I had a horse as a child that refused to load on a two horse straight. Even with the divider completely removed. R. E. F. U. S. E. D. It was traumatic for me the one time that the trainer tried to get involved and made everything 100x worse.
We brought a larger stock horse trailer to him the next time we attempted to load him (expecting trouble after the previous meltdown), and he walked on with no hesitation. This was an 18 y/o, child safe horse who would do anything you asked of him… except get on that small two horse straight load. We caved and bought a larger trailer.
I know another horse now who is claustrophobic, best we can tell. Gets on the trailer and then just turns into an absolute nightmare. He gets some relief and behaves markedly better when he has two slots on the slant instead of one, so his owners try to accomodate when possible.
It’s times like these you wish they spoke english!
My trailer is about as big and airy as they make 2H bumper pulls. Now thinking back, we rarely had issues as kids with the actually horse sized slants or head to heads. It was the 2 horse straights that gave issues. I bought mine because it’s supposedly the best for big horses, but I’m starting to think that a slant, if big enough, is easier to convince horses to load. It’s also safer to make those into open trailers vs a standard straight with the escape doors and all that not being designed for a horse to sit on them.
Hauling without the divider, all my horses will stand on a slant. I tie them because I don’t want them spinning, but I imagine they may want to ride backwards too.
@RJC thank you again for sending this! I used this method today and was able to get him on, have my SO close the back, haul 30 feet, unload at mach 2 , reload, and stand until asked to back off!
My horse is still flying backwards to unload and still nervous in the trailer once closed (he bounced around in there a bit but thankfully we got the bar up). However, he’s getting on and standing for a bit. Which is an improvement!
I have to haul tomorrow for an appointment. My vet gave me some dormosedan gel, has anyone used this for trailering?
@alteredcarbon: I have your horse. Yes, I have used Dorm gel to get her on the trailer. Did your vet tell you how much to use? I’ve used about 1/2 tube successfully. It will really knock them down, so you will have to drive very carefully.
My advice: can you rent a 3 horse slant, and see if that solves the issue? That’s my next step. I love the safety of straight loads, but my horse is claustrophobic and all the rest. I’ve had success loading with a friend: I walk in, turn her, and meanwhile, friend shuts the door. When she faces the back, the door is shut. I turn her back to the front, close the divider, and that’s worked out, along with the Dorm :).
At this point, I don’t think I can train that “OUT!” reflex out of my horse. If the 3 horse works out, that’s going to be my trailer.
I do think you can get this resolved with training. Generally I think that a horse that rushes out is one that isn’t real comfortable being in there. I’d probably ask for one step on, one step off, two steps on, two steps off etc with lots of praise and as though you have all week to do this.
Here’s a Warwick Schiller video on horses that rush out. He has a bunch of trailer loading/unloading videos - this is the first unloading one I saw.
You’re welcome! I’m glad you’re seeing some improvement!
My boy didn’t like getting onto trailers and Ryan’s methods took us from “it takes ~5 minutes, at least one helper, lots of pulling, and some light rearing” to “it takes about 1 min by myself with no drama.” Pony still doesn’t like trailers and usually won’t go all the way in on the first approach, but being able to load in a civilized fashion is no longer a concern.
As with most things, consistency in method will help it sink in.
As a few here have alluded, the problem is not your horse, the problem is that your trailer is too small for your horse.
I personally think it is unfair to ask a large horse to cram itself into a small trailer, so rather than do this, you really do need to consider hauling only in an appropriately sized trailer.
Sounds like you are doing fine and you need to just give it some time. If you are now able to consistently load him the first time, then I’d honestly stop practicing that. Treat him like big horse. Give yourself plenty of extra time to get to your destination and just start going. Load him every day and make a drive around the block, and then park and take him off. It needs to become mundane and no big deal.
But … you may still want to work on the self loading. You say you can drive/load him anywhere else but the trailer so therein is your hole. I’ve had some tough horses over the years but it’s never been longer than 1 week to teach them to self load (straight load, side load, ramp, no ramp, stock, etc - the type of trailer doesn’t really matter).
What you may want to examine is your execution of pressure and RELEASE. The release is the most important part. For example, let’s say you are leading your horse. Let’s say you are walking along and they choose to stop. You just keep steady pressure on the lead and wait. And wait. And wait. Do not release until he makes the smallest correct response. It might need to start out with him simply SHIFTING his weight forward. Great! Drop the lead immediately and release the pressure and rub on him. Then try again. Hold the pressure steady until you get some sort of small positive response. Then drop that pressure immediately and let him know it was correct.
Most people do not release the cue soon enough. They either expect a whole entire step, or the horse moving forward completely, and that is just not realistic. You have to start even smaller, and reward the smallest effort. If you release too late, you won’t make progress.
So, when you have been working on self loading, when are you releasing the pressure to reward him? Really, really think about that. Are you trying to get him all the way on the trailer before you consider it a success? If so, that’s where you are going wrong and why it isn’t working.
So I think my timing is decent - he gets a release of halter pressure the moment he gives a bit/leans forward. He will get on this way, but the issue is he won’t stay on. My helper isn’t very fast at putting the butt bar up, and my horse seems to think the job is “get on trailer, get off fast to see what’s making all that noise, get back on trailer”. He travels very well after the first 10 minutes. I also realized he may never have had to back off before, which may be contributing to some of the issues. He only rode in a slant (and unloaded head first) and a head to head, as far as I know.
We had an incident yesterday which likely set us way back. He was slow to load for the appointment, and when he rushed backwards he ended up slipping on the damp ramp as it had started to mist while we played games about loading. I had plenty of time but that scared us both and I canceled the appointment. I didn’t want him to fall or refuse to load to come home.
Has anyone replaced their ramp mat with coco? Or used a coco mat with a horse that comes out rapidly when unloading backwards?
The only reliable fix I’ve ever found for the ones who want to fly backwards off the trailer is to immediately load them right back up every time they do it. It may take all day the first time, but the game becomes a lot less fun for them when they don’t get the reward of being “done” with the trailer. Make sure there is a nice snack on the trailer for him when he does actually stay on (I like to use a net full of alfalfa).
I know you said earlier in the thread that there are some time-sensitive appointments you need to get to with him. Until you get this habit of his broken, is there any way you can borrow or rent a step-up stock trailer? The combination of ramp + straight load is the most difficult type of trailer with reluctant loaders, but even some of the very worst loaders will happily hop into a step-up stock. It will also be much easier and safer for your helper to quickly close the door on a stock trailer vs. doing up the butt bar in a straight load, and the horse can be turned around to walk off the trailer instead of backing off while you’re working on breaking the flying backwards habit.
As I see it - there are two issues with a horse that panics and tries to run out.
(1) He just isn’t comfortable enough being in the trailer to confine him yet. Like I said before - this problem is not a quick fix. You have to commit time everyday until the horse is more comfortable. Put his buddy on the other side. Feed him in the trailer. Hang a bag of Standlee alfalfa. Let him get comfortable in there before you start to confine him. And do that a little at a time.
(2) He has to learn that YOU decide when he unloads, not him. If he unloads when you don’t want him to - make things uncomfortable for him and lead him right back in where his treats are. Then when he is comfortable in there, make him back out even if he doesn’t want to. Then load him back up and let him sit there eating his favorite food. And when you get ready to unload - if he sits on the buttbar trying to rush out - go to the front of the trailer and make him move forward. He only gets to unload when he is quiet and off the buttbar. You can even unload with a little bit of food in a bucket to occupy him. Once his anxiety levels go down he will not be in such a hurry to run out. That takes practice.
I did a really stupid thing with my problem loader before I taught her to self load. I knew better but I did it anyway because I had an appointment with her and needed to get her on the trailer. Like you I am a one man show with nobody to help out here. So like a dumbass I loaded her and tied her hoping she would stay in until I closed up the back. Nope! She hit the end of the lead rope, sat down and left the halter and lead rope permanently attached to the trailer. I thought “OMG you fool! You will never get her to load again!” But she loaded right up after I got a new halter on her. I missed the appointment though and told myself I needed to get off my ass and teach her to self load. It was a long process but it worked. Even then - if I have an appointment I will feed her in the trailer the day before just to reinforce that the trailer is a good place. Some horses are easy. Some are not. I have one of both.
I’ve talked about my mare with this same problem. I gave up on the straight load. First I had a step up 16 ft stock trailer with center divider, now a 3 H slant with stock sides and a ramp. She was happy to get on and turn around in either of these, then it was much easier to keep her in the trailer once she turned. Recently she has begun standing on the slant facing forward while I tie her and shut the gate. (She gets the 2 rear stalls usually.) Now I’m wondering if she would learn to stay in a straight load, but I’m not planning on changing trailers.
I’m interested to see the Ryan Rose video sometime.
First thing you need to do is forget about this “setback”. That’s only in your mind. You just work with the horse you have in front of you that day and it doesn’t matter what happened yesterday, nor does it matter what happens tomorrow. We humans bring way too much baggage into things.
So, here’s what you do when he won’t stay on. Once he initiates backing up (when you have not given him any other direction than to just stand there and relax) then YOU. MAKE. HIM. BACK. UP. And you make it uncomfortable. If he wants to stop backing up? Too bad. He’s going to back up some more.
You aren’t abusing him and you aren’t hitting him. But you need to have some energy in your step and make it very, very uncomfortable for him to back up. Make it extremely unpleasant.
Then, you turn around and load him right back up again like nothing happened. Walk confident and expect him to follow you on that trailer like a seasoned veteran. Then stand there. Give him the opportunity to relax. The goal here is to make the trailer a good place. Leave them alone when they are on the trailer. That makes it the “release”.
If he makes his own decision to start backing off (and do not try to prevent him from making the mistake) then you rinse and repeat.
Pretty soon he’s going to figure out that it isn’t any fun to back up, and he’s much more comfortable just standing there on the trailer.
, reload, and stand until asked to back off!