Before undertaking any kind of trailer training, it is really important to put safety first. In this section we look at how to do a risk assessment, what factors to consider when creating a safe environment for training, and how to set up yourself and your horse for sucess in a safe way. We also discuss the importance of professional support.
You MUST read all the documents and watch all the videos in this section before you commence any training. It is advisable to watch the entire course before you begin any training.

In this section you will find out a bit more about what most people normally do when they have a loading problem and why this might or might not be helpful; why a loading problem is a symptom, not the actual problem itself; the role that the emotional state of the horse has to play and why this matters; and what our goal is when starting to train a naive horse to load, or to work with loading problems. 

In this section you will find the videos from the trailer loading workshop that was run on Saturday 24th September 2022.
The theory sections didn't record quite so well, but they are really just a repetition of the material covered in the theory section of this course, so you don't have to watch them if you don't want to!
But the practical sessions are useful and informative so I definitely recommend watching them.

Sometimes loading and travelling issues can arise because of a lack of physical fitness. In this section we look at how you can assess whether or not this might be contributing to your horse's issues, and where to turn for help and support.

In this section you will find videos demonstrating some tools that can be useful for teaching loading, including target training, the magic bucket trick and just simply using feed to familiarise the horse with the trailer.

This section tells the story of Sally. Sally had a pretty bad loading problem that developed as a result of trauma that happened away from the trailer. You can see how a loading problem can develop depending on the early experiences of the horse and how these can predispose them to issues. Sally belongs to my sister and she has very kindly given permission for me to share various videos from training sessions we did together. Most of this took place when my daughter was quite young and so you will hear her voice at different times in the background! Sally's progress was delayed a little by a couple of different injuries that happened so you will see the videos are actually spread out over the course of a couple of years, evidenced by Sally's gradually lightening coat colour. Sally is now happily retired, living with her pony best friend at my sister's new house in the country. She has successfully travelled three times in the last two years as they moved from their original home through two rented accommodations to the place that is hopefully now their forever home. Due to her physical issues she would probably never be comfortable to travel regularly, but at least all the behaviour modification work got her to the point where she could be successfully moved, a great relief for us all.

Nipper came to me to stay for a couple of months a number of years ago and during that time I did a little bit of work on his loading issues. He had apparently always been a little tricky to load, so I decided to get my clicker out and do a little with him. This video shows his progress in just one session, and following this he was able to be successfully easily loaded and travelled back to his owner's place. I work with the leadrope on but loose and just click him for steps towards the trailer. This was probably about ten years ago and nowadays I tend to focus more on using a target or my magic bucket trick, however back then I had had some success using this approach so it was the first thing I tried with him. I think in the long term it can be very effective but you have to be very careful to shape your demands so that the focus becomes walking fully into the trailer, rather than stopping and starting on the ramp. I don't tend to recommend this to clients because I find they are more inclined to end up with a horse that teaches them to 'dance' forwards and backwards on the ramp for rewards! I find the same thing often happens with a hand held target, hence my preference for stationary targets or buckets these days, I find clients with less training experience tend to do better with them!