I had a thought:
Somewhere I was told to always load a single horse on the Driver side of the trailer.
Something about balance where the roads crown…
If you’re already loading him on that side, as Roseann Roseannadanna says: Nevermind!
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Yep! Though I’ve thought about trying the other side… it seems to work for some. He honestly just wants OUT or at least to face the exit. It’s a work in progress (well… everything about that horse is a work in progress).
@Annie10 I board so it’s a bit harder to do but if I get my ish together he’s only 10 minutes from my work. Everything you’ve said is on my radar and I’m just hoping it works! Boarding and working full time in-person is great in some ways but BOY does this horse take some managing 
Also pointing out that my problem child isn’t the one in question on this thread but he IS the one feeding all of my anxieties.
If your horse is tense like you describe, ship him with atravet (acepromazine) at first, until he experiences relaxation in the trailer. Enough to make sure that his trailer ride is a non event. You do NOT want him to hurt himself in there, that would only make him more frightened and tense for the next trailering attempt. He can learn and remember a relaxing ride in the trailer while tranquilized. Reduce the dose you use over time with each successful trip. Make sure that your trailer itself is not the source of his worries… If it has a bare brake wire, a current can run through the metal and deliver a shock to the horse each time you touch the brakes. Make sure that the trailer rides nicely, travels smoothly, doesn’t sway. Make sure that your driving is appropriate for hauling. All these things can make trailering a bad experience for a horse, and make him unhappy and nervous about trailering. If you know all this already, please do ignore this, but sometimes people don’t know these things. And experience difficulty with nervous horses in horse trailers. Some horses are happier with the divider removed from the trailer so that they travel in a box stall, if you can make this happen.
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All good things and great suggestions!
This horse has blown through Ace and Dorm in doses that usually put him on the ground, and the trailer has new tires and has had a full work over. My SO has tested for currents but I haven’t tried sitting on the brakes while he does so that’s something!
This gelding has some claustrophobic tendencies (enclosed washracks can be an issue) as well as separation anxiety related to the trailer - however this is mostly my fault because in the last few years he’s only trailered to move farms (including across the country). He’s not been riding sound so no reason to trailer him otherwise, and for a long time I didn’t have my own rig for practice. He can be sticky about the trailer even with other horses on it though, so it’s not purely Being Alone.
Anyways, it’ll be a fun winter thing to work on with him since I doubt he’s going to be doing anything more than eating money!
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My horses have always lived at home, my entire life.
Currently, my horse lives alone. While it’s not ideal, I think it’s okay since she’s turned out all day alongside the neighbor horses. She only comes into her stall at night, and can see the neighbor horses enclosures if she wanted to.
I really don’t think horses care about hauling along. They’re either a “good hauler” or a bad one. I did pick up a friends horse once, by himself, and he rocked the trailer the entire hour drive. He was imported from South America to the US, has hauled and flown from coast to coast. So, maybe he didn’t like being alone.
We have an arena, but the footing isn’t ideal. I was part of a large program and would haul in twice a week for jumping lessons and was able to flat on our footing at home.
The whole situation does make things harder, you do have to work harder and make some sacrifices, but it’s absolutely doable!
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I’ve done this a LOT. I do have a flat area of ride at home, but the footing doesn’t handle moisture well. I’ve done a ton of hauling around by myself. The biggest part, to me, of making that work is having a horse that is easy to load and that you are comfortable/capable of handling by yourself in stressful situations. The fastest track to that is to practice.
Take every opportunity you can to haul with help. Or haul to your nearest friends house where you can unload and have help reloading if needed. Even if you just take your horse off and let it stand and eat hay. That’s actually a fine use of time if you load a hay bag with something nicer than they usually get at home.
Hauled horses are good at being hauled. Tacking up an excited horse by yourself can be dangerous. You know your horse, so just don’t set your goals for each trip higher than you think is easily achievable. Having a horse get loose when you’re alone with no help is a horrifying proposition.
Can you make great progress in this situation? Absolutely! Having a good citizen to haul around will make it much less stressful. Keep your trailer hitched up and plan on spending a fortune on fuel. But it’s great prep for showing when your horse can show up anywhere and it’s just another Tuesday to them.
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I do it! My set up does not include an area or anything considered “normal”. I have a couple flatter grassy locations that I ride and start youngsters in. I say flat but they’re lumpy and probably create a sure-er footed horse. I even start them in these open areas as I don’t normally have a round pen, and when I do I find that it is too small to comfortably do things in. So they get real broke real quick and we figure out steering/body control early on.
My main beast is seasoned now, but he was started this way. We haul out for lessons and to local indoor arenas. He’s always eager to go somewhere for an adventure. But I do this with youngsters too. Sometimes they go with the older guy, sometimes they get hauled out alone. They get broke to hauling alone to other indoors because there’s really no other option.
As mentioned above, this strategy is tough. But I haven’t had other options for so long and am appreciative of the use of other indoors and lessons off property. I’m used to it. It’s about the quality of work you put in, not the amount of work. So while I don’t get to ride as often as I like during the winter, I make the work that we do get to do count. Oh and upper level success can be achieved in this set up. The seasoned beast has a reserve world championship and multiple top 5s to his resume, and some of the younger critters have some high national level placings as well. It’s doable, just a bit more inconvenient than ideal 
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I don’t do the hunters anymore, but I do keep my horses at home. And I don’t have flat ground on my property. At all (eastern middle TN). I also live alone, and I’ve learned that I’m just not comfortable riding even my very quiet/broke horses here because it could literally be days before someone missed me and started investigating.
These days, I mostly breed and raise babies, anyway, but I do usually have one open mare or young horse that I’m riding. My (ranch/cow horse) trainer is only about 10 minutes away and has a covered arena I’m welcome to ride in any time. So, when I have my life together, I haul out 2-3 times a week - once for a lesson and then for other rides as I can. The hauling is the easy part. Good loaders/haulers are good loaders/haulers alone or with friends. And my horses have to walk up the driveway, out of sight of the barn and their friends, into my front yard right on the road to load. So they HAVE TO load well. It’s just our life these days, and it works for us. But good-minded horses who can handle this are critical to my safety/success, and therefore also the cornerstone of my breeding program.
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I boarded for a long time too. I get it.
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Same here – this is very important! It makes life with horses so much easier.
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I’ve had my horses at home on my farm for 30 years. I’m 71. I did my time at show barns going from Liimit to Adult to A/O hunters. When I moved my horses home, I went back down to Adult. Once I got my farm, my goals changed a lot. I was way less interested in showing and way more interested in spending that money on improving the farm and buying more land next door. I regret nothing!
I love being able to ride whenever I want and do whatever I want with my horses. As someone else said, the older I got, the more I wanted very safe horses. You are not going to have a pro to help you or to give you confidence. You have to rely on yourself.
That being said, I do have a lovely arena. It’s a luxury for sure, but I love having one. I think that is your biggest obstacle. Hauling out is great, but defeats the time benefits of riding at home.
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This right here.
As I said, I haven’t hauled out with any regularity yet (and it’s been 4 years here) but do not underestimate how much of a time suck trailering out is. Even though the arena is only 10 min up the road, hitching the trailer up + packing the tack in the trailer + catching and loading horse + driving there + unloading + tacking up + riding + untacking + loading up + driving home + unloading and turning out = 2-3 hours gone. Even with working from home, it’s hard to fit that in during the weekdays. Some could be alleviated by leaving the truck and trailer hooked up and leaving the tack in the trailer (but I do prefer to tack up in the barn when we’re riding at home) but it is just a very time intensive thing any way you slice it. Add to it, the closest indoor that we can trailer in to is 30+ min one way.
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It’s a sad sign of the times that a person can’t hack down the road such a short distance. I used to live where there were 4-5 barns right along a stretch of the road. But because of fences, and America’s private property, no Right to Roam, laws, we couldn’t ride from one barn to another. So sad.
And that 2-lane road had a 55mph speed limit, which meant that 55 was about the slowest speed the drivers went.
But you could saddle up at home and just have the bridle to put on when you get where you’re going
A ten minute drive at 50 mph could easily be a 4-5 mile ride that takes an hour each way, which most people who work don’t have enough daylight hours to do even if they could safely hack their horses on the road. And it’s pretty understandable that people want to fence their property/don’t want horses going through their yards.
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To address the lack of light, a friend of mine put up an outdoor light in her pasture and rode there in the dark after work. I’d use a deflector on it so it wouldn’t be obnoxious, but it works well.
I used to keep my dressage/event horse at home, within hacking distance to my trainer’s facility. That was ideal. Now I keep my youngster at home with very little flat ground, but the driveway is half a mile long and has pretty decent footing. I can set up cavaletti and small jumps along the verge.
I’ve always trailered my horses alone with no problem. I trailer to nearby trails two or three times a week. It seems to build confidence in the baby horses.
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I have a similar situation. Horses at home, trails to hack on, have to trailer out to an arena. I typically hack 3x/week, trailer out to school 2x (3 mile haul, though as others mention just the “outing” aspect is a time suck), lesson 1x. 1 prelim event horse, 1 younger one.
I find trailering 1 out easier than 2, because then nobody has to wait while you ride the other, but they get used to it either way.
IME starting hacking and trailering can be hard. I typically buy OTT and ride alone, so early on if I need help loading or a trail buddy it is more coordination (with other people who have work schedules and horses to ride, etc.) But after they are used to it, it’s fine. Scheduling arena time and working that into my work schedule is a perpetual stressor. I really wish I had my own.
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Great to hear it can be doable - I actually think it may be good for me as a horseperson because the biggest holes in my skill set have to do with hauling and getting creative without a ring. I just haven’t done that as much as I have plenty of other things!
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Oh, so true! I’ve always had my horses at home, and have a very sub-par “arena”. Through the years, I’ve had various different arenas to haul to, to ride by myself or take lessons. I’ve managed to compete successfully in lower level jumpers, eventing and dressage. My horses became really good at loading and trailering solo and being alone in new places. It was just what I did and didn’t think anything of it and they became very reliable. Fast forward to nowadays when I am older and have a big, young horse that can be hot and spooky at time and it’s…not easy and takes a lot of resolve! He is loading and trailering well now but tends to be nervous and unpredictable when we are out and about so sometimes it’s more of a challenge than an enjoyable activity! Also, as others have said, it take a long time and a lot of energy to go through the whole process of hauling out to ride and putting everything away after! So I find myself sometimes abandoning plans to haul out and just ride in my un-level “arena” dodging trees lol. I’m quite positive that I would be much further along with him if I boarded but then I like the journey too.
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