Loading by yourself, what’s your process?

[ecileh]

@QM2

@ecileh

then quickly (but calmly) walk INSIDE the trailer on the opposite side of her

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?

The other stall. I’d never put myself between a horse and something solid in that small of a space.

I put up both butt bars when traveling, both to stabilize the divider and to keep the one in the empty stall from swinging and banging into either the mare or the padding on the wall. Forgot to do that once and wound up with a bunch of scrapes and bumps on her hocks!

I am less fanatical about the other chest bar, but I do tend to put it up–after she is secured in her stall. if you are nimble, you could leave it up and duck under it…I am both tall and NOT nimble anymore.

[QM2]

Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that you would do something like that but I don’t know you and wanted you to clarify.
I wouldn’t do that either.
I think this might be the way to go for now while I teach her to self load.
Because of Covid, we haven’t gone anywhere for a while and I think she would appreciate me in the trailer while I did this.
Thanks!

[B-burg_Dressage]

When I had a straight load and a not 100% reliable self-loader…

I would lead him up and duck under the chest bar as I went. Give him a goodie. Duck under the other chest bar and walk back to do the butt bar. Me staying in the trailer seemed to help him.

I eventually got him to self-load at home by practicing a TON. When in public, I’d just get someone at the barn to do the butt bar up when I led him in. He was never good at self loading in public–too many distractions.

Buying a slant load has made my life with the same horse sooooo much easier though.

[JenEM]

We’re working on self-loading with my 4YO but she’s not 100% there yet. I was as proud of her perfectly self-loading at the end of our show yesterday as I was of our blue ribbon!

So what I do is the lunge-line method. But rather than running it out the door, my trainer taught me to run it up over the chest bar so it doesn’t snag. So you’re able to stay at the back end of the trailer and encourage them forward if need be, they learn to walk on by themselves, and the line is coming up over the chest bar which makes it difficult for them to duck under. Horse walks on, butt bar goes up, I take three steps to the left to the escape door and clip horse and remove lunge line.