Go to www.soloequestrian.com to read about Solo Harness, the loading innovation
Imagine being ‘asked’ by a person speaking a foreign language to step inside a coffin for no apparent reason. This is probably pretty much how a horse feels when it’s asked to step into a rattly metal box on wheels, especially for the very first time. We can’t tell them why they are getting in, what is going to happen, where they are going, if they are coming back. Is it any wonder that they sometimes get a bit stressed about it?
Your job is to convince your horse that it has nothing to fear from travelling. This applies both to youngsters with no experience of travelling and to horses that have had unpleasant experiences when in a lorry or trailer.
As with any horse training, start slowly and build up. The first few training sessions could just be allowing the horse to look (or rather sniff) over the trailer (or lorry) from the outside. When you start to ask the horse to step into the trailer, make sure it is as open as possible. Front-unload trailers are vastly easier to use than rear-unload: you can make them into a tunnel so the horse can always see its route out rather than walking into a dead-end. Even if you intend to use a rear-unload trailer eventually, see if you can borrow a front-unload for initial training.
Take out the partition so the trailer is as spacious as possible, then walk the horse through it. Take as much time as you need to do this. Horses probably don’t function on the same timescale as humans, and their survival mechanism is to be suspicious of everything. Even if it feels like aeons, allow the horse as much time as it needs to decide the trailer isn’t dangerous. Horses all react in different ways – some may get so far into the trailer and then reverse back out. The Solo Harness can be used in this situation – it’s a good idea to convince the horse that backwards doesn’t happen. Probably a more difficult problem to deal with is a horse that gets all the way into the trailer then rushes out forwards. You have to weigh up whether using the breast bar will help this or make the horse feel more confined. It is possible to get full-width breast and breech bars for some makes of trailer, and this might be worth consideration. The other way around this is repetition. You should be in a secure space when teaching loading, so if the horse makes a fast exit you can just let go and avoid being squashed in the front doorway. Using a bridle may give more control over speed of exit (if you are likely to need to let go, lead with the reins over the horses head as you would with a martingale in place). Repeat the ‘walkthrough’ exercise until the horse is bored of it and stops rushing. This may take many, many repetitions.
The next step is to secure the horse in the trailer for short periods. Leave the back and front ramps open, secure the breech and breast bars, allow the horse to take it all in (use verbal praise, pats or treats – whichever your horse likes best). Then undo and unload. Try to give the horse as much space as possible for unloading – I try to swing the front of the partition out of the way to allow a good angle of exit.
Build up to leaving the horse briefly when fastened in the trailer – give it a haynet – and to fastening the rear ramp, then the front ramp. If you have another, experienced horse available, use it as a companion. Load the more experienced horse first, then the horse you are training. This is especially helpful when you take your first trip. Try to make the first drive as smooth as possible – if you must use a twisty road, go out at a very quiet time so you can drive very slowly. If you are able to use straight roads, you can go at up to 50mph. Speed has little effect on the horse when travelling in a straight line. Accelerating, decelerating and going around corners are very unbalancing.
Make sure you are taking your horse somewhere it will enjoy. If it gets stressed at shows, work on conditioning it to that environment (perhaps go to a few shows without entering anything so the experience is as low-stress as possible). In between going to shows, load up to go somewhere less stressful for the horse – go on a hack or even load up, drive around the field and then unload, feed and turn the horse out, so that loading is associated with something positive.
Make sure when you do go to shows to compete, your horse is capable of doing what you are going to ask it to do and doesn’t find it uncomfortable or unpleasant in another way. If your horse hates jumping and you want to jump, think about changing the horse.
If you’re not sure why your horses is unwilling to load, think about the whole process. Many things can influence the horses decision to get into the trailer, and those things may often not be obvious to humans*.
* For further reading: ‘Animals in Translation’ by Temple Grandin and ‘The Behaviour of Horses’ by Stephen Budiansky
Pre-loading
Is the handler more tense than usual? Are they nervous about the show they’re going to? Do they get frustrated with the horse? Does the horse pick up on cues from the environment that means it gets more nervous and jumpy than usual (trailer hitched up, plaiting)? Are these cues coming from the handler? (to test this, try doing the same things when you’re not going to a show to see if its actually you that is stressed and giving off unconscious signals to the horse).
It is vital to remain calm thoughout preparations. If your horse is difficult to handle, perhaps because it becomes excited about going to a show, consider ways of minimising this: hard work the day before; lungeing or riding before loading?
Loading
Remain calm at all times.
Leave plenty of time for the procedure. If it’s the first time or if you know the horse is difficult to load DON’T wait until just before a show to do your training – set aside time when there is no pressure to complete the loading. Make sure you set aside MANY HOURS and leave yourself several weeks in advance of any planned trips. If you end up in a battle of wills, you must win. Giving up half way through will reinforce the horses belief that if it waits long enough, it won’t have to do the thing that it sees as being unpleasant (get into the trailer) and you will have to go through twice as long a battle the next time you try. You may find that you don’t get as far as you planned, for instance the goal may have been to walk the horse through the box and you may only end up getting it to walk calmly up to and past the box. This is fine – as long as the horses attitude towards loading has improved, you have won. Make sure, as with riding, that any training session ends with the opportunity to praise the horse.
Make sure the trailer is parked in a place that will help you during loading. The trailer should always be hitched to a vehicle, even when you are just practising loading, to make sure it is balance correctly. Keep the trailer well away from anything that might damage the horse if it kicks out (or that might get damaged). If possible, park in a place that prevents the horse from swinging sideways as it walks towards the ramp, but balance this against the possibility of the horse kicking out at whatever you are parked against.
Remember that horses are influenced by smell and sound as well as vision. Make the trailer smell as familiar as possible. Put some of the horses droppings in for a few days before you try loading, or some used bedding so they transfer their smell.
Load in a quiet spot – strange noises will be more upsetting if the horse is nervous or if the trailer doesn’t allow the horse to see the source of the noise.
Travelling
Make sure every move you make with the trailer is smooth and gradual. Don’t ever travel in the trailer with the horse, but it’s worth standing in the trailer on your own with someone towing it to get an idea of the sensations the horse will experience. Make sure that you know your tow vehicle well, and practice towing the trailer when it’s empty a few times so you are used to any effects the extra weight has on it.
Try to use a trailer with windows. There is some evidence to show that some horses may suffer from motion sickness, and a window may help with this as it does for human travellers. My horses spend the majority of journeys looking out the window and I am sure that with experience they can learn to read the road to a certain extent so that corners come as less of a surprise to them (note that this is just my opinion!!).
Unloading
Give the horse as much space as possible when unloading. A horse will try to rush out of a narrow space much more than out of somewhere wider. Moving the front of the trailer partition sideways can be helpful when unloading forwards. If you are unloading backwards, the harness can be used to regulate speed of exit.
Overall
You CAN’T expect a horse to load calmly if it has previously experienced bad handling of the procedure, had a bad journey or had a bad experience at its destination. If any of these things have happened, go back to square one and gradually teach the horse that it has nothing to fear. If the horse does not get better with time and patience, consider whether your trailer is big enough, whether your driving needs to improve, or whether your horse might find travelling unpleasant for another reason (motion sickness, stiffness leading to inability to balance comfortably).
Other considerations
Clothing
The handler should ALWAYS wear a current-standard hard hat, gloves and stout shoes.
The horse may not need any clothing. If the horse is likely to mess around, a poll guard and four overreach boots to protect the coronet bands can be used. Other clothing is a matter of personal preference. Boots and bandages that are only ever used when travelling may upset horse to begin with, they may make it feel less able to move and balance, or they may cause it to overheat. Think carefully about using rugs – it is more likely that the horse will overheat than become too cold as it will be using energy to balance (around the same amount of energy as it uses to walk).
Underfoot
Modern trailers are designed to be comfortable for the horse without any bedding. Straw is awful as it gets tangled around their feet, making movement to balance more difficult, and unloading less comfortable. For longer journeys, a layer of shavings may be beneficial – they help to deaden noise, add to anti-concussive properties and may help to encourage the horse to wee!
Do make very sure that your trailer ramp and floor are absolutely sound structurally and that they are non-slip and easy for the horse to walk on. The feeling of a slippery or unsafe surface will, understandably, panic most horses.
Vehicles other than front-facing trailer.
Loading into lorries or rear-facing trailers follows the same principles as loading into a front-facing trailer.
Overall
- Remain calm and quiet at all times
- Reward any desired behaviour the horse shows
- Appear to ignore any undesired behaviours
Give yourself plenty of time!!
Go to http://www.soloequestrian.com/ to read about Solo Harness, the loading innovation
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