She had been trailer twice previously before this video was made. Both times involved being herded into the trailer with a group of horses.

We didn’t practice closing her in, but we probably should have.
A few days after I made this video, we trailered her to her new foster home. She loaded up perfectly, but did get a bit stressed on the trailer ride. It was her first time trailering by herself and she was a bit sweaty and stressed at first. Although, she was calmly munching hay when, near the end of the trip, we stopped for gas. It wasn’t the best possible first solo trailer experience, but she handled it pretty well.

Mary

The more foals can be worked with at a young age, the easier it is later. Kind of like with puppies!

Having a foal follow it’s mother could be one way to habituate a foal to a trailer, especially if the mare was comfortable and calm with trailer loading. Many people teach leading by putting a halter and lead on the foal and then leading it behind it’s mother (or another older horse).

Horses are very social animals and a younger horse will pay close attention to what an older horse is (or isn’t) comfortable with. Eventually the horse will need to do the task on its own, but sometimes a lot of time can be saved by using a more confident horse as a model.

Mary

Question: what if foals follow their mother into and out of the trailer? Do people ever do that and if so, does it help later?