I have a horse who loooves being with friends…any friend will do. When I trailer him with another horse, he is a total gem…as long as he can see that horse. We event and if his “trailer-buddy” leaves to do their dressage test or jump course, he turns into a monster. He rears in the trailer, paws, bows down and the whole trailer shakes from side to side.
I recently bought my own trailer and the 2 times I have trailered him alone, he does the same behavior. He is okay while the trailer is moving, but as soon as we stop (we reach our destination, or a red light, etc.), he starts rearing, rocking, pawing, whinnying, etc.
I want to take him to shows and we are the only people at our current farm that event so having a friend isn’t a possibility all the time…are there things I can do to help him overcome this anxiety? I am currently faced with having to find someone I can pay to go to shows with me so that he can be walked around while I walk my courses because he CANNOT be left in the trailer alone or he will hurt himself.
Just looking for suggestions…perhaps letting him eat his dinner in the trailer alone, attempting to take him on lots of short trailering trips (I only have limited access to a truck…it’s my boyfriends). Anyway, thanks in advance!
One of mine is like this and it’s very dangerous. He jumped the partition and its truly amazing he didn’t get very hurt. My vet thinks I should give him ace “paste” prior to shipping. Since his last trailer event had been traumatic, I’ve been having him get on the trailer alone, with the partition out, and just let him eat hay for a while alone, then get out. I’m trying to give him good trailer experiences. Between this and the ace paste I think we will be ok, but it also sounds like you will be trailering a lot more than me. You might want to get a mini or a pony buddy that can travel to shows with you and hang out. Sounds cheaper than paying people to go to shows!
My horse started out a lot like this. The first time she had to haul alone to the vet clinic we pulled in with the trailer rocking like a tasmanian devil cartoon. The vet was so apprehensive about the monster inside that she insisted on giving IV sedation through the window before unloading. I was impressed that she could stick a vein on such a moving target.
Early on the friends who helped me haul her were very smooth drivers and when she was the sole passenger tended to leave lots of space at stoplights so they could roll up a bit when she started losing it. We never tried to make her stand on the trailer after arriving, knowing that it was stressful and she was likely to hurt herself. She always unloaded lathered in sweat, shaking, wild-eyed.
A few weeks ago we trailered her to the vet clinic and she is finally a solid enough trailer passenger that we were able to leave her alone in the trailer while I handled the bill and went to the pharmacy. When I got back to the trailer we discovered that the escape door hadn’t latched properly and she’d pushed it open. But she didn’t try to leave! This would have been a recipe for disaster a few years ago!
For mine I think there are 2 factors in improving the solo trailering: 1) the environment in which she is currently kept minimizes the day-to-day incidence of separation anxiety and overall background stress level. 2) she’s now had a reasonably large number of uneventful, brief, and positive experiences involving solo trailer rides.
Can you take a few practice runs to somewhere nice where you can unload, graze or do some groundwork routine to settle him, and then once he’s calm load up and go home? I think the ability to stand safely on the trailer is secondary to being able to trust that going out solo is safe, sometimes even enjoyable, and always ends up back in the security of home.
I hope you can find someone who’s willing to tag along to shows for a while anyway, though. It’s so helpful to have an extra set of hands when there’s a good chance your horse is going to have a total meltdown. I remember how grateful I was to have a friend along the first time I took my bad solo traveler to a schooling show!
Can he practice standing on the trailer without even leaving the farm (with the trailer hooked up to a truck, of course)?
I have two who act badly when trailered somewhere with a herdmate and that horse leaves the trailer, but both actually are very good when taken somewhere by themselves. It tends to make me not take the extra pony to a show for experience, because it’s so much more of a PITA than taking only one horse.
If you go somewhere with another horse on the trailer, separate them so they are out of sight immediately upon arrival. Arrange to tie one of the horses at someone else’s trailer or get a day stall.
For the moving in the trailer, with my TB I always left room at stoplights to keep the trailer rolling forward every few seconds rather than sitting at a full stop. But you probably need to start with just loading, unloading, loading and eating, loading and closing doors, loading and turning the truck on, etc. and work your way up to taking him out for short drives.
We have one like this, and I don’t have an answer for you. We simply don;t take him anywhere alone. Luckily we have him with his two best friends so we can just bring a girl along. Mare goes on, Blue gets on. Blue gets off, Mare goes off.
We have to hold him at shows or get a stall, because he can;t be tied hard to anything, but he will hang out on my homemade blocker ring is she is tied next to him.
If you don’t follow the order he rears over the breast bar. If you do, he trailers calmly. Honestly, that is SO MUCH BETTER than what he used to do that we just accept it as a limitation of his. Although he has a lot of history/issues, and we might have pushed a different horse a little farther.
What a lot of people do (if the behaviour is ingrained, and it was OTTB) is they buy a minature buddy and just take that everywhere with them, it stays tied to the trailer and the ridden horse goes away (which is usually better for these types than the friend being taken away)
Obviously its not dealing with the root cause of the issue, but it sure makes it manageable.
The first time I trailered my OTTB alone he walked on the trailer fine. And then when he realized he was, oh my god, ALONE. He through a total tantrum. The only thing I could think of was to start driving. Since I hadn’t finished putting my gear on the trailer (I was hunting) I drove him in circles, stopping briefly each time I passed the barn to pick something up. He was actually okay while the trailer moved but got anxious when we stopped.
Then I hunted him for 2 hours. When I put him back on the trailer, he stood like a champ. Fatigue is a good teacher.
However, he is a horse that either has to go alone or come/go with a friend. And that friend absolutely cannot get off the trailer first or he pitches a fit. He cannot be “left” on the trailer. Since I have my own trailer, I can make the rules. I actually prefer to trailer him alone now because he is fine unless he thinks he “should” have a friend with him. For some time after a friend of mine left the barn (we trailered together) I had to park out of sight from her horse because even though he didn’t care if he was with “his” mare during the hunt, he was convinced she should get on the trailer with him.
So, my advice is keep moving and then ride your horse until he’s tired. Then standing on the trailer doesn’t seem so bad.
Ugh. No suggestions, but plenty of commiseration. I own a similar horse. She’s come a long way on the ground when handling her without her buddies. She loads fine. But once you close the trailer door on her alone, all bets are off. I haven’t been able to make any headway on that aspect.
She’s so bad that I load her with the truck running and the door open so I can sprint to the cab and get moving before she gets too worked up. Once moving, she’s usually okay… until you stop for any amount of time. I carry sedation for in the event of a traffic jam. As soon as we get to our destination, she comes off the trailer and either walks around with me or gets tied. I’d rather tie her to the trailer in most any situation than have her lose her marbles standing inside it.
I pray I never get a flat tire with her in tow alone. (And hopefully I haven’t jinxed myself by mentioning it)
She has a donkey buddy who rides with her sometimes, but I try to avoid that unless absolutely necessary. The donkey is small enough to slip under the divider in my trailer, which can create it’s own complications.
If it were my horse, I would be hauling him somewhere every day alone… or as often as I could.
I would also let the horse spend a decent amount of time alone at home. Does he ever pull back when tied? Time alone on the “patience tree” often does wonders.
Some horses are just more “social” than others, but I believe they can all be TAUGHT to handle being alone and hauled alone. It just takes lots of time and lots of miles.
It can also be very beneficial to hobble-train a horse like this too. If you’ve never done that before, do seek a trainer to help you introduce it so you don’t have a wreck. One of the trainers I use hobble-trains every horse that comes to their facility. And the ones who can’t stand still, are the ones who get worked last so they have to stand there the longest. They’re hobble broke and stand quietly when they go home to their owner!
