If you owned a horse that was about 25 years old, had been in a trailer only 3 times in her life, and the last time was about 14 years ago, how would you expect her to load today?
Michèle and I are relocating and have a 2-day trip ahead of us with our 5 horses, 4 dogs, and a cat. We decided to leave behind the emus, kangaroos, brown snakes, and grass ticks.
I figured it would be a good idea to practice loading the trailer since it's been a long time since our horses were last trailered. It didn’t seem like a good idea to leave it to the last minute to see if they are okay to load into our trailer.
All 5 of our horses loaded and unloaded quietly, calmly, and without hesitation several times. There was not a moment of resistance or concern. No rushing, no hesitation, and only a hint of puzzlement on their faces as if to ask, “Where are we going?”
Considering how little experience all of our horses have with trailering, why did they load as if it were a normal daily occurrence?
The answer is because they are visited and handled every day, and more importantly, they lead brilliantly. I cannot exaggerate the importance of teaching a horse to be brilliant to handle and have amazing leading skills. Most of us spend far more time being around our horses on the ground than we do riding them, and the skills they learn from that impact everything else. Teaching a horse to lead brilliantly has a major influence on everything else, including picking up feet, clearing a jump, or performing lead changes. Leading brilliantly is not ‘a thing’ and separate from other things. How a horse leads influences how it does other things to the best of its ability. It is a continuum.
When your horse feels “going with you” and “following a feel” is the best idea it has had all day, things that can be hard to other horses are easy to your horse.
It is not just luck that we have easy-going horses that have no problem loading into trailers or trimming their hooves or ground tying, or leading without a halter and rope.
I do not have to practice trailer loading so that our horses load exceptionally well when we hit the road to their new home. I just had to make sure we went together and follow each other's feel in everything we have done since we came into each other's lives.
Our happy band. Little do they know how their life is about to change.