Teaching a horse to self load

[stb]

Does anyone have a good reference for teaching a horse to self load in a trailer? I have a new horse (had him 4 months) who loads without too much trouble, but doesn’t self load and also requires a second person to stand behind him if he is the only horse in the trailer.

I have a 2 horse slant load step up trailer. Since my guy is big, I let him use both stalls when we trailer. He rides nicely and backs off nicely, but I have to go in the trailer and back him out from his head. My goal is for him to self load so I don’t have to get in the trailer with him, either to load or to back out.

[CrowneDragon]

I would look up the trailer loading books/videos from John and Josh Lyons. They use straightforward methods for teaching stuff like this that I have found very useful with my own horses. They are first taught to go forward from the tap of a dressage whip on the hip, and then that is used to send the horse into the trailer. Easy to do by oneself. I have used this method to retrain several horses that were very bad about loading and had good success with all of them.

[stb]

Thanks, Crownedragon, I’ve ordered the John Lyons DVD on loading.

[Flash44]

Nothing wrong with a horse that waits for you to back him out. It’s the ones that go backwards at the wrong time that are the problem.

[ChocoMare]

Ditto John Lyons’ method. Works every time, no stress, no pain, no fear. I loaded my new mare this way yesterday. She hadn’t been on a trailer in over four years and never a ramp. I clipped a lunge line to her and ran it down the left inside of the trailer, out the side door and down to me where I stood to the side of the ramp.

As she stood just off the ramp, I put some tension on the lunge line and gently, but persistently, tapped her butt with the soft end of a dressage whip. At the tiniest bit of forward movement, even if it was just dropping her head, I immediately ceased the pull and tap. I let her stay there for a while and relax, then put tension back on the lunge line and resumed tapping.

She loaded in 20 minutes with no rushing back, no balking or fear. But even if it had taken hours, I know she would have still loaded.

Kinda helps, tho, that she has a good, sensible draftie brain

Usually by the third or fourth day of training this way, they self load. I also teach that “Tug on Your Tail and BACK” means you can come out now.

[jherold]

Yep, John Lyons is the best method. I just got done using it to teach a huge warmblood how to back out of the trailer. His problem wasn’t loading, it was unloading. I have a step up and the first time we tried to back him off, he must have thought that the world dropped off and would not back at all. (We had to turn him around in a 2 horse and it was a tight squeeze). I started teaching him to self load so that he got used to stepping in and out. I wasn’t sure stepping in and out with the front feet would transfer to stepping out with the back, but it did!

[SportArab]

What’s always worked for me is to use 2 longe lines and drive the horse into the trailer.

One longe line (usually the left) clips onto the horse’s halter and then is threaded through the tie ring (or whatever it’s called) and the other just attaches to the ring and goes around the right side of the horse. Often all you have to do is to slap (lightly) the lines against the side of the horse and give some verbal cue, like “in.”

[cnvh]

My horse self-loads into my 2H straight load… He has always loaded well, but previously would only load if he was led into the trailer. We made the transition to self-loading by training an “up-up” command, which means “I want you to go away from me and onto the thing I’m pointing you at.”

Luckily we board with some Parelli people, and they have a wooden “step box” they use for their NH mumbo-jumbo; it’s about 15" high and 2’ square. Once Horse figured out that “up-up” meant “get up on there and I’ll give you a treat,” he quickly learned that he could boldly go forward/onto/up on [fill in the blank with any object that can be stepped on] at the “up-up” command, and he gets a treat.

The hardest part was getting Horse to figure out that I wanted him to go AWAY from me on command… Once we broke through that, self-loading was easy.

[Highflyer]

I’ve never had to do anything too complicated (I’ve never tried in a slantload though). Once they load well being led in, I’ve always just progressed to flipping the rope over their necks and leading up the ramp and a step or so in, then sliding back and out while they continue in. Then I just lead up the ramp and step off to the side, then just a step or so on the ramp, until eventually I just flip the rope over their necks and lead them to the ramp and they go in on their own.

Unloading is even easier-- they know to stand quietly until I have put the butt bars down, then gone around to the side door. I start by backing them out the first step or two and then hurrying around to meet them, but I find they figure out very quickly that when I show up at the side door and cluck a bit it’s time to go.

[eponacelt]

John Lyons all the way. I’ve now taught 4-5 horses of varying loading “ability” to load with his method. Even the worst of them only took about 30 minutes to learn to load, and never had a problem after that. My biggest problem is that one of my horses now RUNS onto the trailer!

[clanter]

we always used the monkey-see-monkey-do training … with the newbie watching we had a self loader load and unload then loaded them again then asked the newbie to do the same… normally they just walked in as if they had been doing it forever

With Morgans this has always worked, the TB mare (Miss Goofy) I do not think would ever do the same as her only goal is to run forward at a zillion miles an hour

[Trevelyan96]

Both of mine self unload with a slight tug on the tail and the word ‘back’. I haven’t really worked on self load, as I’ve never had luck with learning or teaching the tap for forward with any of my TB’s. It seems to just piss them off and make them run backward. It’s got to be a ‘pilot’ error issue, but I just haven’t figured it out.

They’re both good loaders, so I don’t stress too much about it.

[stb]

Thanks,everyone for the John Lyons recommendation. I bought the video and book and today was “lesson day”. Training went just like the video said it would, and my horse is now self loading and unloading! I highly recommend this method.

I’m beat, though. My horse tried several evasive maneuvers, just like John Lyons said he would. I’m relaxing with a celebratory beer after a much needed shower.

[ChocoMare]

Woohoo! Seeeee we told a you so

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=stb;7661926]
Thanks,everyone for the John Lyons recommendation. I bought the video and book and today was “lesson day”. Training went just like the video said it would, and my horse is now self loading and unloading! I highly recommend this method.

I’m beat, though. My horse tried several evasive maneuvers, just like John Lyons said he would. I’m relaxing with a celebratory beer after a much needed shower.[/QUOTE]

Good for you.

There are many ways to teach anything and you can’t ever know enough, as not all work every place, every time the same way.

We too have horses you have to hold back when they see a trailer and the youngsters learn from the old ones.
Here, it is considered good working horse manners to load, haul and unload properly.
At times any one horse may be hauled in a strange trailer with strange horses, depending on what crew you are assigned to.

[ThatScaryChick]

[QUOTE=stb;7661926]
Thanks,everyone for the John Lyons recommendation. I bought the video and book and today was “lesson day”. Training went just like the video said it would, and my horse is now self loading and unloading! I highly recommend this method.

I’m beat, though. My horse tried several evasive maneuvers, just like John Lyons said he would. I’m relaxing with a celebratory beer after a much needed shower.[/QUOTE]

Very cool! Glad you found something that worked for you.

[CrowneDragon]

Well done

[Mukluk]

And I always thing horses are much more happy about going into a trailer if there’s food in there! My mare will walk right in as she adores her hay bag.