loading.

3 Likes

Horse is taught to self load and to not back until asked. With a small tug on the tail and the word back.

I take the divider out or tie it so it is over.

Horse goes in. Ramp is lifted. Horse is then tied.

At the other end, horse is untied, ramp is lowered. Horse is asked to back.

With this method everyone MUST be told that if a hoof goes on the ramp they must drop it immediately. People have been made paraplegics from trying to lift it.

I teach any horse I own to self load. That means they go into the trailer by themselves while I stand at the ramp. I really, really hate to get into a trailer with a horse. It’s just not safe.

Since I am at the ramp already I close the butt bar and then the ramp. I never tie a horse before closing the butt bar.

John Lyons has a great method for teaching self loading.

Another vote for self-loading here. OP, if you don’t know how to start this process, find a horsemanship/groundwork trainer that can do it. It’s a wonderful skill for a horse to have and makes trailering so much easier.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll say it again - if your horse is clicker trained, this process becomes 1000% easier. Trailer loading training pairs really well with the clicker. Taught my horse how to calmly and happily self-load in ~ 20 min through this method.

The best way to get started self loading is in the barn, when putting your horse in a stall for feeding. Do this as if you are loading the horse and give a verbal command before releasing the horse in to the stall. 'Load up", “In your house”, what ever you like. use this when asking the horse to enter the trailer, making sure there is a tasty treat inside. It also works if you have an equine escape specialist. :grin:

In my view a trailer with a ramp and no butt bar is an exercise in stupdity.

2 Likes

I have a couple of ideas. We have the horses we have. If they have bad habits, they very well may have come with those habits and now we have to fix it. Practice with the pony until you guys are a really good team. Meanwhile, pay the extra for the trainer to come to you and help teach your horse to load reliably? Make sure this is something your trainer is good at first.

If this is your trailer, perhaps you can take it to a trailer shop to modify it for safety (install a butt bar). I have done this before using a welding shop that was familiar with horse trailers.

My trailer has butt bars.
Do you mean a pony length/height butt bar?

For the self loaders, how to you prevent going under the chest bar?
She’ll have a feed bucket with carrots and mints hooked to her escape door with in her reach on the left and a hay net on her right.
But how do you keep their head up to go over the chest bar instead of under?
I supposed once she knows the goodies have been reliably there she will look for them.

It sounds more like your trailer needs modifications. No horse should be able to go under the chest bar - it’s supposed to hit them at mid-chest, and not move unless you unhook it.

If your pony can go under the chest bar, you need to take it to someone who works on trailers and have them install one that is her height. It may even be that you need something solid there for a while, until she learns that going under and going over are not acceptable behaviors.

Also, I just don’t see how it takes this long to raise the butt bar? Even if you load her by walking her through, it takes literally 1 minute to go out the escape door, around the trailer, and get to the butt bar, if that. Put a lunge line on her so you have some bit of control while you do it. Or teach her to self-load using any of the methods above.

3 Likes

I agree with this, because this is what I do. It is quick. With the long lead (or lunge line) on them still you can correct if they start backing up before you get there.

1 Like

She can’t go under the chest bar with her whole body but her head and neck can.

I swing my divider wide to open up the space, lead my mare on, put up the chest bar, throw the lead rope over her neck, then quickly (but calmly) walk INSIDE the trailer on the opposite side of her, swing the divider closed, and put up the butt bar. This way I can grab the lead rope if she decides to back off and don’t wind up with a loose horse and I also think that having me in the trailer with her helps her to not be worried about whatever it is that worries her and sends her out backwards. When we were first doing this, I kept a hand on her as I walked around, too–just lightly on her back to remind her I was there.

This hunt season, she has started to be a self loader and man is that awesome.

2 Likes

It doesn’t take long and I never said that it did. Just asking for everyone’s process to figure out what I will do. Getting my ducks in order if you will.

Are you in the other stall or between her and the divider?
And if you are in the other stall, do you then put up those chest bars and butt bars or leave them down?