Several people came up with good questions and their own opinions
from my posting of "loading...safety first".
Please remember my experiences are with a semi-green (fading fast)
horse who never loaded before last summer. Also with a slant load
trailer, not a 2 horse trailer with escape doors....big difference.
If your horses are well trained to give you the space and not panick
and crush you against the wall, then that is the goal of my
suggestions, although, I would still never go inside with the horse
regardless. Why set yourself up for a disaster if you don't have to?
All it could take is a bee inside the trailer to set them off or
something like that. It could never happen, but then again, all it
takes is once.
Whenever a horse feels resistance, such as being tied, he could
panick, esp. if he is green. Pulling back and swinging to the side
will trap a person in a split second. Thats why I do not go inside the
trailer.
Also, when referring to rewarding the horse for going forward, it is
not a food reward. It is the elimination of the "cue" of asking the
horse to go forward. That cue is given by tapping the horse on the
rump with a bat or stick everytime he backs away from the trailer. The
reward is not to tap him, but praise him for any attempt of forward
movement, sniffing, loading.
Also, when the horse is Learning to load / unload, then you allow the
horse to put a foot in, then out, then half in , out etc. The horse
wont feel trapped (no reason to panick) and learns to back out at the
same time. John Lyons feels your loading lessons will progress this
way, first good.. then very good, then extremely bad and you wonder why
you didn't stop when you were ahead, then extremely good, then after
that the horse should be trained and just load. My experiences
followed this pattern.
When I'm by myself, Mystery loads in, I close the door by having a
long rope attached to it and using the rope to close it, just in case
he panicks and tries to escape out. I go to the front of the trailer
and ask him to step up to me. He steps in his spot (he may have
circled and I'm working on this with a lead line out the front so he
gets in the HABIT of just stepping up and not circling). I clip him
onto the tie. I open the trailer door slightly, reach in and move the
divider over, asking him to step over if needed and talking to him so
he knows I'm there. I attach the divider,close the door and we are
off.
This is a training progression for a "hard" loader or a "new" loader
and the goal is a horse that wont run you over, will give you your
space, will allow you inside to groom if you want, etc... It worked
for me and that is the only reason I've suggested it.
Sorry this message is so long.
Happy riding!
Kimberly * Mystery
Petaluma, CA