midTN_Brangusman
Well-known member
M-5":1d0a42ph said:
x2, MAKE HIM HUNT A HOLE!
Very flighty horse, won't load
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x2, MAKE HIM HUNT A HOLE!
Nesikep
Well-known member
Not saying this is the case here, but I think there are some people who just don't speak horse, (or cow, or whatever), and just get body language, etc all wrong every time.. my dad is one such person.. I do best getting everything involving cows done before he shows up to 'help', last year I sorted off 22 calves from their mommas in about 10 minutes.
Craig Miller
Well-known member
That's how it is with us nes. I can sort em off easier than him. He gets riled up pretty quick
When i first started working with horse's i had the same problem you are having. Had all kinds of advice giving to me. From feed them in the trailer which i have tried and in my opinion is a waste of time to alot of other methods that were a waste of time. Until this old cowboy who is now a very good friend of mine taught me how to teach a horse to load. My wife was and still is a barrel racer. She had 16 horses when i started dating her. She had this one big gelding that she had spent i don't know how much time trying to teach it to load by feeding it up into the trailer that would most of the time hours to load that way during the few times that it would load that way. And anytime i would intervine and try a different way she would stop me saying she didn't want me hurting her horse.
So i discussed the problem with the old cowboy. He told me the next time she got the horse loaded to leave her at home and for me to bring the horse to him and he would teach the horse how to load in a trailer. Which he did and i have taught alot of horse's and a few mules how to load this way.
I would say that this will work on most any horse that you can put a halter on and lead around with a lead rope. Wether it has been broke to ride or not.
This is how you do it. You need two people who knows a little bit about horses to start with. I would recommend you try to find a couple of felleas like that to do this for you. If you happen to know a stock contractor that say furnishes bucking horse's or other live stock like roping steer's etc... he will have guys that know how to handle horse's without getting kicked or run over by a horse trying to run backwards .
Here is what has to be done. One cowboy will lead the horse as close into the trailer as it will go before the horse balks and won't go any further. At this point what you do next is determined by the type of problem you have with that particular horse. If the horse starts poping up in the front and pulling back which alot of them will do. There is another step that i won't go into right now. The cowboy out side of the trailer will be back and off to the side of the horse with a larit rope. He will be far enough away that he can throw the rope toward the back legs just above its back hoofs. I don't mean hard enough like you were trying to beat the horse which you couldn't do with a larit rope anyway. What this does is makes the horse nervous thinking something is trying to get it. Its instinct is going to get away from whatever that is that is whipping at its hind hoofs. It may try to dance from side to side in its fornt first but if everything is done right it will load up into the trailer. When it does trun the horse around and lead it back out. And repeat the process 3 or 4 more times. And most of the time that is all that it will take. Be sure to turn the horse around and lead it out instead of backing it out the first few times. Just until it has gotten over its fear of loading. And thats it. I haven't seen a horse yet that can't be loaded that way.
I have taught alot of them that way.
So i discussed the problem with the old cowboy. He told me the next time she got the horse loaded to leave her at home and for me to bring the horse to him and he would teach the horse how to load in a trailer. Which he did and i have taught alot of horse's and a few mules how to load this way.
I would say that this will work on most any horse that you can put a halter on and lead around with a lead rope. Wether it has been broke to ride or not.
This is how you do it. You need two people who knows a little bit about horses to start with. I would recommend you try to find a couple of felleas like that to do this for you. If you happen to know a stock contractor that say furnishes bucking horse's or other live stock like roping steer's etc... he will have guys that know how to handle horse's without getting kicked or run over by a horse trying to run backwards .
Here is what has to be done. One cowboy will lead the horse as close into the trailer as it will go before the horse balks and won't go any further. At this point what you do next is determined by the type of problem you have with that particular horse. If the horse starts poping up in the front and pulling back which alot of them will do. There is another step that i won't go into right now. The cowboy out side of the trailer will be back and off to the side of the horse with a larit rope. He will be far enough away that he can throw the rope toward the back legs just above its back hoofs. I don't mean hard enough like you were trying to beat the horse which you couldn't do with a larit rope anyway. What this does is makes the horse nervous thinking something is trying to get it. Its instinct is going to get away from whatever that is that is whipping at its hind hoofs. It may try to dance from side to side in its fornt first but if everything is done right it will load up into the trailer. When it does trun the horse around and lead it back out. And repeat the process 3 or 4 more times. And most of the time that is all that it will take. Be sure to turn the horse around and lead it out instead of backing it out the first few times. Just until it has gotten over its fear of loading. And thats it. I haven't seen a horse yet that can't be loaded that way.
I have taught alot of them that way.
One more thing. Eventually someone might suggest taking a long rope and run it through the trailer from the front and out the back to hook to the horses halter to pull the horse up into the trailer with another horse. I know someone that done that. The horse braced itself with its front legs and sit back on its haunches and they drug the horses front legs under the back of the trailer. Took the muscle off both front legs down to the bone just above its knee caps. Pulling a horse into a trailer isn't good.
76 Bar
Well-known member
I had the good fortune to attend numerous Ray Hunt clinics. Demonstrations of successful stress free trailer loading of so called inscrutable rouges was one of the many high lights.
