Trailer Loading

[Michelle Clarke]

Three year old Nino is scheduled for the vet on Wednesday for his castration...we've been working with him for five days now, tieing and giving to the halter with some ground work. Today we introduced the trailer and worked on loading.



Checking things out:



A good look in the trailer with no pressure from Eric. Eric pushes Nino only when he comes away from the trailer and releases him when his focus in on the trailer.



After a few good tries, Nino decides it's not for him. He tries backing up to avoid things. He backs up around the outside roundpen a few times, even trying to engage the horses that are tied up and hoping to ignore the trailer.



Finally, he decides coming forward is his best option and begins to try agian at the mouth of the trailer. First foot in:



Eric takes the pressure off and walks away from the trailer when Nino makes big changes. Every time he re-approaches the trailer, he wants Nino to keep trying and making headway. Here, two feet in:



Nino in and relaxed:



Asking him to come out before he needs to, so Nino learns to get relief before he gets upset. Eric will not ask him to stay in the trailer until he has worked through this for a few days and is totally comfortable in there.



Letting him decide to go back in:



Learning to share space inside the trailer with a person and then backing out:



Good job, well done!



Day off tomarrow for a tired Nino!!!

[mustangdara]

cool series of photos. it looks like he is a very willing eager to please handsome guy!

[sbutter]

Fun sequence of pictures! Its great to actually hear the story behind them, such a great tool for people that are visual learners. He looks like he got a pretty good workout while he was at it. Its so nice to see horses being started in positive situations, where they progress where they are comfortable and are introduced to new things to work through. Job well done! I also absolutely love your site! Very professionally done and user friendly and great articles. Its a great way for people to actually see what is going on in your breeding program and I am actually very excited about it. Very well done program all the way through. I am excited to see where it takes you!

[angelsdream]

Good Pics! he's a handsome boy! Nice thread to start with spring here and everyone going to start trailering everywhere. Trailer loading is something that people need to spend more time with. I see so many people wait til the day they are going somewhere to work on that, then it just turns into a dramatic experience for everyone.