HORSES TERRIFIED
OF NEW TRAILER
QUESTION:
We have purchased two, nicely broke horses, that
were delivered to our place. We finally bought our
own older, used trailer at Auction to haul them
places. Both go nuts. The one will load but then
become frantic and even go to biting at us like a
demon? The other refuses to load at all? We tried
learning how to load from a Professional
Book/Video. The Instructions seem so easy but do
not work. How can we do this on our own with out
being able to haul them to a clinic hundreds of
miles away?
ANSWER:
Two good documents under the OUR ARCHIVES section of
my website for you to read. Just scroll through the
"Horse Information" until you hit on them.
Keep in mind while reading these documents that
these things may have happened to the horse before
you owned it!!!
I think they simply
have no idea about being in a tight, confined
space. Simply not loaded enough.
Also a used trailer may have a horrid smell to it
even months later. Such as "Pigs" may have been
hauled in it and horses who don't know what a Pig is
can get first nervous, then actually belligerent
from the smell. The smell can remain even after
cleaning. Other used trailers, even though well
cleaned can retain the smell of cattle, turkeys,
even oily/greasy machinery parts and if a horse is
not used to that smell, they can get upset but never
belligerent that I know of like with the smell of
pigs when they don't know what a pig is.
NOTE: First Horse Biting at them that bad once
loaded?
To small of a confined
space, ESPECIALLY NOT ENOUGH HEAD ROOM (perhaps
trailer is only 6 feet high which is bad for taller
horses), rubber matting can upset some, even mats,
wooden floors with no shavings or straw down, poor
springs/shocks so the trailer sways even though it
is not being pulled, etc. etc.
Take your trailer into
their corral/pasture/paddock and leave it on level
ground in the vicinity of favorite resting area.
Block the wheels good so no danger. Do not leave
the truck as horses will teeth the paint on vehicles
and/or rub on them and cause damage.
Tie the door wide open
safely. Make sure the separation partition(s) are
safely fastened against the trailer walls. Safety
first here always. If sharp, protruding latches,
fasteners, anything inside or outside, wrap them/pad
them well with duck tape.
Now put their feed
grain in there. Sprinkle it on the floor starting
with a "Trail" of it at the back, leading up towards
the front, where you leave the main pile of grain.
Then walk away as this is the NON AGGRESSIVE
approach to teaching horses to load themselves
without Human Interference.
First they will stretch
their necks a mile to eat the grain and then walk
away. But put that little trail of grain again,
leading to that yummy pile up front. Then they will
begin stepping up into the trailer all on their own
(your no where near them, they are doing this all on
their own)....................after a few days, they
will probably be standing in it, sleeping when you
come out in the morning as they now consider it a
safe Shed or Building.
Now, you will have
conquered their fear or should I say, they conquered
it all by themselves. Now you can begin tying
them and closing the door on them for a few
minutes. Then turning them loose once calm
(never ever turn a frantic/fussing horse loose as
this teaches them to fuss even more for the reward
of being let out of the trailer unless actually
injuring itself. Wait until it has calmed down,
then release it) Then finally making very
short hauls, then finally onto longer hauls.
This is the
totally NON Aggressive way. The horses
teach themselves with no human in sight!!! Or you
can do the Clinics, books, etc where someone teaches
you "Hands On" how to load the horse, let it back
out, reload it, etc. etc. until it stands quietly.
Some of these Horse Loading Books, Videos, Clinics
are quite good actually.
I prefer that the horses
get over the fear on their own but that is up to
you.
NOTE: Although edited
for this newsletter, the two horses get along well
and are NON aggressive with each other which is
important with this method to prevent an aggressive
horse injuring the other when Free in the trailer
when your not there.
