trailer talk

Learning to pull a truck and trailer was honestly revolutionary for me. Like, kinda blew my mind that… I was *even allowed* to do this thing. Keep in mind, I grew up as (and remain) a city dweller with efficient little sedans etc. that were easy to parallel park. 

recent representative photo of “Mare At Trailer”

My first horse trailer experiences involved big 6 horse goose necks at the local hunter barn where I rode in college. Complete with saintly lesson ponies and side ramps, natch. 

Everything changed, however, when it dawned on me that — actually — *I* could have a rig of my very own. On the strength of a sentimentally important, but long delayed, inheritance of a whopping $6K, I embarked on procuring the means with which to tow my (leased — hai Isabel!) pony around town! 

for the uninitiated: link to youtube here

Which, naturally, was followed up with the realization that… I knew absolute fuck all about aiding and abetting said pony’s transition *into* said rig. 

And thus, my first lesson in trailer loading, courtesy of a local horsemanship pro that I’ve brought in time and time again with every horse since. His methods are simple, elegant and horse friendly, and I’ll forever be proud of that video above demonstrating two confident horses.

the current chariot itself, at the last barn

Because that’s the ideal, right? A horse that can be sent effortlessly into the trailer by somebody on the ground, without requiring said somebody to actually go with the horse into that vulnerably confined space. Isabel achieved self-loading prowess, and actually eventually so did Charlie too. 

Charlie was a little funny at first, tho bc… Well. He was straight up too big (in every dimension but particularly nose to tail length) for my first trailer, a step-up bumper pull stock trailer. I ended up buying him this current chariot, specifically to fit his dimensions. And even then, he’d still get halfway up the ramp and kinda sputter out. 

doozy’s first time aboard, circa 2023

Fun fact: I sorta sheepishly admitted to my chiro / acupuncturist that I’d been using feed buckets to assist with the trailer loading training for Charlie — but that our progress had stalled since he could reach the bucket without getting all the way on. 

I expected her to chastise me for relying on food vs pure responsiveness to the aids… but instead, she just sorta gave me this dumbfounded look and said, “Emma, just hang the bucket farther back.”

still fine tuning the details with Early Charles

In other words, basically, if the method is working, make the method work for you. Which… was yet another iteration (one of MILLIONS for the average horse person) of learning that… there are so so so SO many “right” way to get a thing done, and honestly not all that many “wrong” ways. 

another early ride, this time on the correct side for single horse transport

Thus, over time, I’ve slowly become a little bit less of a “purist” while still trying to hold true to those horsemanship principles first instilled with Isabel.

Doozy is a fairly straight forward horse to load — especially with two people. With one person, she had become (and is hopefully returning toward) reliable at just walking with me into the trailer, with me staying at her shoulder and then ducking under the chest barn to pop out the side to fix the butt bar and close the ramp.

preparations on the day of  “Doozy’s first time,”
with bonus Goose The Pig cameo

It’s not my ideal method, but it seemed to work. Since Thornridge, however, when the mare was in full meltdown mode, it’s been a little bumpier. 

Truthfully, I didn’t even TRY to load the mare by myself that day to go home. There was a large and capable looking gentleman at the trailer next door, and I put my ego aside and enlisted his help. Natch, with that gentle but strong presence behind her, Doozy did what she always did and walked right on. 

many months actual years now later, still #snackin

Since then, tho, well. I’ve been mostly alone. And have had to really be disciplined in sticking to the horsemanship principles lest I end up in a Battle Of The Wills with a red mare. 

Rule #1: No eye contact, for the love of god. 

Rule The Second: Be Thee Disciplined in The Timing of Thouest Release. Aka. Ask or do not ask. Accept a positive response, and accept not a negative. 

Most Next Importantest: If the horse wants to sniff / investigate / otherwise interact with the interior of her chariot prior to embarking — cool! allow it! Attention straying toward externalities is cause for reinforcing the initial ask. 

Fourth: Don’t be afraid to back up, reset, reapproach. 

the tuna can and doozy’s future are uniquely intertwined, it turns out!

And ya know. Super secret Rule #5 — take advantage of extra help when available. Sure, it’s cool to be able to git‘r done solo… But in the long run, it’s so much better for the horse to just have easy drama-free streamlined experiences. 

So ya know. That’s my personal gospel of loading horses. Subject to change at any time, obviously. And also recognizing that… Just bc my slice of horsey experiences has been somewhat reliable and consistent, doesn’t rule out that I’ve also just kinda been lucky. I KNOW some horses can… Just be challenging. Especially if they’ve been through strongly negative experiences. 

Curious, with that in mind, if there are any other rules or ‘best practices’ you’d add to the list. Or maybe there are particular quirks you’ve had to learn to work around?