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| Trailer Loading - Improving a horse that gets in willingly, but slowly |
| Sweetie is fairly docile, but I will admit I have never really worked on her leading skills. Since she was never going to be a showmanship horse and she led pretty well naturally, her actual discipline on the ground was a non-issue. Until I got my horse trailer. She had travelled mostly with other horses in the big fancy trainer trailer with a ramp. Her only trips in a step up 2 horse were from the trainer to home and then back to the trainer's again. So that means she had been in a 2 horse about oh 15 times. For all of those times, there was no pressure to load quickly so when she would pause at the step up and sniff around for a few minutes, I would step in and wait for her to decide it was ok in the trailer and then she would hop in, all was well with the world. But all this changed once I started hauling to shows. When I get to the barn at 5am to load up, I dont want to wait 5 or so minutes for Sweetie to lookie loo around and decide to get in. Finally after about 10 slow loads I had had enough. The last slow load was after a long horse show, people were milling about. She wouldnt get in. People were nice and set one foot up for her, they whapped her on the butt, nothing...So I told them if they left she would hop right in and voila that worked. But I was fuming. It was time to really "train" her to get in. Here is how I accomplished my goal. This tactic will need to be adjusted depending on your horse. I got out the trusty stud chain. Taught her what it was, practiced with her on quick departures at the walk and trot and let her hit the chain when responding slowly, being careful to allow her release of its pressure the instant she moved forward. Then I removed the stud chain and asked for the same responsiveness and if she lagged at all I whapped her on the butt with the end of the lead...HARD. She was VERY responsive to this. I spent a couple of days working the drill, soon not even using the chain, and hardly needing to whap her. Then, I waited until a friend hauled in and asked if I could use her trailer for a loading lesson. I did not want Sweetie to have a bad experience in her own trailer. Sweetie's hesitation to get in is magnified when people and horses are milling about. I am sure she sees no sense in getting in a trailer when everyone else is outside of it. My friend had her horse tied outside and she would be my human dummy, perfect double bait for Sweetie to hedge about getting in. I took her in the arena with the stud chain on and we brushed up for a few minutes on our leading skills. I was sure to whap her a few times with the lead rope for slow responses and she jumped right forward. After she was light and responsive I took off the chain and immediately walked over to the trailer and we walked right on up and of course she stopped. This time I did not get in the trailer and face her, I stayed at her side, clucking and whapped her a good one. She jumped in like she'd been stung. We stood inside and I gave her a pet, let her relax and we went out and did it again. This time she only slightly hesitated and I raised my hand to whap her, but didn't need to make contact.. After that, she was "trained". My tactic was to pre-teach her using the tools I want to use when loading, that being NO aids, just the end of the lead rope. Granted I keep a short whip and stud chain loaded in the trailer just in case but I've never had to use either with her. |
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