Training Tips
All training tips and techniques are for information only. Use of any of these training techniques is a "use at your own risk". When in doubt, hire a qualified trainer. Always remember ...safety before sorrow.
More Training Tips - Respect on the Trail
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Trailer Loading…. What not to do…wait until you need to go somewhere and try to load an inexperienced, spooky or green horse. (This, of course, is from the mouth of experience). When I first got into horses, I definitely remember the difficulty loading some horses. My first horse was a thoroughbred mare. She was a fun horse to ride, but she had her quirks and I wasn’t very savvy. Kind of a bad combination, but I muddled thru everything and learned from my mistakes. With the experience that I have acquired thru many different types of horses and trial and error, the best way I have found to load a horse into a trailer is by driving them into the trailer. So, what do I mean by that? Basically it’s the same technique you would use for lunging or what some trainers would call the “circle game”. To start, you will want to have a lead rope that is at least 12 feet long preferably with a popper on the end (the cheap 6’ lead ropes don’t cut it) and I prefer the rope halters. With us women (and even men), it is very hard to handle such large animals and the rope halters tend to get a horses attention without having to use much strength. Horses also tend to lean on the web (flat) halters. You will also want something to use as an extension of your arm. A 4 ft whip, fiberglass stick, or even just a plane old stick that is 4 feet long (and won’t break) so you can tap your horse with the end of it when necessary. Put the halter on your horse, attach the lead rope if it’s not already attached and lead your horse to an open area at least 40 feet in diameter. Put the lead rope in your left hand and face your horse so you are looking at his/her left side. Your stick will be in your right hand and pointing to the ground. Look at your horse and raise your left hand and point in the direction you want your horse to go (left). You will need to keep your arm up and pointing in the direction you want your horse to go this entire process! Wait two seconds (count in your head – one, one thousand, two, one-thousand). If your horse doesn’t do anything, then kiss, cluck or say walk and wait two seconds. When you say “walk”, say it with a drawl (wwaaalllk). If your horse still stands there and looks at you like your crazy, then lift up the stick in your right hand and tap your horse once on the hind end. You should definitely get a reaction from your horse when you do this. Your horse may only take a step or two in the left direction, or he may jump away from you to try to get away. Either way, you will start the process over from the very beginning. And from the beginning…and from the beginning, etc until your horse gets it. If your horse just stands there with no reaction, you will need to start from the beginning, step by step, but when you get to the tapping on his hind end, you will need to tap harder. Each time you don’t get a response, the tapping part will get harder. If you are doing each step as described, you will eventually get a response from your horse and each time you ask your horse to go forward, he should do it with less and less effort from you. If your horse tries to get away when you tap his hind end and basically jerks you out of your shoes, just calmly lead your horse back to your starting position and start over. (Practicing the above without your horse may be a good way to get your coordination and timing figured out before adding in the complications of a horse.) As your horse starts to get the idea of what you are asking him to do and steps in the direction you want, you will need to keep aligned with his hind end as you walk around in a small circle. Hence, you are driving your horse by asking him to go forward and keeping your body aimed at his hind end to keep him moving forward. Look at his hind end also. Looking at his hind end will help keep driving him forward. (Look at your horses together. The lead horse only has to look at another horse to get them to move.) Once your horse has your cues figured out, you should only have to point and maybe kiss and your horse will respond by moving forward and around you. And a big key to your success is to “Stand Your Ground”! Mark a spot where you will be standing and do not move away from that spot. Obviously you will need to walk in a small circle once your horse gets the hang of everything, but you need to stay within your small circle (approx. 3 feet diameter). If your horse is crowding you out of your circle, you will need to use your rope or stick to pop your horse and keep him out of your space. He can go anywhere else but keep him out of your space. Popping a horse would by like popping your dog on the nose if he’s trying to steal food off your dinner plate. Short, sweet and to the point. You and your horse need to be working together well at driving him in a circle before attempting to load him into a trailer. This will also have to be done in the right direction. To go right, place the rope in your right hand and the stick in your left. Repeat all the steps in the right direction. Once you are doing this exercise easily, you can practice loading your horse in your trailer. This technique will work for any size and type of trailer. Smaller trailers may require the help of someone with a little more experience at loading, but it can be done. Patience and timing is a crucial key to safely loading your horse. First, you will want to practice driving your horse in a circle, both directions, somewhere by the trailer. This is just a reminder to your horse about what you are asking. Open the doors to your trailer. Typically people who are just getting into horses have a small two horse straight load trailer which is a bigger challenge than having a nice big trailer, but like I said…patience and timing will go a long way. Lead your horse over to the trailer like you are going to load them. They will probably only get so close before they hesitate and let them. Do not keep pulling on their lead rope to try and get them closer. Let them get as close as they feel comfortable and let them stand there and check it out and smell it. Let their curiosity go to work. This is where it seems everyone gets in a big hurry and this is where you need to be the most patient. We are not trying to force the horse into the trailer, we will first ask and then we will tell. Wait until your horse doesn’t seem so nervous and not so curious anymore about the trailer. This usually only takes a couple of minutes, but for some, seems like an eternity. Start asking your horse to load by doing the same thing you did when you started teaching your horse to circle. This means you will have the rope in either the left or right hand, depending on which side of the horse you are standing on and the stick in the other hand. Lift your arm and point. You will be pointing into the trailer. Wait 2 seconds…kiss or whatever you prefer, wait 2 more seconds, then tap their hind end with the stick. At any time during this process, if your horse attempts to move forward even the tiniest bit such as leaning forward, picking up their foot, etc. ANY forward movement what so ever needs to be rewarded! This is where your “timing” comes in. If your horse moves forward at all, stop everything you are doing and pet them and tell them what a good boy or girl they are. Give them a couple of seconds to chew their cud and think about just what happened and start again. I can’t emphasize enough how important your patience and timing is for this first experience at loading into a trailer. In order for you to see if your horse moves forward, you need to be able to look at the whole horse. Use your peripheral vision and try to look at your entire horse while doing this. Even lifting a back leg may be an attempt to go forward. It is very important to let your horse know that when he moves forward (even the tiniest bit), that is what you are asking him to do. You need to give your horse the confidence he needs to go into that noisy scary object by letting him know that any attempt to move forward is the correct answer. As your horse begins to understand that all you are asking him to do is go forward, he will attempt to go forward. That is all you are asking him to do. You aren’t really asking him to load into a trailer, you are just asking him to go forward. Obviously the direction he is going is into the trailer but that is not what we are trying to accomplish. All we are trying to accomplish is getting our horse to go forward when we ask. UREEKAA!!! Do you realize how many places this simple process can be used?!! Hmmm….Let’s see…..How about…crossing water, going thru a gate, going over a log or jump or anything scary, going through a narrow spot, getting by a scary object, etc. How many situations can you think of? This simple process of asking a horse to go forward by driving his hind end has numerous applications in all types of situations. Okay, so back to the trailer loading. Hopefully everything is going well and your horse keeps moving forward as you ask and loads into the trailer. If that happens, then let your horse stand there while you pet him and just let him relax inside the trailer. Don’t slam the door shut behind him! We’ll get to the unloading in just a bit. So what if your horse is moving forward when you ask and he’s getting closer to the trailer, but then all of a sudden he gets nervous and backs up? So now what? Start over. Ask him to move forward. Since he is consistently going forward, he now knows what you are asking, so you can ask for a little more from him. Instead of stopping everything as soon as he moves forward just a little bit, ask for one or two steps before releasing the pressure and praise him. As long as you are patient and consistent with what you are asking your horse to do, he will do it eventually. You are your horses’ leader and he wants you to give him the confidence he needs. This entire trailer loading process may take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, but it will be well worth your time to do it correctly the first time. No matter what, under no circumstances, should you resort to forcing your horse into a trailer. You will most likely not succeed and someone will probably get hurt as well as the horse. So how do you unload your horse? You will also need to teach your horse to back out of the trailer. Sometimes this is trickier than loading them. (I could definitely tell you some stories). The problem about unloading a horse is they have to step down with their hind leg first and they can’t see the ground. They don’t know how far to step and most horses will actually back up, step out of the trailer with one of their hind legs, touch the ground, then pop back into the trailer. (I believe they think they are stepping into a giant hole of snakes.) We don’t want them to pop back into the trailer because it seems that it takes longer and longer to get them to back out each time they pop back in. So there are a couple of things you can do. The first one is to ask them to back out and as they are starting to touch the ground, keep tension on the lead so they can’t jump forward. This will take excellent timing on your part. Once they figure out that their not going to die, they will back out without too much hesitation. The second one is you can pull their tail while keeping tension on the lead rope so they can’t jump back in the trailer. This works pretty well since you can ask them to back out with the lead rope and hang on to their tail at the same time and you won’t be in harms way if they do pop back in the trailer. Pulling on their tail won’t hurt them and it might even distract them from worrying about not knowing where the ground is. If your trailer is big enough, you can let your horse turn around and walk out, but all horses should be taught how to back out of a trailer. Older horses that have been taught bad habits are probably the most challenging if they won’t load. If the person you are buying the horse from can’t load the horse into a large trailer, let alone a small one, turn and run far, far, away, unless you love this horse so much you are willing to pay to have someone load the horse for you and are willing to pay to have some training done. I’m the type that’s just a sucker and looks at it like it’s a challenge. Sometimes it’s more of a challenge than I bargained for! Kind of makes you wonder what other bad habits they gave the horse? Just remember…patience, timing, and stand your ground. More Training Tips - Respect on the Trail
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