Straight haul trailers

[Fancy_Free]

I recently came across a fantastic deal on a straight load trailer and made an impulse buy I have always had angle hauls and I am just realizing now perhaps I made an error lol I am hauling by myself 90% of the time, how do I get the butt bar closed up behind them without a second person? Do people tie them in the front and then walk around (this scares me) I am hoping over time to teach my horses to self load so I can be behind them but that is going to be more of a long term solution. Are there any tricks to this or am I doomed to need a helper?

[colorfan]

It can be tricky sometimes depending on the horse. I have had a straight haul for many years and usually it is just me.
I won’t tie a puller so we had to work on that. I teach to self load then, of course, they have to stand there and not run backwards while I do up the butt bar.
any horse I have raised myself this has not been an issue.
An unco-operative horse meant missing a vet appt and we didn’t get to go anywhere for most of the summer until we solved the problem.
This mare is always a bit sketchy, will she load and stay loaded or will she fly backwards. But I can’t buy a different trailer so we regularly practice loading even when we aren’t going anywhere.

[colorfan]

If. you do tie, remember not to open the back door until you untie!! I always throw the lead over their back so when they back out the lead is waiting for me.

[Texarkana]

Teach them to stand with the lead rope draped over their neck while you go out and do up the butt bar. Tasty food helps- a net of fancy alfalfa or hang a bucket with some grain. Then go back and tie them once the butt bar is up.

[Cowgirl]

I start training my horses by sending the into their stalls, rather than leading them in. I train the babies by putting pans of grain in the trailer and moving it forward. It takes a bit of time to train self-loading, but once it is done, I have found it fairly reliable.

It is also important to teach them to back up, step by step, so that they don’t fly backwards out of the trailer. I do this with groundwork first. I teach them to take one step back for every time I say “back”.

[Demerara_Stables]

I throw the lead over their neck/back, walk them up to the back of the trailer then I stop at the back (I’m next to the ramp) and they keep going in. Then I close the butt bar and lastly walk to the front to tie them. If I have a difficult loader I practice until they’ll get on alone or I have a second person.

[Foxglove]

I do much of what is suggested here: There is always hay in the front, and for Bob I keep a small bucket fastened to the hay ring with a handful of grain in it --just enough to occupy him while I put up the butt bar. I remove the bucket before travel.

But another way to do it is with a lunge line --run the lunge line through the escape door or around the breast bar, and have the end beside the back door or ramp. Clip to halter --lead or ask horse to go in, then keep a gentle pressure on the lunge line as you slip out the back.

Having said that, I spend a ton of time on training self loading --I travel alone and never want to be where I can’t load my horse. The only odd horse I ever had that would not quietly self load --well, he did --was Will who would stand about three feet behind the trainer --then launch himself in --actually jumping in. I think he did it because he loved the BOOM the trailer made when he landed with all four feet. He seemed so proud of himself.

In fairness, I’m set up for training for self-loading with my trailer on my property and tons of time to practice.

Two of mine are “thoughtful” loaders —the handler leads up to the ramp or door, horse thinks for a minute, sniffs, considers World Peace, then walks in the trailer and waits for the butt bar. When someone tries to rush that process (I had a friend who thought she was helping become assertive instead of waiting --jerking the lead and shouting) the fellow won’t load until the process is repeated --this time considering a United Sates Space Force as well as World Peace. Neither has ever refused to load --they just do it slowly enough that every cowboy in the universe stops by and askes if “the little lady needs help.”

I do carry ACE with me --just in case. As I said, I travel alone and don’t want to be some place with a horse that won’t load. Someone said ACE won’t work for a horse that won’t load, but I’ve had success with it the two times I needed to use it –

[trubandloki]

I am frequently alone and I have one that will not self load, but the same horse was easily taught to stand there and wait.

I walk the horse on using a longer lead rope (those nice thick cotton ropes are wonderful for this).
I take the lead rope with me as I head back to do the butt bar, feeding it out as I go. (Still attached to the horse, not keeping tension on it, just making sure I do not have a ton of slack.)
If the horse starts to back a little before I get to the back, I have the ability to tell them no with the lead rope that no matter where I am standing will be pulling them forward.

I also make sure there is good hay and treats to munch while I am doing all this.

After I get the butt bar secured I go back up front and tie the horse in the trailer.

Self unloading on command usually works, if not, I basically do the same thing in reverse. Untie the horse from the trailer and attach my long lead rope. Go to the back and undo the butt bar, go to the front and back the horse off.

You can use a lunge line, I just find that to be too much line to deal with when a lead rope works just fine.

[clanter]

@Foxglove

I do carry ACE with me --just in case

just be aware acepromazine can have the opposite reaction from expected in which the animal (usually cats) becomes excited and overly aggressive. Even though this is a very rare occurrence when it does occur it will most likely will be at the worse time

[jherold]

You teach them to self load. I’ve used the John Lyons method for years. It has worked with several horses.

[Montanas_Girl]

@Foxglove

Two of mine are “thoughtful” loaders —the handler leads up to the ramp or door, horse thinks for a minute, sniffs, considers World Peace, then walks in the trailer and waits for the butt bar.

I have one of these, too. To be fair, Sydney’s default mood is “thoughtfully watching the world go by”. It took me a few trips to figure out that she wasn’t refusing to load, just taking her time, but now we have come to an understanding about the process.

[endlessclimb]

Thank you for this. Grundy pony tried to turn around when I went to do the butt bar, and as a pony in a warmblood sized stall she was about halfway to success.

Your tip will help keep us safe!

[SusanO]

Mine were never a problem until I got the problem child. Now she did have several bad experiences, but she got trained to self load. And has refreshers between getting loaded again. Food doesn’t always work - she would load fine, grab a bite of a treat and then back out to chew it up. She was fine when I went in with her and would stand forever if I was at her head but as soon as I went to put up the butt bar she would unload. And most of the time I do not have another person here so I had to get off my butt and teach her to self load. It worked! My advice is spend the time training them - trying to drag them in with a lungeline, tranquilizers, etc. do not work in the long run and usually makes the horse worse over time. Just commit to a slow training program and it can be done.

[sami-joe]

For my TB gelding, the bridge over the gap between less than confident follow-me loading and reliable, clocked-in self-loading was teaching him to put his front feet up on things, rocks, steps, porches, pretty much anything robust enough to hold him and flat enough for his feet.

You know how it goes. Get close, yay! Step over, yay! Step on, double-yay!. It didn’t take more than an hour for him to get the picture. Within a couple sessions, he would stand there and (maybe) enjoy the improved view for as long as I wanted.

At first, we worked at a glacial pace, with me switching sides and my gelding wearing a good stiff rope halter, so I could encourage single steps in any direction. Frankly, it was fun and diverting, and I think my horse felt a little pride once he figured out the whole project.

After he was solid being guided from both sides onto a variety of rocks, I’d toss my longish lead, maybe 10 ft., over his back. He stood, and I walked behind him around to the other side. It took maybe five minutes for him to learn how to step quietly off the rock with me behind him.

I have a step-up trailer, so his rock-standing skills transferred into walking onto the trailer almost immediately. I put up the butt bar up, then go to the front.

A friend’s husband built her a fairly tall platform for this purpose and one of her three horses appears to enjoy the stretch, and maybe the cookies, enough that when he’s turned out in that section of her property he puts his front feet up and waits to be admired.

[Annie10]

Mine load themselves. I tie the lead rope around their neck and send them in and do the butt bar and then close up the back and then close up whatever I have open in the front. Mine has full-size escape doors in the front so I open those load the horse do the butt bar put up the ramp go around to the front shut the doors get in in the truck and off we go

[Lunabear1988]

I’m in the same boat. My parents gifted me a trailer (very appreciated) but it’s a straight load with no escape door.

Hauling one horse at a time as been no issue. Pretty much everyone self loads. But two horses in there gives me crazy nerves. There’s only butt chains on mine and I’m looking to see if we can install actual bars. The chains just don’t seem strong enough of something goes wrong… Which happened when we hauled someone else’s horse unexpectedly.

We were unloading my daughter’s lease horse and the unknown horse next to him got confused and also tried to back off. He broke the trailer tie but at least not the butt chain. But there is a bit of a scramble for a second and it was a bit scary to me.

My next trailer will be a slant load! Or at least have an escape door.

[Sun_Hill_Farm]

I never close the butt bar until the horse is trained to not back out until asked. The way I train this is to allow the horse to back out as much as he wants, but he must always go right back in. I also try to ask him to back out before he decides to back out on his own.

The key is the minute they back out–which you allow–you must ask them to re-load.

Horses get tired of backing out and reloading. It’s a lot of work. Pretty soon they decide they would just as soon stay in the trailer. I know that the training for this is “complete” when I ask them to back out and they won’t. LOL. Of course, with persistent asking, they do back out, but that reluctance to back out is the moment it is possible to fasten the butt bar without negative consequences.

[OTTBs]

Teach them to self load, or you are doomed to needing a helper.

I taught 4 TBs to self load pretty easily. You might accomplish it in a month or less. But then there’s my Cleveland Bay x TB—she learned to self load, then refused to. Can only do a straight load if there’s another person around.