Trailer Loading Made Easy

Doesn't the title of this article sound like a contradictory in terms... well... at least... sometimes?

I've had quite a few customers lately needing help with getting their horse's to load onto a trailer.

I can relate. When I moved here to my new place, my 2 yearlings had not had much experience loading on a trailer at all. One hadn't been off the farm before.

I just wasn't able to spend any time with them on trailer loading. And of course, I needed them to load right away as we were moving.

Does this sound familiar? Not a good situation to put ourselves in. :(

And that's not like me at all!!! I normally have my weanlings loading on a trailer (and other things) quite well before they're a year old. (Much better situation to put ourselves in.)

Who wants to be wrestling with horses to get them loaded? NOT ME!!!

SO.... what did I do?

It's SO important to make sure those first trailer rides are pleasant so the horse associates a good time with trailer loading.

Buddy System

What I did was load them onto the trailer at the same time with one of my older, experienced mares; TO SHOW THEM HOW IT'S DONE!

The yearlings are used to following the older mares. And the older mares are quite happy to load onto a trailer. So I trailered an older mare and a yearling in the big trailer you see in the photo above. I made 2 trips and got my 4 horses moved.

For Next time, I would surely have my young horses loading nicely on their own. I knew that I would be able to get the yearlings loaded and moved by using the older mares. That's why I wasn't too concerned about it. I certainly won't make a habit of doing it this way. It was an unusual situation for me. I tried it this way and it worked. Lucky for me.

Normally, I would have my inexperienced horses loading WELL BEFORE it's time to actually trailer them anywhere. I don't recommend doing it the way I did but I trusted my older mares and they were willing to help!

The worse thing to do is put yourself in a situation where you HAVE to move horses and they don't want to load. Much better to have the horse loading WELL IN ADVANCE of when you need it.

Does anyone have an unusual SUCCESS story to share?

If you need help trailering or want to learn HOW TO GET YOUR HORSE TO LOAD EASILY, contact me EARLY (if you can :).

Questions and comments are always welcome.

Reinersue

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