Horse Trailer Loading Tips
March 15, 2010
Training for the trailer requires time and patience.
It’s easy to lose your temper when teaching a horse to load in a trailer. Unfortunately, getting impatient is the worst thing you can do.
The late Bill Van Norman insists that you need to take your time and keep your temper when teaching your horse to trailer load.
Bill offers his valuable advice in AQHA’s FREE report, Horse Trailer Loading Tips.
To begin training your horse to trailer load, Bill suggests these tips:
- Send your horse in a circle around you directly behind the open trailer.
- Use a lead rope, not a longe line, so you can keep your horse fairly close to you.
- If your horse wants to stop and smell the trailer or look inside, encourage this behavior and recognize it as a sign that he’s trying.
- When his attention fades off the trailer, ask your horse to move out again and continue circling you.
- Circle in both directions behind the trailer to help him become comfortable with being worked from either side.
“I have a 3-year-old Quarter Horse mare named Channel, and she has always been very difficult to load and I have tried everything. But I tried what you suggested in this article and, like magic, she got right in! It is so great to not have to worry anymore about how I would get her to the vet if she got sick or injured. Last winter, during a snowstorm, she would not get in the trailer so I could take her into town for a vet check of her eye injury. It’s good to know that if something like that happens again I should be able to get that rascal in the trailer! Thank you!”
Daily reader Greg Cooper
Get the full story in Horse Trailer Loading Tips from AQHA – FREE!
Download the Horse Trailer Loading Tips report for FREE!
Just enter your name and e-mail address below.
Comments
20 Comments on “Horse Trailer Loading Tips”
Add a Comment
February 5th, 2009 at 12:46 am
Yes, great tips. You may post your tips at yahoo answer, there it’s easy to be indexed. Also I’d like to add it to favorites and make it link with riderlove.com. There horse lovers can check your newest information.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
This article helped very much but I have found that no trainer addresses the horse that already knows how to load but all of a sudden decides not to and refuses to go in. He has not had a bad trailer experience and he will go in if he hasn’t been feed that morning or evening. I have spent all day with the tips in your article and he finally loaded by himself 10 times. The next day he would not go in…again. He has figured out he is stronger and he really doesn’t have to go in if he doesn’t want to. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
April 14th, 2009 at 7:17 am
My loading questions are the same as Laura R mentioned in her comment. I am looking for any suggestions.
Thanks.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:00 am
[...] can also rear their ugly head when you go to load your horse in a trailer. Follow the tips in AQHA’s Horse Trailer Loading Tips FREE report to eliminate the headaches associated with trailering an unwilling [...]
April 17th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
If you start out a little ways away from the trailer or even a round pen and work with them making them move forward, moving their head side to side in a jig jag fashion. They have to move when you turn their head or they lose balance it helps to make them think that you are bigger and stronger, and they follow easier because you are dominant.
April 20th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Our problem is the horse will go in but when we try to exit the trailer she is coming out with us. She gets in and out numerouse times before we can latch the butt chain. She tries to break that to get out. We coax her with feed, carrots etc. But if we get out she is coming out. She snapped her lead line when we clipped her in. Any suggestions.
May 16th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
My question is the reverse – how do you get a horse to back out of a straight load trailer? There is nothing to step onto – and might be the Grand Canyon.
May 26th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I have a problem getting my horse to back out of a trailer as well. I have a three horse slant and she insists on turning around to come out. She refuses to back out and instead of making a dangerous situation by trying to make her back out (which I’ve done without success) I let her turn around. I read all the trailering tips available, but haven’t ever seen anything that speaks of getting your horse out once it is in. Thanks for any tips on unloading.
May 28th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Having experienced both the not wanting to get in and not wanting to back out situations with my 16.2 alpha mare, I know how trying trailer loading can be. My problem started when going from a slant load, step up trailer to a straight load, ramp. The first time I asked her to go up the ramp, she loaded flawlessly. Then it took three hours and side reins to get her back out. She had no idea how to back down the ramp!
I tried several different clinicians approaches. The one that worked the least was running around the ramp and encouraging the horse to “rest” near/in the trailer. This may work for a lot of horses, but my gal could run around for hours and never put a foot on the ramp. It also does not address the backing out issue that many have problems with.
Eventually, I tried the calm, sane, way safer approach of John Lyons and Pat Parelli–a combination of the go forward cue and approach and retreat. This method goes back to Tom Dorrance who had no problem encouraging a horse into the trailer with bits of hay or food (an apparent taboo these days). Essentially, the horse learns to go in and back out of the trailer one step at a time. One step up, one step back. Literally. It’s about teaching the horse to think about what he/she is doing with all four feet, not about getting into the trailer like a mindless drone. Trailer loading from a hesitant horse’s perspective is about overcoming fear (of going in or getting back out or being trapped inside) and trust in the human.
This approach and retreat method could take hours, days or weeks. It mostly depends on the horse’s trust in the human and its ability to contain its emotions. The success of the method lies in the human’s ability/willingness to take the time the horse requires without getting frustrated. That was the hardest part for me. It took forever to get that last foot over the threshold. But at least by the time she was in, she knew how to get out.
She is still not a happy traveler, and she may never be. But at least now I know that if I give her the time she needs to process what I’m asking her to do, she can do it without fear and without injuring herself or me.
For those whose horse have to turn around to get off a slant-load or have trouble stepping off calmly, I suggest using a platform, small bridge or any other obstacle that encourages the horse to place its feet calmly where you suggest they go. Backing over a ground pole, stopping with just the front or back feet over cavaletti, or any other exercise you can think of to encourage independent use of feet will help with trailer loading/unloading.
May 28th, 2009 at 9:41 am
I had the same problem with getting my yearling to back out. I read an article about it and this is what they suggested…I tried it and it worked PERFECTLY.
Set poles on the ground and teach the horse to back over the poles. Believe it or not they will not want to do this and will get frightened. Once they back over the pole on the ground…begin to raise the poles. Then back over the raised poles. Once they get this try the trailer…and don’t let them turn around. The poles teach them how to back into the “grand Canyon”. I did this with my 2-year old filly and it worked perfect. The next time I put her in the trailer she backed out just fine. I was amazed.
May 29th, 2009 at 8:00 am
[...] You found the perfect horse, but he won’t get in the trailer. Don’t let loading trouble stand in the way of your new horse’s arrival: Download AQHA’s Free Horse Trailer Loading Tips report. [...]
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
What a lot of trainers do not address is how to teach the horse to back out of the trailer. (MUCH safer than turning and walking out).
The light went on when I watched Paul Dufresne teaching his horse to step up on a large mounting block – one foot on, then back off – then over and over gradually working up the 2,3 then all 4 feet. The horse was able to “remember” how to back off the block. You can do this with you trailer – just one foot at a time until he remembers how to back out.
I give my horse all the time he likes when backing out and I use the same cue to warn him when he is just one step away from stepping down. I have never had a problem since using this method. Depending where I am parked, the step down can be a lot higher in some places, but he has enough confidence and faith in me that he trusts me when I tell him he is “there”.
November 14th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
withouth being cruel, its very simple. a horses defense is to flee. I’ve had horses that flatly refused and when youve rented a trailer for the day, he HAS to go. you make enough noise behind him like Hell is coming at him that he takes the less intimidating direction. forward. we have to be careful not to become the animals Dr Spock, you can’t always reason with a thinking horse. Just get the job done, they have to make it easier on themselves.
December 9th, 2009 at 11:28 am
[...] you have trouble getting your horse to load, you should check out our FREE Horse Trailer Loading Tips report. Download your copy [...]
January 13th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Unfortunately ‘John’ it is methods like you mentioned that result with problem loaders like the ones afore-mentioned. Yes, it is a horse’s natural defense to flee – but they wouldn’t flee into a cave if a tiger was chasing, they would do anything to go over, under or around (to stay in an open space). I am sure you will continue with your forceful methods – I instead choose to make it easier on MYSELF by fixing a horse problem by thinking like the horse.
February 25th, 2010 at 10:57 am
we can not find it can eneyboidy help me
March 19th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
In spanish, translate at spanish please, my English is not efficent, thank you. up’s !!!
March 24th, 2010 at 9:10 am
Trailer Axle and Trailer Parts
Find all your trailer parts for Horse Trailer repair and custom built trailer axles for replacement or repair.
April 5th, 2010 at 5:56 am
I had a horse that would not back out of our tiny straight load trailer. We would struggle with her for hours. I finally realized that she was afraid to step down.
So I had my husband, build a 36×48 wooden pedestal (about $60 in 2×10 pressure treated wood from Home Depot) and practiced having her getting on and backing off the pedestal with confidence. The next time I tried her with the trailer, she went in and out several times with no problem. I think the pole idea is good too. She refuses to back over poles. I still need to work with her on that. This normally sweet gentle mare becomes the angry witch pinning her hears back when I try to back her over poles.
My other mare backs over poles with no problem. This mare also hops on the pedestal for fun and attention and practically loads herself into the trailer. Go figure.
June 17th, 2010 at 6:02 am
[...] Horse Trailer Loading Tips: Training your horse for the trailer requires time and patience. [...]