Using Communication to Change the Horse's Perception
When you can send your horse to the left and to the right on a subtle cue and without taking the slack out of your rope, you have a tool to help you trailer load. This tool of communicating movement and direction change, is what you will use to change your horse's perception of the trailer so he thinks of the trailer in a positive way.
It needs to be your horse's idea to go in the trailer. To achieve this, I start by sending the horse between me and the trailer and also asking him to change directions when I am between the horse and the trailer. I do this at a distance from the trailer that is not too uncomfortable for the horse. This could be right next to the trailer or quite a ways aways from it.
When the horse goes between me and the trailer, he may speed up or even crowd into me. When I am between the horse and the trailer and ask for the direction change, the horse may slow down and try to move further away from me. These are sure signs that the horse is thinking about being away from the trailer and not going in. Remember, I am not trying to load the horse into the trailer; I am keeping him busy while he is away from the trailer so that he will appreciate a rest by the trailer and it will be a relief to him to be close to it.
I keep sending the horse back and forth, to the right and then to the left. Doing this takes some mental and physical endurance, but the idea is to keep the horse moving and changing directions until he tries something new so he can get a rest. This could be looking at the trailer, moving towards it or even going in. When this happens, I let him stop and pet him. At first even if the horse starts to move more relaxed by the trailer I give him a rest and some petting. I keep repeating this process until, when ever I ask for forward movement on cue, the first thing that the horse does is look towards the trailer or move towards it . In my mind when the horse does this he is already in the trailer . Even if he is not that close to the trailer we are now on the same page. When I reach this point, of getting a light response from the horse whenever I ask, any problem I had of the horse crowding me to get away from the trailer or moving fast between me and the trailer, has obviously disappeared. Some horses will load right up at this point and some will take a little longer.
Quite often while changing the horse's perspective of the trailer, he will digress back to some of the problems I had while teaching him to be 'sent' in the first place. I don't look at this as a negative. The horse is looking for a way out. I will go back to the steps I described in the 2nd blog of this series and keep working on it until the horse is looking or moving toward the trailer. Working through this will build your horse's confidence in you .
The most important ingredient of this step of trailer loading is as Ray Hunt said, "Notice the smallest change, the slightest try."
If your horse hasn't loaded already he is prepared to start working on it. His mind is on the trailer and this needs to be preserved and strengthened. Blog # 4 will cover loading the horse in the trailer.
