Major Loading Problems!! Please help!

[loverofminis]

Ok I never have seen a sight which I seen today.
A friend of ours asked me if I would start his 2 year old buckskin colt (very pretty and sweet colt) and his 2 year old Paso Fino cross colt (which I had when he was a baby, he was imprinted at birth)

So I go over and he did say once that my old colt has never been loaded or trailered since I brought him over and the buckskin has NEVER been loaded his whole life. We try to load him right off he breaks 2 leadropes and a halter.
We try to coax him in and he rears up and drags his owner out of the trailer, breaking another leadrope as he takes off.
So to make a long story short, we ended up loading my colt, which loaded peacfully, in first then a very battered scratched, cut up, banged up buckskin (who flipped himself lots of times and ran into objects) which we eventually had to snub inside the trailer as he kicked and thrashed around before jumping in and kicking my colt in front before falling down.

We got the horses loaded but the buckskin is very skinned up and cut up, he kicked a hole the size of a basketball in my trailer.

He isnt a mean horse its just lack of training, but how can I make his next trailer trip more peaceful and safer for all of us? I have never seen a horse do this before, but I geuss its a great example of lack of training and attention to horses.

So, any ideas? hints?

[lunanightwolf]

My grandpas friend told us that taking him up to the trailer everyday and just letting him smell it will soon show him it's not really that bad. but don't force him to get close to it if he's not ready. The best thing to do is, put him and the trailer in a field together or you can put him on a lead rope and take him to it and if he stops at a certain distance just pat him on the neck telling him it's okay and let him eat grass. Let him approach it at his own pace. And when the day comes to load him up again, he'll either fight again or load up in it. If he does load up in it, give him lots of love and praise. If he fight against. Put a rope around the rear end and have people pull him in that way. That's what we had to do with my filly. Also giving him a bit of feed or hay once you have him in there will calm him down. comfort food. lol. Good luck

[blueyednspotted]

When we trained our racking filly to load, we started out leading her to the trailer, we stepped in and just let her stand outside looking in, then we walked her away and let her graze for a min or two, then I led her back to the same spot, I got in and put a little pressure on her lead as soon as she took one step toward the trailer, I backed her up and let her go graze and so on we went until she put one foot on the trailer which when she did the sound freaked her but i let her back away but I didn't let her go graze. We tried again and this time when she put one foot up and stayed I immediately backed her up and let her graze from that moment on she seemed to really understand the release and reward concept we were using for this training sessions, I had decided if I could get both front feet up we would end for the day( the whole end on a good note thing) So the last time we led her up she just loaded right in all the way and we were so excited my daughter backed her out and she did so like an old pro. Then of course that part of us that says that had to be a fluke and won't happen again(totally forgetting about the end on a good note thing), I had to try one last time.....would you believe this yearling filly loaded right up, we have a 4 horse slant load, my daughter walked her all the way to the forth stall and backed her all the way out. We were so proud! We never rushed a step and made sure to reward each one but when she didn't get that one reward everything just clicked. We worked on this loading session for about 2 hours. Baby steps is all we expected and when it clicks it clicks. Hope this helps. With his last loading session it will be even harder for you. With that horse I would just try small 15 min sessions a day til he's not scared because now I'm sure he thinks that is a mid-evil torture device even though once he was in not much happened he'll remember the getting in part the most. Good Luck.

[Oops3]

Regretfully, you now have a bigger problem than when you started. Your boy will not load as he has been traumatized by your first attempt. Cut up, scratched, a hole in your trailer....? What were you thinking to keep continuing on when he was so terrified?
Now you will have to get him past this! One person replied with the thought of having the trailer in the pasture with him. Very good start. That's how we do ours. Once he gets used to that, you want to start feeding him his grain near the trailer, then on the trailer ramp, inching him ever closer and into. At no time do you try to get him in. We're looking for him to explore and see it's not a monster. Realize this is going to take you a good long time.
I work with rescues (my credentials), so I see quite a few trailer horrors. Relax, let time and kindness do it's work. Just quit trying to muscle him to do what you want. All will be well.

[Mistersmomma]

When I took my dads filly to be broke, I had the same problems, she is a 6year old Quarter horse, The only time she had been in a trailer is when my dad had bought her and her dam. She had not been off the farm since. Well the trainer came over to help me load her and had her hands full. She backed away, she reared cutting her head near her foretop. It took almost 2 hours to get that mare loaded, when we finally got her in there she road really well but she was nervous and sweaty. I was so scared that she had really hurt herself because she had even fallen. But the trainer worked with her on loading, twice now all I have to do is get her up to the trailer I stand on the inside, and I wait, and she loads everytime. She loads when she gets ready. All I have to do is talk to her in a calm voice and within a few minutes, she loads right up. I just knew we had really hurt her. But she is special to me. Because she belonged to my father, I retained her after he died. I had her broke because of his health he was unable to. So I took her in and had her broke and that little filly has the best ride I have ever known. My dad would be so proud of her, I wish he was here to see it.

Just take your time, go slow with him. He will eventually do it himself. I have one that I am just going to feed her in the trailer to get her used to it. she does just fine.

[Mits]

What was you thinking??? How many times did he flip over and run into things and kick and bash around? Your light bulb never came on ,to tell you that this is not the way it suppose to be done!And then you snubbed him up in the trailer and made him get in and he was fighting and kicking all the way---you never thought of his safety or the other horse that was already in the trailer.Every horse is differnt--one of the horses got in easy and the other one needed a slow and easy approach; reward and retreat method works great.But like the previous post said; you have made the trailer loading a night mare for this horse,it will take him awhile to trust that trailer and he may not never trust you again unless you learn how to read him.My suggestion would be to hire a person that has the experence to build this horses' confidence back up to load and to trust people again.And you be there also ,to learn how to work with a horse.Please learn something from this ordeal.

[loverofminis]

I know it was stupid of us to try it that way, but see I tried lots of times to let the owner let me try something a little less stressful, if it means anything his owner was a mustang trainer and he doesnt go by the natural parrelli way or anything natural. Plus it didnt help that he never worked with this guy ever in his whole life. Plus we only had a 2 horse stock trailer (my other one was getting a new floor) But now that he is over at my place we can work on getting his confidence and respect so we can try again down the road.
Thanks for the tips they will be very helpful, this colt is definetly a summer project but I dont think it would take much to get him loading peacfully.

[Mits]

He must be a poor excuse of a trainer,mustang trainer or not---sounds to me it is his way and anything goes,no matter what happens to the poor horse.And if you are in the habit of using natural parrelli method--then you should have used your better judgement and walked away from this; so called trainer.And a 2-horse trailer scares the the heck out of alots of horses.This poor horse had the cards stacked against him on that day!Good luck with the horse,I hope that trainer is not your idol!

[mart]

Sorry but I agree with everyone here on this issue !! That guy isn`t a trainer of any kind,,, just an idiot !! My horses love a trailer to the point that you cannot drive down the road with one that they don`t chase you wanting to go !! The thing is it was all done with kindness and no force !!

[BUDDYSGIRL]

I strongly agree that this guy is no trainer. In the time he has had him there should have been some kind of trust built by now for one and for two, ANY trainer knows that each horse is different and has to be trained/taught differently. Duh!!
I have had to help horses "rethink" the loading process because of some dimwit trainer or owner who scared the daylights out of them and it took longer time to train because we had to establish a foundation to start with first.
There are girls who board their horses, equine college girls mind you, that have to tranquilize their horses to load them !!! because of no time put into them, no trust and no patience. I hope you do better with him at your place!