If PATIENTS isn't a option and you need the horse in trailer to get home and it's getting dark etc. Tie a bowline around girth and run rope through halter to trailer so keeps head down. I used to make good money with a Aussie who growled and barked on command, you would be surprised at how SAFE that HORSE EATING TRAILER looks with a DOG barking at the heals. I never failed to put one in and it was fast. Most balky horses are running over people who are intemidated and DOG isn't. Horses know DOGS are a threat and don't scare off easily. The way to train a horse to trailer is with food and water in trailer and they won't starve or die of thirst and get used to trailer and comfortable inside while eating. Having a GOOD driver can keep things on track too. Biggen

As several above pointed out.. patience... John Lyons says getting in the trailer is only the start. It's teaching them to go forward when you ask and getting them to go in/out easily continually. What I really liked about the videos is it showed the horses being put in, only on foot at a time! Then stop them and back them out. Even if they want to go in, don't let them. It is more important that they learn to listen to you than it is for them to get in the trailer. Then move on to having the two front feet in and backing them out several times. The horse finally wonders why you won't let them go in all the way and gets quite curious about what's in there. As others have pointed out this may be easier spread over several days to ensure you don't run out of patience. John Lyons says.. If you think you only have a short time.. It will take all day. If you think you have all day, it will only take a short time. I tried that approach with my mare and it really worked. She was very happy to go forward without me asking her to back away again.

I had a horse that sounded just like this funny part was it wasn't the actual trailer he was scared of but the step up into it.. I backed the trailer into an area where the ground and trailer met perfectly and he loaded right in.. when I tried out in the yard where I normally do it he didn't want to step in again.. he'd walk up to it just fine finally outta desperation I went and picked up his front foot and set in in the trailer and left it there.. I just kept repeating that process for awhile then went an picked up his other front foot and repeated once that part was over I put the feed in the trailer JUST outta reach he finally stepped up by himself to get the feed and then loaded great after that.. one thing you do have to remember when loading a horse is that once his head is in he thinks he's in.. learned that from Craig Cameron at one of his clinics.. The other thing is that he says when you first take a horse to load in a trailer get a big open stock trailer so the horse won't feel like he's walking into a coffin.. Just my input on one of my own situations if it helps someone great if it doesn't OH well at least I shared.. Please don't attack me for what I did that worked.. Abbie

Here is a smart way to teach a horse to load. Pull the trailer into their living area - paddock, field whatever.. Feed the horse in the trailer. All feed IN the trailer. You will be surprised how fast this can turn a horse around to being a great loader. Weezy

It is not what you do to get a horse to load, but how you do it. I have loaded in excess of 5000 different horses and have never had one that I could not get to load. If you would drop me a message maybe I can help you.

I thought I would add some more information to my orginal post. I thoroughly agree that teaching a horse to load should be done months before you actualy need to get him in the trailer. We have no time limit on when he gets in the trailer as there is a number of places to trail ride right from the barn. That said we would like to get him to load for a couple of reasons. Trail riding is one but also if we need to haul him to the vet or get him out of the area due to a disaster. We will be very patient with him and will not rush the process. We have worked with him on a cue for going forward and he will walk forward every time on cue. We also worked on despooking him by having him walk past and over a number of scarey things. He will walk anywhere we ask him to except into the trailer. He will walk up to it but not put a foot into the trailer. We will take a look at some of the training videos and see if that helps. Any additional information would really be appreciated.

Ok... here goes... I hate opening my mouth as I know the flack to follow in here.. but..... I have taught trailer loading for many yrs and totally agree with what holisjubilee said... Personally I like John Lyons method the best but that is not to discount others and he does have a video and also books on the method.... Here is the part I'd like to ad though... and it's not my discovery, I learned from John himself yrs ago..... that loading is more an issue of LEADING than anything else... with the trailer clear out of site work on leading your horse... This horse ( and any other) needs to be despooked to the whip in the same manner you would do with a saddle blanket till he is TOTALLY comfortable with it and has no fear of it... A whip should be nothing more than an extention of your arm to be used to reach places your arm can't and should be used accordingly.... Once your horse is comfortable with the whip teach him a "go forward" cue with the whip by standing at his shoulder with a loose lead and tapping on the point of his hip till he steps forward a step or two. stop the cuing the second he begins to move forward. Still away from the trailer find other less scary objects to work with like a bridge, a ground pole, increasing to scarier objects like a tarp etc. use a long lead rope and stand at the shoulder and give the go forward cue till he steps out in front over the object while you remain in place..... when he will do this easily over anything... and has established the cue well and learned to trust you... THEN start facing the trailer. Face him to the trailer and use the go forward cue (tap on the point of hip) til he starts to think about moving forward, then stop the cue and praise him... if he backs up no biggie, just continue the cue and keep his face, facing the trailer at all times... everytime he moves forward stop cueing him and praise him. If you stop him when he finally has one leg in and back him out and repeat several times... then two legs in and back him out, then three and out.. he will also know how to back out safely once you've taught him to load too. For a very difficult scared horse you could be looking at 3 or 4 hours but the norm is way less.. I suggest you get a video which will give you more detail than i can here, but you can do this with consitency and patience and like John says... if you don't think you have the time to do it right, where will you ever find the time to lay in the hospital when it all goes wrong? good for you for wanting to do it right. if you want more detail email me and i'll be glad to help.

In training horses to load, I have learned that I have to train the horse BEFORE the day I want to load him in the trailer, and I have learned that the horse CAN be taught (without brooms, butt ropes, hollering and whipping) to step up and to back out of a trailer without trauma. Lady, there are so many good videos out and books and articles that teach horse owners how to teach a horse to load . . . once and for all . . . The main thing is to give yourself and the horse TIME, and make sure you have the patience to keep at it until the horse goes in and out and in and out and in and out . . . in a relaxed manner. John Lyons, Clinton Anderson, and a host of other teachers have solid, dependable and gentle methods of teaching a horse to get over its fear and resistance. If the horse has consistently escaped loading through avoidance techniques, then he will take longer to train . . . because he's actually been trained to NOT load everytime he gets what he wants. We can't FORCE a horse to load without traumatizing him and causing harm to both the horse or the horse handler. We CAN persuade the horse to go in, though, if we anticipate his avoidance techniques, have a sound plan for TEACHING the horse to load, NEVER give up, NEVER lose patience, and give ourselves plenty of time. If we can teach the horse to move forward on cue 100 percent of the time, then we can teach him to move forward onto a trailer. What is your cue for forward? Make sure it is consistent and obeyed 100 percent of the time when you are leading the horse in and out of the barn, past scary things, down the road, out of the pasture, etc. Teaching videos are available at many tack shops, and they are always available on the web sites of the many different trainers. Also, RFD TV has many horse-trainers on, and I'm sure that some of the programs deal with trailer loading. I have seen horses loaded many different ways . . . and the most psychologically harmful and physically dangerous ways are always done when impatient people start to butt in and say, "I'll get that #$&* horse to load!!!" Sometimes the horses ARE forced on that way, but it's usually harder to get them to load the next time . . . because it isn't TEACHING, it's bullying. If you really don't believe you have the expertise or the patience to do what needs to be done, hire a firm and gentle trainer who really cares about horses, to train both the horse and the horse handler. It will be worth every penny in the long run. Best to you. Be safe.

I would like to ask for some help with a problem. A friend of mine and I go riding on a regular basis. She has a three horse slant load trailer which is extra tall and extra wide. It is a step up. The problem is that we can't get her horse to go into the trailer. From what we know about the horse the last time he was trailered about 5 years ago they beat him till he got in. We will not do that but we do need to find a way to get him in. We have tried putting the trailer in a big paddock with him and feed him out of the trailer. We put his food in the front where he could reach it and they slowly moved in back further into the trailer. He leaned in as far as he could to get the food and then stopped eating when he could no longer reach it. We also tried using a butt rope, walking him forward into the trailer and using the end of the lead rope for encouragement. We also tried leading him in and tapping him with a whip but he really reacted to that therefor the whip won't work as we will not beat him to get him in. We also tried putting another horse in the trailer first so he could see the other horse in there but it did not help either. He is 13 year old Quarter Horse Cross who is great in every other way. When we are working with him you can see that he is trying but for some reason won't step in. Any help or suggestions would really be appreciated.