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[Boughtabay]

I thought I was making progress with my geldings loading, well I have - the last three weeks we’ve been out loads hacking and for lessons and before his winter break he was ok too. But this evening we went for a lesson and though he went on fine at home it was dark by the time we finished and getting him back into the dark pit of doom took over an hour (I cried lol). He actually goes on ok but he stops once he’s decided he’s in far enough and usually there’s a little bum cheek sticking out just enough that I can’t shut the back - if I go to the front to move him forward by the time I’m back at the back he’s taken a step back, or decided he’s bored and slowly crept off completely. It’s hard to explain the what’s and how’s but I’ve tried pretty much everything that I can think of for the issue we’re having. we’ve made a lot of progress - he’s quite claustrophobic and used to panic badly but this last leg (literally) seems to be the most frustrating. I’m considering switching the trailer for a longer one (hb505 for a 510) or a side load … but I’m worried I’ll spend extra on swapping and it’s really just a sticking plaster. Has anyone changed their trailer to side load/longer and had it make a big difference? He’s not a massive horse but if he stretches out he considers himself “in” without having to scoot his bum in too so I feel like it would make a difference?

 

[SpeedyPony]

Perhaps a left field suggestion, but could you put lights into the trailer?

 

[Boughtabay]

Perhaps a left field suggestion, but could you put lights into the trailer?

Yes I should’ve taken lights I was really annoyed with myself! But if I’m honest his trailering in the daytime still isn’t really reliable- he’s better but he’d rather stick a leg out than be “in” first time

 

[SpeedyPony]

Yes I should’ve taken lights I was really annoyed with myself! But if I’m honest his trailering in the daytime still isn’t really reliable- he’s better but he’d rather stick a leg out than be “in” first time

Have you tried him with company? Or sans partition (if you haven't tried that already), it would perhaps give him the extra room?
I'd be inclined to try and borrow a longer trailer, or perhaps have a week's hire from somewhere to see how he gets on before commuting to buying one.

 

[Lucky Snowball]

Could you use a lunge line threaded through a ring in the front so that you can pull him forwards while still positioned at the rear ready to close the back. I feel your pain.

 

[nutjob]

I'm quite surprised that your trailer doesn't have an internal light which comes on with the car lights. If not, you do need to have some sort of lighting if your travelling in the dark as it's going to be difficult to check on your horse if you have to pull up somewhere. You can get stick on lights now, I'd try this as an inexpensive first choice rather than a new trailer. Having said that, I had to change my normal trailer for a cheval liberte herringbone for my long backed wb. You can adjust the partitions to give them more space. Mine also travels better than when forward facing.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

Do you travel with a partition? If so lead him up and let him walk forwards whilst you stay of the left side to do the breach bar? Same really if no partition, let him walk to the front, perhaps have a bucket of food in there whilst you do the breach bar and ramp?

 

[Birker2020]

Perhaps a left field suggestion, but could you put lights into the trailer?

That was what I was going to say.

Dad made a lightweight frame he attached to the tow bar hitch thing and bolted a padlocked box on it.

He put a car battery inside and ran it to a spot light which shone over my tow hitch when it was dark as well as the interior light.

Dad also made me a lightweight frame that had a mirror on it that I could pull down so if I reversed the car to hitch up I had a birds eye view over the tow hitch!

He was a very clever Dad and could engineer most things including brackets for the breast bar of the trailer and even made me studs with a tungsten interior.

 

[Boughtabay]

Right I’ll try and get through all the different suggestions - believe me I’ve tried it all!

- trailer is ancient so internal lights are knackered, I do have those push lights but that decided it had given up the ghost too. I was using a head torch but I think that was more of a hindrance than a help with moving shadows etc. i also don’t think the lack of light is the main issue, it just made the existing issue slightly worse. Will definitely get better lights first but will have to practice everything in the dark at home it seems!!

- partition out been & done. made no difference to physically getting him far enough into the trailer to shut the back bar & actually turned out v dangerous if he backed out with it hooked on as it doesn’t “open” all the way without being pulled off (does that make sense). He travels quietly with or without partition.

- loading with partition is how we normally have success. I “send him in” from the tailboard & usually after a few slow motion yoyo impressions he goes in far enough & stays there. OR if he’s being particularly awkward I will go along the left and tug him forward a bit while tapping his bottom BUT then you’ve really got to insist on “stand” because by the time your back at tailboard it’s 50/50 whether he’s stepped back again anyway.

- I have tried literally every “trick” for getting him in including the lunge line and if he feels “stuck” in there at the head he will panic. If I close the back before fussing with his head he’s much much happier and we had got to a point where he didn’t fuss at all but last night was a real set back rather than building on the progress we have made.

Basically I’m at my wits end I’ve exhausted all my different methods, found one that usually works but not always so something else has to change at this point I think!

 

[Red-1]

I am usually a purist but think that for a horse who is in but takes a step back as you go around the back, I'd hang carrots up right at the front to keep him occupied while you go round the back!

 

[Boughtabay]

Sorry I don’t want to come here and have a rebuff for every suggestion because “I know better” it’s just that I genuinely think I have tried everything i can think of - partition in/out, helper/no helper, send in/walk in, tie up before shutting the back (I believe the source of his anxiety)/don’t tie up, feed on the box/a lick at the front/only gets carrots in the box, “only rests on the box” etc.. I really want to know if anyone has tried a different trailer (of any kind I guess! But mostly interested in side load/rear travel) and it’s made a significant change to their attitude to loading

 

[Boughtabay]

I am usually a purist but think that for a horse who is in but takes a step back as you go around the back, I'd hang carrots up right at the front to keep him occupied while you go round the back!

See this is I think where a longer trailer would help - he is very food orientated but he can just about reach the nose of the box while sticking a toe out to keep you off the back if he’s being determined. OR he’s smart enough to take a mouthful and shoot back just before you get the bar across then rinse and repeat … so I decided I was rewarding him being speedy

ETA I feel like the room for those couple of steps off before he’s in the way might make all the difference but I am really clutching at straws.

 

[bubsqueaks]

I share your exasperation having had quite a track record with loading issues my current gelding who I was soooo happy with loading like a labrador, then out of the blue planted & decided nope not doing it!
We have an Ifor Williams 505 so rear loader.
TBH from all the hours of research & practice I have read/done I dont think the set up should make a huge difference unless there is a past trauma - with planters the answer lies in the feet & the brain. I have found using Steve Youngs Horsemanship with a flag doing the groundwork & reinforcing myself as top herd member has changed his mindset so he moves I dont. Yes I still make it a lovely experience once on with a lick, carrots, haylage, etc. I never use force only pressure & release, keeping their attention in the trailer, then if they plant moving their legs from side to side which generally ends in a forward step as well. I never use lunge lines.
So if its the last couple of feet youre struggling with he's just learnt to evade what youre asking but in a different way, given that I would carry on with the groundwork asserting yourself as being in charge not the other way round - good luck its sooooo frustrating!!

 

[dorsetladette]

Some one I know that traveled her horse a lot alone had a gadget to lift the bum bar while you are standing at the horses head in her Ifor williams. I'll see if I can find the name of it.

 

[dorsetladette]

It was a TUI safety bar but they don't seem to be trading anymore. My friends was designed for the older style Ifors with the open part at the front of the partition. You might be able to pick one up second hand somewhere. There are a few threads on here about them and the alternatives.

 

[Boughtabay]

I share your exasperation having had quite a track record with loading issues my current gelding who I was soooo happy with loading like a labrador, then out of the blue planted & decided nope not doing it!
We have an Ifor Williams 505 so rear loader.
TBH from all the hours of research & practice I have read/done I dont think the set up should make a huge difference unless there is a past trauma - with planters the answer lies in the feet & the brain. I have found using Steve Youngs Horsemanship with a flag doing the groundwork & reinforcing myself as top herd member has changed his mindset so he moves I dont. Yes I still make it a lovely experience once on with a lick, carrots, haylage, etc. I never use force only pressure & release, keeping their attention in the trailer, then if they plant moving their legs from side to side which generally ends in a forward step as well. I never use lunge lines.
So if its the last couple of feet youre struggling with he's just learnt to evade what youre asking but in a different way, given that I would carry on with the groundwork asserting yourself as being in charge not the other way round - good luck its sooooo frustrating!!

This is what I worry about - unfortunately he has had a bad experience with the trailer so he’s a mix of being a planter for literally the last half a step and a panicker if you put too much pressure on the front end (and too much can vary on his state of mind ). He does seem to be pretty happy going on now 99% of the way but doesn’t seem to get that I need him right up against the front bar to be able to shut the back, I get the impression he’s thinking “I’m in… what more do you want?!” So when he is far enough forward it feels more like luck than he’s actually understanding he really needs to be right at the front for things to work

 

[Boughtabay]

It was a TUI safety bar but they don't seem to be trading anymore. My friends was designed for the older style Ifors with the open part at the front of the partition. You might be able to pick one up second hand somewhere. There are a few threads on here about them and the alternatives.

This is interesting I’ll have a look - I was thinking I could tie something behind because once he realises he can’t back out he’s usually quite happy by now and will step forward off the back bar … but I’m not sure that’s actually all that safe

 

[canteron]

Mine is quite an extreme example - but I sold a trailer and bought a box, where I could sit in the back with the horse.
I worked out the problem wasn’t loading but travelling, so I have been working long and hard at improving her travelling confidence, which has improved the loading.
One other thing, I find her more difficult to load if parked in a field with lots of escape options! Maybe try and really think where you can park, preferably in a yard or if it has to be a field a corner - it can make a difference.

 

[Boughtabay]

Mine is quite an extreme example - but I sold a trailer and bought a box, where I could sit in the back with the horse.
I worked out the problem wasn’t loading but travelling, so I have been working long and hard at improving her travelling confidence, which has improved the loading.
One other thing, I find her more difficult to load if parked in a field with lots of escape options! Maybe try and really think where you can park, preferably in a yard or if it has to be a field a corner - it can make a difference.

Yes we do park tactically but really nowadays the issue is keeping him in the right spot on the box to shut the back rather than actually getting him in - if that makes sense he does travel well now and has a little munch on hay as we go. M I think it’s mostly his claustrophobia of being “shut in” initially… it was actually my dentist that pointed out he was claustrophobic when I put him in a smaller stable to usual with no “view” & it was a bit of an “aha” moment … on the whole he’s ok now but if something makes him think “oh no being shut in tha dark again” he doesn’t do the huge reaction he used to but he’ll deffo keep a foot on that back ramp as an option to exit!

Maybe I just did too much too soon trying to load in the dark with a head torch rather than sticking to what we had been doing successfully … I have however listed my trailer as a complete knee jerk reaction the husband is horrified

 

[IrishMilo]

Have you tried setting aside a few hours so you feel no stress and literally waiting him out from inside the box/trailer? My TB became very sticky to load, would plant and then just not move. He was 16.2 and a big old unit so no chance of pulling him in!

I put a bucket of feed in the lorry, stuck a lunge on him, got in the box and sat down.

If he wanted to sniff the ramp, or stand there that was fine, if he looked away from the box I corrected him gently and made him stay square to the. It took about 15 minutes the first time (which feels like 3 hours) but he eventually got bored/curious and walked half way up the ramp. Another 10 minutes later he was in.

Did exactly the same thing the next few days a couple of times per day and it genuinely cured him of it.

 

[dottylottie]

lily hated my 505, she’s only 14.2 but even with the partition out i had to open all the front up and have someone fasten the back for me to stop her reversing off by the time i got there! i bought a side loading one and she went on by herself with me at the bottom of the ramp, and now upgraded to a 3.5t which she’s also happy with.

definitely worth hiring a side loading one and seeing what he thinks of it! i ended up with the lorry because the other pony liked the 505 but not the equitrek

 

[Boughtabay]

lily hated my 505, she’s only 14.2 but even with the partition out i had to open all the front up and have someone fasten the back for me to stop her reversing off by the time i got there! i bought a side loading one and she went on by herself with me at the bottom of the ramp, and now upgraded to a 3.5t which she’s also happy with.

definitely worth hiring a side loading one and seeing what he thinks of it! i ended up with the lorry because the other pony liked the 505 but not the equitrek

That’s actually typical yes I’ve requested to borrow my friends side load lorry to see if that works. I can’t afford a lorry at the moment but I could probably stretch to an equitrek if he decides that’s ok!!

 

[Boughtabay]

Have you tried setting aside a few hours so you feel no stress and literally waiting him out from inside the box/trailer? My TB became very sticky to load, would plant and then just not move. He was 16.2 and a big old unit so no chance of pulling him in!

I put a bucket of feed in the lorry, stuck a lunge on him, got in the box and sat down.

If he wanted to sniff the ramp, or stand there that was fine, if he looked away from the box I corrected him gently and made him stay square to the. It took about 15 minutes the first time (which feels like 3 hours) but he eventually got bored/curious and walked half way up the ramp. Another 10 minutes later he was in.

Did exactly the same thing the next few days a couple of times per day and it genuinely cured him of it.

That’s pretty much how we’ve got to the point of him being “within” the box happily but as soon as you move from his head he knows you’re off to do up the back bar so will take a step back (or just as frustratingly, amble off backwards incredibly slowly but unstoppably ). So once I got him happy with generally standing on the box I switched to driving him in so that I can stay by the back bar to flip it over but then he has a tendency to stop just short enough of the breast bar that I can’t quite get the back one across. This has been an issue for a really long time and I finally thought we we’re getting it going out regular and mostly on in under 10 mins but last night obviously pushed him over the edge and it was soooo demoralising somethings got to change!

 

[IrishMilo]

That’s pretty much how we’ve got to the point of him being “within” the box happily but as soon as you move from his head he knows you’re off to do up the back bar so will take a step back (or just as frustratingly, amble off backwards incredibly slowly but unstoppably ). So once I got him happy with generally standing on the box I switched to driving him in so that I can stay by the back bar to flip it over but then he has a tendency to stop just short enough of the breast bar that I can’t quite get the back one across. This has been an issue for a really long time and I finally thought we we’re getting it going out regular and mostly on in under 10 mins but last night obviously pushed him over the edge and it was soooo demoralising somethings got to change!

If you tie him up with a lunge line it will be long enough that he doesn't need to be all the way in but he also won't be able to reverse back out! Or have someone else in there with a bucket of food?

 

[MissMay]

Can you loop a lunge line around his back similar to a breast bar and apply the pressure.

Clip it on the side thread it behind as he is in and stay in the front end keeping pressure until he is in? Then maintain the pressure and pop up the breech bar

 

[Boughtabay]

If you tie him up with a lunge line it will be long enough that he doesn't need to be all the way in but he also won't be able to reverse back out! Or have someone else in there with a bucket of food?

Tying up before shutting the back is a big no-no unfortunately it is the trigger for a blind panic (found out the hard way!).

Can you loop a lunge line around his back similar to a breast bar and apply the pressure.

Clip it on the side thread it behind as he is in and stay in the front end keeping pressure until he is in? Then maintain the pressure and pop up the breech bar

I am thinking I could clip a line behind him once he’s mostly in because once he bumps his bum backwards and realises he’s shut in he stands properly at the front so maybe that could work. He would gladly wreck everything in a blind panic if it doesn’t though which is why I’m hesitant to wrap things/tie things/use gadgets.

Someone wants to buy my 505 already so I might have to make a decision on what to do next sooner than later

 

[maya2008]

Side load, if he goes in fine, means you pop horse in and can keep hold while you push their bottom over and shut the partition. If alone, I would have a side load. I’ve had a side load 3.5T and it was super easy to do everything alone even with new travellers.

 

[Boughtabay]

Side load, if he goes in fine, means you pop horse in and can keep hold while you push their bottom over and shut the partition. If alone, I would have a side load. I’ve had a side load 3.5T and it was super easy to do everything alone even with new travellers.

Yeah this is what I’m hoping - he’d be more manoeuvre-able side on? He’s pretty good at his groundwork in general we do a lot of forward, back & sideways over and between poles in hand … I’m just not long enough in a trailer to manage the front and the back on my own

Thankyou this does inspire some confidence we might manage better in a side load

 

[dottylottie]

That’s actually typical yes I’ve requested to borrow my friends side load lorry to see if that works. I can’t afford a lorry at the moment but I could probably stretch to an equitrek if he decides that’s ok!!

if you can find one, the trail treka is fab! that’s what i had, and it was maybe 5/10kg heavier than the 505 so still worked for my car, i believe the dimensions are similar to a 510 rather than the star treka/show treka etc! but if your car can tow it one of those would be lovely, i think the living is fab

 

[Boughtabay]

if you can find one, the trail treka is fab! that’s what i had, and it was maybe 5/10kg heavier than the 505 so still worked for my car, i believe the dimensions are similar to a 510 rather than the star treka/show treka etc! but if your car can tow it one of those would be lovely, i think the living is fab

The trail trek seems hard to come by second hand but yeah husband is quite horrified at the size of the show/day ones so will keep an eye out but I am keen to get this plan into action ASAP so we might just be dragging a spaceship behind our Land Rover and getting funny looks