Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Before I knew any better (i.e. got "indoctrined" by Parelli), I was party to "muscling" horses into trailers, and they generally load fine afterwards.  It does indeed reflect a lot on the horses personality, and a lot also on the relationship with the person "muscling" the horse into the trailer.

 

I did have some good success also in teaching a horse to tie with a rope halter without hardware, tied to a high ring welded onto a substantial metal shed column.   It did entail some 2 minutes of struggle until the horse figured out that he was hurting himself by setting back against the thin nylon rope.  No tying problems since.  Usually it's the hardware or stitching that breaks, not the rope or webbing unless it's worn.  Yes, I know that this can set the horse back chiropractically - I'll use different methods now.  It drives me crazy to see baling twine lined up at the hitch racks at the boarding facility because that means that the owners are training their horses to set back and get free.  I do tie my horses tight with the lead rope and use rope halters generally.

 

The same mare I had trouble trailer loading broke three snaps with a regular nylon halter and lead rope while trying to tie her into the trailer.  All that session did was reinforce her thought that she can escape trailer loading and worsened the problem.

 

Sometimes we just need to take the time to teach the horse these things properly, which is what "muscling in" and "tying them tight to let them fight it out" are just shortcuts that may or may not work.

 

Aside from all that, I will not tie a horse into the trailer with a rope halter because in case they need to brace they may bang themselves against the rope halter which I think is a little cruel.  But that gets into the tie or not tie in the trailer discussion (I don't tie.)  If someone else is trailering them, I will send them off with a nylon web halter.

 

K.