Help!! Trailering Issues...

Very helpful Bandera,

I had a trainer do this pretty much the same way and had my mare standing relaxed and comfortably locked in in 10 minutes when I couldn't do it in countless tries! She said my mare was "conning me" and just didn't want to be told what to do. I agree. She is a dominant mare and was very relaxed the whole time. I know I just need to be more confident with this.
The problem I always have is all the training books and advice tell you how to load but then pretty much say, "now close the door a few times and off you go". My mare will stand happily all day in the trailer as long as you don't try to lock her in. As soon as I touch the buttbar she charges out backwards.( I have a two horse straightload with a ramp. She's fine going up and backing out relaxed. ) My trainer just said "ah ah ah" and poked her on the rearend with the butt of a whip and then she stood still and she closed her in. I haven't tried since then for fear I will fail at this with no one there to help. I don't have this trainer around anymore. So, how do you close the door without them charging out when they feel something touch their rump? I've tried lungeline etc. to get her used to feel of something but she does the same thing. I've done tons of loading and unloading with her and its gone well until I try to put up the buttbar. The books need to address the locking in part because they just end at the loading part.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I am having similar issues. Tried many things. My horse used to load in other people's trailers, as recently as one month ago. Usually two tries and he was in. Recently got a brand new Eclipse. Now he stops on the ramp and plants his feet, refusing to move forward. We got him in twice, first with my husband holding a treat and moving back as he went in, another when someone used the tapping on the back legs and stopping for each step method. We were supposed to go to a show today but has to miss it due to trailer loading issues. I'm sure the bath and oiling the tack was a giveaway of where he was going. We acted so casual and patient and nice to him too. Tried the tapping method, the pulley method, the sitting and letting him think method. With each he would start to respond and then go backward fast when we started getting somewhere, totally resisting pressure of any kind. He usually starts up the ramp and then goes sideways. We tried to hold a lunge line to make a wall to prevent this. I actually had him come all the way in at one point but was by myself and he backed out before I could hook the butt bar. My horse seems to have figured out how to evade every method that has worked in the past on him and what works for other people. Any advice? Quite discouraged that he got his way out of the show today just by being difficult and I'm sure sent him the wrong message.

If you get him in don't try and trap him. You need him to go in and stay.
Let him come back out and put him in again and repeat as needed until he stands in there for a bit and then tie him. Did you always have a ramp? Some horses do not like them. Take a day when you do not have anything to do and load and unload several times it will get easier each time. Patience

I agree with this. When we practiced with our young ones, we started without a divider, then with a divider until they would relax, then finally add putting up the butt bar and closing the door.
It's important to have them relaxed when they are loaded. A trailer is a dangerous place and I've seen too many horses hurt themselves (and people) by being scared and thrashing around in there.

Try lungeing him in and then if he is good give him his favorite treat and everytime get closer till you are leading him in and make sure you give him a handful or grain or apple just he gets rewarded for being a good boy or just be tough if he is being bratty fight back

Um hello um try just getting her relaxed before the loading give her something to consindrate on like give her a hanful of apples in a bucket so she is considrated on that

Worked him a little today. Tried two different techniques that were Utube videos. The one where you lunge in small circles and then try to lead him did not work, we tired long before he did. The Monty Roberts thing where you back up and then go forward seemed to be a little more successful. I ended up just standing in there with his cookies and praising each step forward. He came in about 5 times and stood for a second. Did not do butt bar because I was inside. Ideally I'd like to get him to go in with me on the outside so I can put up the butt bar myself. Coming in for a few seconds and eating cookies is great fun for him and I do appreciate his efforts, but that doesn't get me out of the driveway. Any more advice you guys have on getting him in while standing on the outside would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

I back a trailer up to a gate and turn it into a horses clubhouse for a month or so. No feed or water outside the trailer. Plenty inside. They soon decide the trailer is the place they want to be and if they get out of the fence and the trailer is open they get in it , if its not open they stand beside it. I have had two trailer wrecks and all the horses got over the issues and trailered fine because after all the trailer is their clubhouse.

For some horses, just the experience of hauling itself is enough to make them upset. I have an Arabian mare who LOVES trailer rides - she was always hauled in my friends big open stock trailer, and loves sticking her nostril out to suck wind. When she saw a trailer, I could open her gate and turn her loose and she would run and jump into it.

Enter my new 2-horse trailer, which is as small as a 2-horse comes. Begin my eternal battle with my dear Arabian mare who has decided she doesn't like it. Virtually every trip begins with me loading her fairly easily, her realizing she hates being in it, and 3 hours of whatever destination we've unloaded at trying to coax her in. At one event, I had two 300lb cowboys walk up with a small, lock arms and simply hurl her inside. At the vet's, I had a vet lashing her hocks with a lunge whip as I used a butt rope AND her leadrope to convince her. She never panics, she never blinks, she simply plants her feet and says "No." In situations where we use butt ropes to force her, she'll pitch a fit. It usually ends up being 15 minutes of me standing there and beating her until she gets bored and jumps in.

I have tried virtually everything, and thankfully, the one thing that DOES work is removing the partition. If she's allowed to travel alone, or even with a companion and there's no partition, for whatever reason she's content again. Something about the WAY that trailer hauls makes her hate it and there's nothing I'm going to do to convince her otherwise. To this day, if you open up a big ol' stock trailer for her highness, she prances inside with glee.

At this point, I have used this method several times and ALWAYS to excellent odds - you NEED to find a place where you can back the trailer up, leave his food inside and let him sort his issues out. Maybe you can't now, but in a horse that has learned to hate the RIDE, he needs to learn to love the trailer and being in the trailer.