This is Shimmer’s second day practicing walking into the trailer. Trailer loading can be very frightening to a horse and many people have lots of trouble and training problems trying to get their horse to load into a trailer. With clicker training, trailer loading is a piece of cake! To read more about teaching Shimmer to lead and trailer load, check out this post.
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Hi, I keep forgetting to go to the stupid post office to send you the amazing (or not) treat machine but I promise it IS on my todo list!
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?
Hi Barrie!
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
Thanks for the video – looking good!
Those new owners are SO lucky to have you putting this base on these little rescues Mary! Have you practiced closing her in as well?
Hi Jane,
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
Way to go Shimmer, that’s very simple and easy.