Trailer Loading - How NOT to do it

This past week, a friend of ours asked to borrow our dark grey two horse bumper pull trailer. Let’s call him John. My husband took the request, and told John yes before I had any input. John was going to pick up a horse he owned that had been at someone else’s house for the last year. The horse was supposed to be ridden about once a week. Now John has room to bring the horse home, so went to pick him up.

The horse is a 20yo QH gelding. Since he has a tattoo, I would guess he had been raced in younger years. John told me that the horse had had ankle surgery of some sort years ago, and he bought him as a light riding horse. A year ago, the horse was ridable and would come up to you in the pasture.

John gets there to pick up the horse, and the guy’s daughter meets him. She tells John that her dad had not touched the horse at all – it was in a back pasture running wild. John has some problems catching the horse – it runs away from him for about 15 minutes. Then he takes it up to the trailer to load. He outfitted the horse in his BRIDLE and tries to get the horse onto the trailer using a leather rein. The horse went about halfway into the straight load, then stops. John then PULLS on the horse, causing it to pull back and shoot backwards out of the trailer, breaking the rein in the process.

He tries luring it back with feed, to no avail. John then gets a rope and ties it around the horse’s neck, running it through one of the bars on the side of the trailer. Then a tug-of-war ensues, and the horse CHOKES himself down, collapsing. When the horse finally gets up, John tried to get behind him and PUSH him in, getting kicked in the ribs in the process. (Which he truly deserved by that point.) Hurting, with rope burn, John returns the horse to the pasture and goes home.

Can you recognize all the places where John went wrong?

1. First wrong was actually with my husband – he should have recognized that John is not a knowledgeable horse person, and at least one of us should have gone with him. Then the rest of the mistakes would not have happened.

2. John should have brought a halter and lead with him. I prefer cotton leads because they are less prone to causing rope burns. A pair of gloves and a sharp knife are also good to have in hand for an unknown loading situation. Gloves will protect your hands from all ropes, and a knife could cut the rope if there is a situation that warrants it.

3. Also, once John realized that the horse had been running wild, he should have worked with it for a few minutes, getting the horse to lead, back, and turn on command – making sure that the horse remembered how to listen and to focus on his handler.

4. Once the horse loaded halfway, John should have allowed the horse time to “chill”, and he also should have allowed the horse to back out a few times if he got nervous. Trailers are scary places for a horse, and even a seasoned loader can get nervous. Allowing the horse to reverse out – even ASKING the horse to reverse out, reinforces that the horse is not trapped. Pulling on the horse makes it feel trapped, and also makes a horse instinctively pull back. That is a tug of war you cannot win.

5. NEVER tie a rope around a horse’s neck. Choking a horse is not good. Imagine the panic you would go through if you could not breathe. You could also break the horse’s neck.

6. Feed sounds like a good idea, but doesn’t work. At best, it can refocus a horse that is fretting. When it comes down to it, a horse that does not want to poad will not load just because you are holding feed. It can also backfire – I once knew a horse that got used to getting feed in order to load. She would stand perfectly at the door, and refuse to move until the feed bucket went in. Then she would load perfectly. What then happens if no feed is available?

7. You cannot push a horse into a trailer. I can only assume that John had completely lost his mind by that point.

8. With an unknown loader, an open trailer is best. Light colors are best. Anything that makes the trailer look less like a dark, restrictive cave. For ramp or step-up, some horses don’t care, and some prefer one or the other. If a straight-load is the only option, one with a swinging/removable divider is less restrictive.

9. As with other areas of working with a horse, you should never let yourself get angry. Always leave yourself options – a few hours extra time, a different trailer, a trailering buddy, or a horse-savvy friend on speed-dial.

If trailer loading is scary, next time will not be any better. If you can load without force, next time should be easier.