Safe Methods to Load and Unload a Horse onto a Float/Trailer
$35.00
Product code:Mini08
Putting a horse into a confines space is against the natural instinct of the horse. Being a hunted species he would like the freedom to run away. Yet, you see many horses being transported all the time.
You also see some people take many hours to get a horse onto a float or trailer. This could be because the horse has great fear getting into the horse afraid of the floatconfined space and perhaps needs some training to learn to accept that it is nice to get into the float.
In the beginning we need to teach the horse that it is not so bad to be on the float. We can start feeding the horse first near the float and progressively move the feed closer to the float and then into the float. It will not take long before the horse realises that being near or in the float is a pretty good experience.
In the early stages I also like to do something pleasurable at the end of the trip in the float, for instance going for a trail ride instead of going to a competition. Competitions usually represent some degree of stress for both rider and horse and many horses, once they realise they have to do something difficult at the end of the trip, dont want to go onto the float or trailer. So, going on a relaxed trail ride for a few times will give the horse a fun experience at the end of the trip to the trail ride area and on the way back feed awaits him.
We need to always have good practice when loading a horse. As the horse is a hunted species it often happens that the horse gets a fright and he will pull back and run backwards out of the float at the rate of knots.
AND NOW TRY TO GET HIM IN AGAIN!
Once the horse get a fright of something it is hard to convince him there is nothing to worry about. So, we need to have a loading and unloading method that prevents anything unforseen from happening.
That is what this Mini Course is about: The correct and SAFE method to load and unload a horse.
In this Mini Course we take you through the preparation before the trip. The preparation for a short trip is different than for longer ones.
Once the preparation is done we explain the methods of safely loading and unloading a horse. In our example we always use two people when loading and unloading, because this is by far the safest way of doing this.
