This article is not a step-by-step manual on how to load your "problem" horse. Instead, the aim is to get horse owners thinking about this all too common problem and understand it from the horse's point of view. Hopefully in reading this you will not only be able to recognise where your relationship with your horse stands regarding trailer loading, but also pick up on areas that you can change to improve the horsebox experience for both you and your horse.

Anyone involved with horses have either had a horse that didn't load very well, or know of someone who is experiencing difficulty in loading their horse. Often our emotions get out of hand as pulse rates and adrenaline levels shoot through the roof, tempers start to flare and before long it has turned into a fight … Let's take a moment to think about this: Pound for pound your horse is bigger, stronger and faster than you will ever be ... does it then not make sense to get your horse to be a willing partner during loading?

Questions to ask yourself
• Does my horse actively walk straight towards the horsebox?
• Does my horse walk into the trailer without stopping or does he walk off the side of the ramp?
• Does someone have to chase my horse from behind or have lunge lines or a whip behind him?
• How many people do I need to load/unload my horse, is it a family reunion?
• When unloading, does my horse walk out calmly or does he rush out?
• How do we drive when towing the horsebox, do we race because we are going to be late?

These "little signs" are generally ignored by people, while the horse directly communicates with us that the situation is uncomfortable for him. As a last resort, the horse may entirely refuse to load by rearing or bolting, shutting down and even lie down in front of the horsebox.

The last question point is for serious consideration: How do we drive? The way we drive when towing our horses play a huge (if not the biggest) part in how they will load in the future.
An uncomfortable journey because of a non-sympathetic driver, will always result in reluctance to load on the horse's part. We have to learn to drive slower, go around corners slower and start to brake much earlier. Yes, you can argue that your horsebox has padding everywhere, therefore your horse does not feel anything when you brake too quick or go around a corner fast … 500 kg with momentum will feel a knock on the hip, shoulder or breast; unfortunately bruising does not show under coloured coats.

Put yourself in his hooves
Let's start to look at trailer loading from the horse's point of view. Firstly, horses are flight animals that like big open spaces so that they can run away from potential danger. You've never heard of a horse in the wild that decided to go and hide in a cave when it saw a predator. Looking at that horsebox again, in a horse's mind it is nothing more than a mobile cave and a very small one at that.
If the horse has had a negative experience in association with a horsebox, this highlights his instinct even more. Imagine what must be going through a horses mind when we race around going to shows, hurrying the loading, and slamming on the brakes.

Secondly, horses are into-pressure animals. Horses will actively lean into any ­pressure applied, unless they are trained to come off of pressure. Keeping this in mind, let's apply this to loading. A large majority of horses that rear outside of the horsebox or tend to lift their heads high in the air towards the roof, have probably at some stage banged their poll against a roof (box or stable).

Pressure at the poll
There is the association of pressure at the poll (halter) with leading into the horsebox and previous/current discomfort, and the horse then instinctively starts to rear into pressure. However one has to be careful in distinguishing between horses that rear because of associated discomfort and rearing as a result from learned behaviour in avoiding the situation.

Another example of this into-pressure principle, would be a horse that runs off to the side of the ramp when loading or that swings his hips out when on the ramp. In many cases this horse has banged his flanks, hip, hock or fetlock against the side of the horsebox, causing him again to associate that discomfort with the horsebox. The list is never-ending in this regard. However, I think it is clear how into-pressure can affect the loading of your horse.

All of the above-mentioned can start to spiral out of control very quickly. If not addressed in a positive and clear way by the owner, these "behaviours" can manifest as evasions in all the other aspects of your relationship, and become hard habits to break for both the horse and the owner!

Groundwork is crucial
Before attempting to load your horse, think about the following:
• What is my relationship with my horse like?
• Does my horse trust me?
• How is our groundwork?

Groundwork is one of the most overlooked aspects of training. Being able to yield your horse in all directions, ties in perfectly with trailer loading as it ­establishes leadership and trust. Before loading any horse, it is important to first make sure that the horse understands how to come off of pressure, forwards, backwards and yielding the horse's quarters in both directions.
The horse should be calm and responsive before moving on, the owner having established their leadership. Don't try to dominate the horse – merely show him a way in which he understands that you can be ­trusted. Only then would be the right time to address evasive behaviour and/or fears around the horsebox.

When he bolts
In the first sequence of pictures we see a horse that has learned to use certain behaviours to avoid loading. In the first picture we see him bolting away from the horsebox. When using a short lead, it can be pulled out of your hands and the horse will learn very quickly that by utilising this type of ­behaviour, he gets away from loading.

Due to the fact that we worked on coming off of pressure, the horse stopped and turned to face the horsebox. In the next two pictures we see the horse resorting to rearing in order to avoid loading. This can be very intimidating and also dangerous for both you and the horse. People normally try to pull the horse down, which is actually the worst thing to do.
As we discussed earlier, horses are intopressure animals and by pulling more, you might even cause the horse to fall over backwards. By "saying what we mean and meaning what we say" and by being patient and consistent, the horse learns that his evasions will get him nowhere.

In most cases, once the horse sees that his evasion will not work anymore, he will start to work with you and not against you, often walking straight into the horsebox. This is where most of us make the mistake of quickly shutting the ramp when in actual fact true training begins now. Only once we get past the evasions such as bolting and rearing, can we start to deal with the physical and/or emotional issues that the horse presents with.

After training
In the second sequence of pictures you can see the same horse behaving in a very different manner after training. He has learned to trust in the process to the point that he will now load himself, and remain in the horsebox having previously charged out as soon as he was in.

The next step is to replace the previous negative learned behaviour – running backwards, going off to the side, rearing, bolting – with positive behaviour. This is done by repetition of the loading over time. Look at it in the following way: If you loaded your horse correctly thirty to fifty times in the session, that is more loading than most horses do in a year (more than what your average horse does in a lifetime). In this way the good behaviour becomes the norm and the unwanted behaviour gets phased out. It's not about boring your horse to tears, but creating a non-confrontational positive experience.

So we need to ask ourselves, how well does my horse load? If I had to go to my horse right now and ask him to load into a horsebox – any time, day or night – how long would it take and would it be a breeze? Just think, there might come a time when you need to get your horse to the vet ASAP!

(Stefan Bothma is an equine behaviourist. Go to www.equineinsight.co.za for more information.)