Big taboo in Trailer Loading Problems: the handler

Trailer loading can be a huge issue for horse people. Why? There are 2 components in trailer loading that play a major role: the horse and the handler.

The horse plays a big role. If he is fearful to go into that little box on wheels, it makes us nervous. Who wants to stand in a small box on wheels, next to 1000 pounds of unpredictable and unwilling animal that is trying to escape instead of willingly walking in?

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Fear
Fear plays a major role in most trailer loading issues. In this blog I am not talking about the fear in horses. I think they can be trained away the easiest. I am talking about the fear of the handler leading the horse into the trailer.

Handler
I know I had trailer loading issues myself. People always thought I was joking when I said:ā€I have trailer loading issuesā€ or ā€œI have trailer fearā€. Most people didnā€™t take the ā€œIā€ in my sentence literally, but I really mean it that way.

Here are a few of my biggest worries I had about trailer loading:
ā€“ What if my horse gets injured in the trailer, during loading or during the drive.
ā€“ What if the trailer or car gets a flat tire on the highway?
ā€“ What if I get injured while loading a nervous horse into a very small space? Especially when I was pregnant this was a big fear.
ā€“ What will people think of me if I canā€™t load my horse?
ā€“ What will people think if they have to wait for me while I am loading? I donā€™t want to be a burden, they probably hate waiting, they might think I am doing it wrong, etc.
ā€“ What should I say if people want to ā€˜helpā€™ me load my horse and want to use pressure or force my horse?
ā€“ What will they think of me when I decline their help? I donā€™t want to offend them by saying ā€œThanks, but no thanksā€.
ā€“ What if Kyra falls down in the trailer or gets stuck again? It has happened beforeā€¦
ā€“ What if she panics and runs onto a busy street?

There are other factors that can play a roll as well like impatience or stress in the handler. It can be that you\’re only worried or afraid when loading your own horse. I have loaded other peoples horses smoothly when the cause was the handler.

With other peoples horses I didnā€™t have the fears I named above. Part of it was when the horse was in the trailer, it didnā€™t feel like my responsibility anymore. And I was never in a hurry because I was helping people out that were desperate and ready to take (wait) the time it took to load the horse.

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Solutions
Back to my own situation. The moment I realized part of the problem was me, I was stunned. Was I part of the problem? Really? 

Have you ever noticed that what you are focusing on grows? My fears stayed intact because I was repeating them over and over in my mind. It is like a fire and as you keep feeding it, it grows and takes on a life of its own. Instead of being relieved that Kyra got out of the trailer perfectly fine and without any injury whatsoever, I kept telling myself that I was afraid of her being injured and developing a trailer issue.

As soon as I realized this, I started focusing on what went well and on all the improvements I had already achieved. Small improvements like every second ā€˜building duration standing in the trailerā€™, ā€˜standing more relaxed in the trailerā€™ as well as the big improvements ā€˜pulling me towards an open trailers to get inā€™ and ā€˜she didnā€™t poop out of stressā€™.

Training journal
Writing down my successes and filming the process helped incredibly. If you are familiar with clicker training, you already know this.

I also realized that we are in a process. It takes time and every time I could build on the foundations of trailer loading I was building on the solid behaviour I am longing for: a confident horse that loads easily and enjoys the ride.

https://clickertraining.ca/product/shaping-plan-trailer-training/

Relationship 
I donā€™t get nervous anymore if people are watching or waiting while I load Kyra. I realize that the relationship I have with my horse and my horses feelings are worth much more than what I think other people are thinking. After all, I donā€™t know what they are thinkingā€¦ I refuse to stress my horse by pressuring her, because of my (irrational) thoughts. I donā€™t want to force her anymore. Ever.

Circumstances
What also helped to reduce my fears, is to make the trailer and the ride as comfortable as possible. In this way I can relax better while traveling with my horse. Like a light, roomy trailer, an anti-slip floor, shavings and a hay net so Kyra can nibble away, a experienced driver who drives defensively and so on.

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Enjoy the ride!
I hope you never have to deal with issues like this and when you do, I hope you overcome them too. Life is so much more enjoyable now. Taking my horse to places gives me so much joy and satisfaction, without stress and my fears. I really enjoy loading Kyra into a trailer now to go places. Oh, and Kyra does too, she literally pulls me towards a trailer if the ramp is down. Like she want to say: ā€œLet me in. Take me with you. Letā€™s go!ā€

We are still working on a self loading horse. I am sure we can tick that off of our list of goals in 2015.
Update:
Yes Kyra became a self loading horse. Whenever she sees an open trailer she\’s attracted to it and wants to go in!

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