Why Your Horse Won't Load in the Trailer

The Real Reason your Horse Won’t Load in the Trailer

welcome to the Double D trailers podcast today we are discussing why your horse won't load in the trailer uh it's a a common topic that comes up frequently clients reach out to us and so let's dive in and uh just explore I think the first thing to point out just the psych you know ecoin psychology uh horses they're they are a natural flight animal you try to put them in and inside an enclosed space like AKA a horse trailer that can certainly trigger their flight instincts it can lead to anxiety and resistance over time I tend to call it PTSD you know you've had a pad experience and it was traumatic and then you you have these triggers and I think that's what happens with horses um you know horses they're designed by God to roam in open green pastures they just were not designed to be shoved inside of a horse trailer so certainly understandable uh why you know often times we have difficulty loading our horses they have four basic needs you know they need light they need space they need air and they need safety they need to feel safe you know we did a uh in one of our blogs an interview with Kelly Sigler she is a three- star pelli professional and I quote Kelly says when horses see a horse trailer their instinct tells them not to get trapped so you know some common loading challenges we see just a horse that's reluctant to enter a trailer it can be due to fear past negative experiences or just simply a lack of understanding maybe not good direction uh other challenges they rearing up or kicking you know they may react to stress or pressure this way and that's certainly dangerous for the horse and Handler refusal to back up uh common for inexperienced horses or those with negative trailer associations we see that frequently sensitivity to noise and visual cues uh horses you know they can easily be spooked by loud noises or sudden movements uh I had a a standard bread one time that uh came from a racetrack out of Maryland and uh really good riding racking horse I love that horse and I could be riding down through a field or a pasture though and she would see maybe a tin can and the sunlight Shine off the tin can let me just tell you you better be holding on because she was going to jump so uh you know visual cues can can definitely set off uh a horse if they've had negative experience lack of confidence some horses May lack confidence in their ability to load or just be afraid of the trailer itself and then you may have horses with physical limitations such as arthritis or injuries and you know they're just having difficulty loading right so what's the solution um well Solutions are an effective loading technique and the right horse trailer okay so here's some tips uh gradually exposure and this is just feedback that we've received from customers over time and you know there's lots of uh resources online that you know you guys can and I'm sure there's some courses you know how to uh load a horse and reduce stress and anxiety I think gradual exposure is one way to do that so the first time your horse encounters the trailer it shouldn't be on the day of travel uh allow horse to enter the space at his own pace and reward curiosity with treats and praise positive reinforcement techniques those help to build trust and confidence you can continue to reward calm behavior and small steps of progress patience and understanding you've got to go at your horse's Pace you can't rush them you can't force them into the trailer it's just not going to work um let's see maybe practice some groundwork exercises so that you can improve your H's responsiveness and confidence use desensitization techniques to help your horse overcome fears and and anxieties associated with the trailer I'm getting tongue tight today you want to make sure that you have a safe and comfortable environment your trailer's clean it's well ventilated there's no distractions in it and you know if you just have that calm reassuring environment it can significantly reduce the stress of your horse um also avoid forceful methods don't use horse language don't yell at your horse it can certainly just lead to even more fear and uh and resistance now that would be maybe just some suggestions for uh effective loading techniques another key important another important component of uh of the equation is the right horse trailer what do the right horse trailer mean and you know we have and I'll give you some testimonial here at the end I've had so many clients reach out to me over the years and they have brand ABCD you know whatever trailer that it is with whatever layout and they have a horse that is just scarred uh they don't like the load they're very panicky you know we've had clients that just it took hours to get their their horse loaded so we've sort of figured out over the years what works and what doesn't work uh one of the most popular things that we've seen for over 10 years now is the reverse load layout for whatever reason their horses tend to they just like to turn away from the direction of travel with their hind in facing you know toward the direction of travel and we've seen that time and time again if you load a horse untethered in an open Stock trailer you nine times out of 10 they're going to turn at a slant head facing kind of toward the back butt facing toward the front lots of opinions as to why horses do that but uh I've never asked a horse and I don't really get caught up in the opinion side but it does seem to uh to really help reduce the stress while Holly um even if it's not a reverse layout I mean that's not a cure off for everything if it's a slant load trailer a lot of trailers have that I call it a dangerous rear saddle compartment again horses don't like confined spaces so if you're trying to load in a trailer that has a rear tack the Tag's in the way it's a small narrow door the horse has to load through uh lots of trailers just have small windows so there's poor lighting on the inside there's poor ventilation uh they're very tight they don't have a spacious interior perhaps the flooring is very loud you know when the horse is walking on it uh things of that nature so you know one of the solutions that we developed years ago was the safe tag the swing out saddle compartment and um you know the advantage to that is you have the entire back of the trailer open and available for loading and unloading so uh I won't go too much into that don't want to sound like an infomercial to you got to you guys but certainly um if it's a slant try to find something that has that wide open space it works so much better if it's a straight load we have clients reach out and they're like hey my horse just doesn't like to load in in the straight load and I can see that because you know let's say you get one guy in there and tie tie his head off and you walk out the back when you're trying to load horse number two it's sort of a hallway effect right you only have about what 30 31 in in between the pads so 2 and 1/2 ft and it's it's just a small area for a horse to walk up in there so if you have a difficult loader uh maybe try some friends trailers that have a different layout or a different design and you know see if that helps now uh I mentioned that I would throw out some testimonials so uh those are all on our site but one that comes to mind Bonnie uh you know it it says uh all of the training and loading techniques just didn't work and she had quite a challenge it was a four-year-old mayor devel who had developed a scary habit of bolting out of the trailer backwards uh it led to a serious accident it caused a causing a hematoma that took 6 months to heal and you know despite Bonnie's effort at training her mayor to back up calmly she used various obstacles and an open pasture she just couldn't get her to back safely out of the trailer uh that all changed when Bonnie switched she bought a safe Tech reverse three horse Goose sck from us one thing that I like about that particular model is it has a double side ramp so you have independent access to all three horses which you typically don't see on a slant but in this one you do you can load the guy in the front front the the rear or the side and and say you can unload either one without having to disturb another horse and because of that double side ramp it's just a huge area a huge very inviting area at the front of the trailer uh you walk in through the side ramp horse faces in a reverse configuration which seems to be you know the the way that they prefer to stand and calmer so when she switched to the safe Tac reverse to three horse I kid you not her mayor walked right in and it was an instant change and I quote Bonnie she says uh she adjusted to the new trailer immediately and it was just amazing uh Trisha she had a safe tack reverse two horse goo neck and quote from her the day I received my trailer I took my problem loader to it and to my surprise the horse that usually puts up a 45-minute fight self- loaded and happily loads every time now uh now this doesn't mean that we have some sort of magic dust on our trailers that's going to make a horse load um it it's it's something you know it's all comes down to the design of the trailer and most manufacturers can accomplish this for whatever reason they just don't so whatever brand of trailer that you purchase or whatever that you like you know you just want to uh make sure that it's built with horse safety first okay uh last testimonial that comes to mind Penny there's a video on our site from uh from Penny up in Ohio it's a fantastic story but she told us that she had missed out on so many shows and events she couldn't get her horses to load in her old trailer they would refuse all together they take forever to load and in one case break things in the trailer and they'd have to turn around and go back home you know Penny told us that loading her horses in her Double D trailer was almost easy right from the get-go uh she too has the three horse reverse load double side ramp and she says um the rear-facing option is why I think they're so unstressed about getting on and off because they never have to back up that always seemed so stressful when they were backing out of our old trailer hope this was helpful to you guys uh any questions or comments just reach out to us we would love to hear from you thanks so much