TRAINING TO LOAD
First published in Equi-Ads, May 2004
In the last two articles we looked at loading a horse from the horse's perspective. Which is that trailers are narrow, dark, scary places reached by walking over an unstable, noisy ramp. To prepare the horse for this I suggested getting them used to walking over poles, tarp and a ramp (or something similar). Once the horse can comfortably walk over these obstacles we ask him to stand on them and, finally, we asked him to walk off backwards.
This month I explain how you can prepare your horse to go into the horsebox despite its narrowness. This is done by asking the horse, once he is comfortable with the earlier exercises, to repeat them while squeezing between two uprights.
Two useful uprights are a fence and a drum, putting the drum at least 20'from the fence before trying to walk, or lunge, your horse between them. Once he can happily go between try changing direction so he sees this set-up out of both eyes. With each new success reward your horse both by stopping him and by giving him an affectionate rub.
Reduce the distance a couple of feet at a time until the squeeze is close to the desired three feet (one metre). Always remembering to find a place to quit where you both feel like winners. If your horse has been a little uncomfortable at ten feet and you have helped him through it, then stop there! You can have another session later in the day.
When your horse can squeeze through one metre in both directions widen the gap a couple of feet and ask him to stop in the middle and then walk on or even back up. Again, do it from both directions and gradually reduce the width to one metre.
To further simulate loading and unloading introduce a cover that imitates the trailer roof. Or, at the very least, lead him under some low branches as you need to know he is comfortable with overhanging objects.
You have now trained your horse to go over and under, stand astride, back out and squeeze between unusual objects. Your horse is now feeling braver. He is ready to try loading - which is the subject of next month's article.
Sue demonstrates these training exercises in her video, Training To Load.
