My horse will not walk onto a trailer. earlier this year we had a very traumatic experience where there was a group of us attempting to get him in a trailer, he walked onto the trailer and we closed the door and he started to freak out and rear, we opened the door to find his legs over the chest bar and his foot stuck in the hay net, we ran into the smaller person door at the front and cut the hay net so his let was free, as we opened the back door where he walked into the trailer he flipped backwards out of the trailer... this was very traumatic to him and us, he was OK with only one small scrape and some sore muscles. now when we walk him from the barn to the paddock he is afraid of the trailer parked next to the paddock he will not even walk close to it. I was thinking of hooking up the truck to the trailer and leaving the trailer open with a bucket of grain in it inside of the paddock to see if he will eventually walk into it, good idea? any other suggestions ?

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That does sound like a very traumatic experience.  He was probably very upset even with a group of people trying to load him.  The physical issues afterwards would have really cemented in his brain that trailers are terrifying.  

You have a good idea with making the trailer a part of the landscape.  You might find that as soon as there is a human in the picture he still finds it scary.  With horses that are particularly nervous of the trailer I will incorporate hanging out near the trailer as a regular occurrence.

There are two ideas I have that you could use alone or together.

The most important thing is that your attitude is "The trailer is just a part of the landscape, like a rock or a tree or a pole on the ground."  Your nonchalance is vital to the whole thing.  If you make the trailer an issue in your mind he will too.

1) Lead him over towards the trailer and away at different distances with as little thought about the trailer as you can.  You want to wander over and just concentrate on the leading and walking.  The trailer is a non-entity.  Lead him over there to eat hay on the ground or a bit from a bucket of grain or graze and then wander away.  You can give him some hay or grain further from the trailer too, just so he sees you're only practicing leading and moving from one yummy target to another.  Then take him back again.  Just do this a bit every time out until you can get closer and closer with no problems.  Make no attempts to reassure him or make a scene about him either.  He gets rewarded for his excellent leading, not his "trailer behaviour."

Your goal is to ignore the trailer.  It doesn't matter.  

2) You can keep your food in the trailer too once he's willing to come closer and rather than ask him to go into the trailer just go in there yourself and help yourself to treats and bring them back out to him.  You aren't pressuring him to go in.  The trailer is just the pantry.  What horse doesn't want to go in the feed room?  Eventually he will come closer just to see what you are up to.  I've done this before and had horses follow me in within minutes of meeting them, even when their owners say they take hours to load.  The critical part is that I'm not loading.  The horse loads themselves.

Good luck and keep me posted.  

thank you for your advice I am going to get working on that right away. I am putting the trailer as part of the landscape today. I will keep you posted on his progress.

 

Because he is afraid of the trailer - now what you must do is get him used to it. Take him out of his stall and walk him around and let him eat, slowly working your way toward the trailer. Do not look at the trailer, do not look at him - act like you are miles away from it and it isn't even there.

Once he gets used to being around it, walk him around the trailer a few times and once he is used to it, walk him around it again, every now and then just "testing" the tires by tapping them or putting a rock on the wheel well that will make some noise. If he jumps a little bit, just ignore it. If he spooks, just talk softly and slowly and try to rub his neck. Once he has calmed down again - walk around and then make the same noise a few more times. You might have to do this quite a bit, because even if he may be an angel the first day, the next he may think it is the devil. ;)

Once he gets used to being around it and having noises come from it, it's time to start exploring the inside.

walk towards the trailer like you are showing - standing tall, having confidence and walking nicely. Don't slow down unless to step into the trailer and don't look at your horse. Make sure to look forward and not at the step up. As you get within a foot or two and as you step up, ask him forward with you. If he stops any time before getting close to the trailer - whether he stops or stops and backs - Turn into him and walk back to where you started. Then slowly walk forward until you are where he stopped before and ask him to do a few circles, making sure to pass by the trailer, getting closer than he was before. Don't look at the trailer, act like its not even there. DO this a few times until he is sued to it, then stop him and from where you are start walking forward again. If he does stop again, do a few more circles.

 If he wants to sniff it and not step in - let him sniff it, after all it is a step closer to where you want to be. After he sniffs it he may want to walk away, don't ask him forward and don't ask him backward - just make him hold still for a few seconds. Then step down, turn into him and make a small circle and continue walking forward towards the trailer again. This time don't let him sniff. If he stops, apply small pressure to the lead and keep asking him forward. If he doesn' move, slowly apply more pressure forward with the leadrope. As soon as he makes the slightest movement forward, release. But let him release the pressure - once you have started applying pressure don't change hands or stop the pressure than start again. Every time you release the pressure without him doing anything you asked him to do, the more he learns that you will give up.

For instance if you were asking back by applying pressure to his nose and then you stop and adjust your hand and then apply pressure again, he learned that he didn't do anything and you took the pressure off. So the next time he will wait even longer for you to take the pressure off because he didn't do anything. Every time you release the pressure or he moves forward and releases the pressure himself - it is a reward.

Keep doing this process until he can get quite a few hooves in the trailer. Once he is in the trailer he may want to turn to ge tout - do not let him turn a turning your horse to back up can be dangerous and also it shows that you are not completely the dominant one in charge. If he wants to get out again, back him up.

As a tip, because horses don't know when they are stepping down, they only know that they were backing up and then their was a sudden drop. Sometimes this may spook a horse or cause him to worry. Just a step or two before your horses back hoof reaches the end of the trailer, let him know there will be a step down by firmly saying "step" a few times until he is fully back out of the trailer.

The first time or two he gets into the trailer, offer him a treat by petting him or feeding him. Just stand in the trailer for a few seconds before backing out again, so he can get used to it. You want you horse to feel like a second home, when most horses go into a small enclosure like a trailer - for all they know it could be a scary bear cave and monsters! (sarcasm)

There are two number one things to consider when trailering your horse.

1. Safety for both you an the horse.

2. Do NOT be in a hurry to trailer. Get there early and take all the tiem you need.

My horse used to not want  to trailer and once he did get in the trailer, when we backed him out he backed out like lightening. I worked with him using the techniques I shared with you and now he thinks of it as a joyful place to be, and he backs nice an easy out.

I've written quite a bit already - but if your horse backs our quicker than you would like him to, let me know and I will tell you what i  did to my horse that worked nicely

I would add that when getting a reluctant horse onto a trailer, one way to let the horse know it's safe is to approach and retreat frequently, with a little more approach each time. As soon as the horse puts one hoof on the ramp, or on the back, stop and back off. Then the two front hooves, and then rest then back off. As the horse goes further and further into the trailer, the horse will learn to safely and calmly back out again. Eventually, you'll have the horse all the way on, and be able to back all the way off with no problem, because you've practiced getting off safely and calmly as much as you've practiced getting on.

Oh, and scatter a layer of wood-chips on the floor. Horses feel more comfortable it if looks like a stall with a solid floor rather than a hole in the ground, and the wood chips will absorb any liquid. Those mats become very slick and slippery when wet.

How is your horse doing with the trailer? 

I have a horse who's first trailer experience was very similar, except he was being driven down the road, got turned around and kicked the small side-door open and came out backwards as it was moving. He damaged one of his eyes and had some cuts and bruises and after that he was very, very nervous to get on a trailer. By the time I got him, he had been forced onto a trailer a couple of times and frankly, he was done with people AND trailers. 

I got him turned around, but it took a couple of months and daily little steps towards letting go of fear. 

Here are the things I did:

  • I set up the trailer with the door open in the field he was kept in so he got used to seeing it daily, on his own.
  • About 3 days a week, I would load up one of his friends that was not scared of the trailer in his field where he could watch. 
  • With his friend in the trailer, I would put a halter on him and just ask him to step on but not get in. 
  • I let him move around as much as he needed and if he wasn't trying I kept him moving until he showed the intent to try and then I immediately let him try with NO pressure and he would be rubbed profusely as soon as he made a step on or even the intent to step on. Quit.
  • I progressed that incrementally each day. He was allowed to move as much as he needed to prepare himself to get on. Once he made the attempt he was richly rewarded by no pressure and rubbing him all over. 
  • I always asked him to back out before he got the idea to back out, so he knew he could get out. 
  • I worked on it enough to where he would walk in and stand quietly next to his friend and not back out until I asked.
  • Once I got him to that point, I shut the back. I reopened the back, unloaded him and reloaded him again several times each time shutting the back.
  • I then drove him to the gas station with his friend (22 miles there and back), bought a coffee and drove home. 
  • If I had to drive a horse to the vet, I put that one in, then him and drove. (27 miles there and back) just to take him on short trips and get him exposed. 
  • Once he was confident with that, getting him to load on his own, alone in the trailer was no trouble at all. I loaded him many different ways (leading him in, sending him in, backing in, etc) so he was fully confident loading and trailering. 

He still gets a little nervous traveling alone (6 years later), but that is understandable, and he still isn't crazy about small 2 horse bumper pulls, but he tightens his lips and steps on anyway. 

If you haven't read it before, Bill Dorrance has an excellent section on trailer loading in his book, "True Horsemanship Through Feel". 

I hope your guy is doing better and maybe my experience can help you whether he is or isn't:)

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