By Steve Stevens

One of the easiest and most difficult things to do with horses is the infamous, somewhat elusive, potentially dangerous for you and the horse- the one, the only trailer loading. We all have to learn to do it at some point if you are going to reach any kind of horsemanship level. Whether you are hauling horses to the big show, picking up a new baby or most importantly- getting a horse to the vet as quickly as possible. It also gives us freedom with our horses. None of that is possible if you can’t get your horse in the trailer.

About Twenty years ago…
We were in a hurry to get the sorrel colt down the road to a roping event. The colt was strong and still carried that wild look in his eyes. We were running late and the rest of the herd was loaded. We loaded him in the back of the stock trailer as to follow the rest of his herd friends. This had worked a time or two before with a little motivation from whipping the horse from behind.
But today would be a big eye opener for me in the art of horse training. I was with some top hands who I looked up to and followed on their every word. Today the sorrel colt did not want to load and daylight was burning. So the whipping, yelling and frustration was rising like a tide, like a fast coming tsunami. The colt started to lash out at the whips and pressure by kicking out, all three of us were shoving on his rippling muscles trying to push him in, endangering ourselves and sending the colt into complete survival mode. One of the hands said ‘you won’t best me you son of a gun”. And he ran a lariat through the halter and up through the front of the trailer. He gave me the tail to pull on and the other whipped from behind. I had seen this done before but without the ferocious fight. I knew everything inside me was telling me that the horse was scared and we weren’t getting anywhere. But I followed my cohorts and the gang leader just like we were robbing the pacific railroad and I was told to keep my gun on the conductor. The gelding was now covered in sweat and legs were bleeding from bouncing off the back of the trailer. Finally the colt seemed to give in and half way entered the trailer. But an ill advised whip and the horse reared and hit his head in the trailer, ripping the rope out, ripping the skin off my hands, falling backwards and crashing into the ground.

The horse was on the ground helpless, scared to get up, with blood on his head. I knew this couldn’t be the right way. But embarrassingly so, I didn’t want my peers to see I was a sensitive man and implore them to think of me as less of a cowboy, so I said nothing.

The colt was fine later, but these are situations that I look back on and wish I would have known then what I know now. How I may have been able to help the situation.

I am proud to say that over twenty years later, I have learned, new methods.I have loaded hundreds of horses that were scared to load or had never been loaded and have not used force to load a single horse. I now use pressure and release techniques to make the wrong thing difficult which is used when the horse doesn’t step forward towards the trailer. This takes timing and patience. It is really the simplest technique ever. We just want to make the trailer a place of comfort for the horse and we do that by making him work outside the trailer by moving his feet- lunging, rollbacks, backing, you name it and when he goes towards the trailer we release the pressure. With a little patience they can learn to load. Over time they will beg you to go into the trailer.

I want to issue a challenge to all horsemen and horsewomen out there- to learn how to load your horses quietly and smoothly, teaching them to want to be in the trailer. Don’t wait until you have to go somewhere. Work on it with patience and grace and when you have the time that it takes.

Post your best trailer loading moment on our Facebook page at Stevens Natural Horsemanship and we will share it with all of our friends.

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