The third day there we trailer loaded 6 of them. Some had had one halter training session and some two. The session involved lungeing the horses over poles on the ground, direction changes, backing the horse and leading by drawing them in. They needed to understand to come towards the pressure of the rope and move forward from pressure of the whip towards the flanks. As we lunged on the third day we looked for the horse to show an interest in the recently parked trailer. As the horse turned to leave the trailer he was asked to move his hips away and head back toward the trailer. Minimal pressure towards the shoulder was used to suggest the horse travel towards the trailer with increasing pressure as he chose to move away from it. It's not as much that you're telling the horse where to go but rather where not to go. When the horse went up to the ramp and stopped then we went inside and used the previously taught drawing to bring them in. Pressure to the flank area suggested movement was required. The rope was only used to keep the horse lined up and not to pull on the horse which would cause backing and rearing. Once all the way in the horses were given one bite of goodies and then unloaded. If a horse tried to unload too quickly we just turned around and went back in. The owner and I loaded each horse about 6 times. Some times leading, some times lungeing. The owner even had one horse load itself on the original introductory lunge toward the trailer.
In the afternoon we decided to reload 2 of the horses that were coming to my place. In the morning the back of the trailer had been wide open but now we had to put the center divide post in place. In addition to looking different we had to load 2 and they were not broke to tie. I decided to lead both together with lunge lines on and instructed the owner if one lagged behind to touch it with the whip. I directed one on either side of the post and we all loaded. Then they turned around to unload, darn, now I'm behind them. The owners flipped the ramp up but were then unable to shut the doors. I managed to get up along side the bigger one and draw her back around. The doors were shut. I took off the halters so they couldn't catch on anything, sent the horses towards the back of the trailer and sneaked out the front door. Total time from going to catch to driving out the yard, 15 minutes.
On the fourth day we trailer loaded 10 horses. 4 we had done four days earlier and 6 we hadn't. The ones we had previously done just walked right in. This was the first working day for 3 or 4 of them. Most were really good, one practically loaded himself. One took over an hour on the preliminary halter work but once she understood the rules and we headed for the trailer she walked right in. Just goes to prove the trailer loading is rarely a trailer issue but rather a halter breaking issue.
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