Teach Your Horse to Load!

Thinking about groundwork?

One of the best groundwork exercises I know of is refining how our horse or pony loads. Rather than wait for the next show or trail ride in the mountains, I say, let’s get the bugs out now.

 

For the amount of hauling the average horse has to do nowadays, it’s surprising how often we’ll see horses refusing to load at clinics and shows. Believe it or not, the way our horse or pony loads is indicative of our mutual respect.

 

There is more than one way to load.

If your horse gets on calmly, quietly, every single time out, you’re doing it right. The following method works well, as it expands the softness and cooperation we aim for whenever we work our horses. It even works on cattle… but more on that, later.

 

I usually take a bit of extra time to ensure the respect of my personal space. I do this by round penning the horse or pony for a few minutes. My goal is for her to calmly and obediently move forward, backward and to change direction, without a halter or rope, whenever I ask.

 

It’s a small step to clip on a long shank and ask for the same manoeuvres. If our horse has learned her ground work well, she won’t push on me or kick out when sent forward. Here, the pony shows that she’s listening and moving off me by stepping over an old blanket laid on the ground…

Once we can send a pony over plywood or mud puddles, it’s an easy step to send her into the waiting trailer. No whips, no treats, just trust. If she says no, then we calmly step back from the trailer and send her to work around us, making her trot and changing direction quite often, until she’s puffing and ready to renegotiate. As long as she faces the trailer, she doesn’t get put to work.

 

In case you’ve missed this, the whole point of teaching our horses to ‘send’ where we ask them is that it takes the focus off getting on the trailer. Once we’ve changed our focus, the loading becomes secondary. The horse enters into the spirit of learning to go forward when we ask and very soon, will willingly and calmly go anywhere we point them.

 

This method, just one of many, gives the horse CHOICE. There is no making! She chooses between lungeing and loading. “Are you ready to load?” I ask. She might face up, or step up, or say, “Not yet.” That’s fine and we go back to work. This can take moments or it can take a long time. Just trust that as long as you have patience, it will work.

 

Once learned, this loading method is never forgotten and does not need to be ‘reinstalled’.

 

A note here about ‘helpers’…

If they want to sit and watch, that’s fine. But they must promise not to talk to you, pressure you or cluck to the horse! Our goal is a horse or pony that loads without any outside help, each and every time.

 

I think the biggest mistake we make when a green horse trusts us enough to load is succumbing to greed. We slam the door shut as soon as the horse is on. Don’t. Wait and ask the pony to back out calmly. If she rushes back, then put her to work again behind the trailer before asking her to reload.

 

The trailer door isn’t ready to be closed until our horse is calmly, happily standing in the sanctuary of the trailer. We should have to tell her when it’s time to unload.

 

I should add here that we seldom tie in the trailer; we like the horse to be free in the event of an accident – and it’s safer for us, too. However, if she wants to turn around in the slant haul, she gets tied. If she’s the aggressor while hauling with other horses, she gets tied. If we’ve got a big load in the stock trailer, they get tied, often head to tail, to maximize space.

 

Our goal is to make a pony that travels straight without turning around, one that can be trusted to haul, holding his head wherever it’s comfortable.

 

When I unload, I really like to back out…

If I can. Why? Well, there’s nothing worse than having a horse turn on me and tromp out the door. Backing up is an ongoing lesson in patience that works wonders. It builds the relationship and is just good horsemanship to ask for a step and wait… ask for a step and wait.

We have to be wise about this, though, as it is a learned skill and the ground may be too slippery in springtime. If the ground looks slippery at all, we must be mindful that it’s all too easy for a backing horse’s hind legs to go right under the trailer, even if he’s calm.

 

An off-cut carpet sample is a good thing to carry with you for unloading on ice or wet concrete. If there is any doubt, we’ll turn him around and let him walk straight out. Eventually, though, I will park so there is very little step-down from the trailer to dry ground… and work to build my horse’s trust.

 

Finally, standing half-way in and stepping forward or backwards according to our whims is excellent training. After a long haul or a big day showing, this position is wonderful for a lumbar stretch. Our experienced travelers always pause for a stretch and a moan as they unload.

 

In the end, loading and unloading has become a shared language between my horses and me.

Hitting the road…

If you remember to make it a pleasant experience being in the trailer – and this includes how you handle your rig on the road – your horse will learn to relax and enjoy the trip.

 

Nervous haulers and herdbound horses need to spend enough time hauling away that they learn they always come home again. I do a lot of hauling, just one horse or pony on his own, to get the mail, pick up groceries, even meet a friend for a bite of lunch. My horses quickly start to enjoy their jaunts and relax.

 

Bottom line, I spend a fair bit of time on the exercise of loading my horses. Have fun while you and your horse get into the spirit of learning! I urge you to give it a go.

I mentioned earlier that this pressure-and-release method works great on just about anything, even untrained animals, as long as you’re up to speed on your timing.

 

Here, we load an increasingly-sulky range bull. Glen, the Border Collie, is being sneaky and is about to get a serious talking to! But every time the bull wheels round to hook one of the horses, he gets a bit of a swat on the nose with a lariat. If he stands facing the trailer, we ‘soften’, both in our bodies, our gaze and we stop pushing. We leave him alone and let him think. Sulky or not, in eight or ten minutes, he’ll rush the trailer just to show us who’s boss.

 

This method always works a treat, so long as we’re patient. Best thing about it is, next time we load that bull, he’ll walk right on. Training, mindfully done, is all about making our lives easier, more enjoyable and stress free… for us and especially, for our animals.

 

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If you’ve enjoyed what you see, Keystone Equine is also on Instagram and Pinterest… and there’s a longstanding Facebook page that details the day-to-day horsemanship I use here at home. It’s my riding journal and I invite you to saddle up and ride! Cheers for now, Lee.