Trailering problems HELP!

I'll try to help but I need a bit more info first.  What kind of trailer is it?  Stock, slant, straight load 2 horse....that sort of thing.  Second when you ask her to go in what is her reaction?  Does she run back, rare up or lock up and refuse? How are you asking?  Do you walk in first then ask her to follow or send her in while you stand to the side?  What have you tried with her and how often?  When she does load for you do you imidiatly shut the door or have her load several times before shutting the door and heading out?
 
 

My trailer is a Ford 2 horse straight load step up trailer. Usually I will walk in first and sometimes she puts her two front feet up and sometimes she stops at the step and just looks at my like im crazy. Sometimes when she gets all the way in the trailer she comes flying out backwards like the hounds of hell are after her and other times she just stands and is like hmm wheres my food!. Usually it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to more than an hour to get her to load. She has gone for ground work training and she loaded soo good to leave and at the end of the day she put up a fight rearing up, locking up, dodging the trailer when you got her close enough. She ended up having to spend the night there so I could come and get her in the morning.

The other mare just puts up a fight a rares up and just say you cant make me and im not going! 

I will usually try and load one of these two mares at least once a weekend.
The first mare went to her first horse show yesterday and so loaded great when it came time to come home she wasn't exactly a fan she just refused and locked up.
Thanks

I saw on the other post taht you have been working on her ground manners.  Have you done sending excersises with her yet?  If not that is what Iwould work on.
 
Start out somewhere with good footing and a safe wall like a roundpen or arena.   the whole idea of this is for her to learn that there is no other way to go but the way you are pointing for her.  Take the lead rope in your left hand and hold it up and out pointing with your finger, this is the direction you want her to go.  I tell my students and clients to hold the lead rope like you were pretending your hand was a gun, thumb up forefinger pointing and the lead resting over center with your fingers loose around the rope to let it slide.   when you give her a direction you will want contact on the halter but not tightly.
 
Now use the stick and click to her while you are taping her shoulder.  Most horses will run backward or sideways around you but just stay with her and keep taping till she actually turns and moves off to the left around you.  Let her go a few times around you so that she knows that is what you wanted.  yeild her hindquarters and give her a good rub.  Keep doing this out in the middle of the arena so that she understands that the only door open is in the direction you are pointing.   When you have done this for a while take her to the wall of the arena and have her move between you and the wall.  keep doing it till she is just walking though calmly.  If she gets stuck in the middle or refuses then tap her belly to get her going again.  The idea is that when you start loading your horse you are going to stand at the side of the trailer and cue her up in.
 
From here I do this every day, finding things to send them over and around.  Send her over poles, over tarps, up hills and through creeks.  By doing this she is learning to respect you more and gaining more confidence in herself and you.  When you are ready to try the trailer move it somewhere where you have a lot of room and just park it there.  Take a whole day and work on trailer loading, if she gets it in 20 minutes then great if not then you have all day.  But I wouldn't do this the day before a show or the day that you are wanting to take her somewhere the minute she loads. 
 
Now then start out away from the trailer and start working her.  Lounge her for a while, changing directions quickly and make her hustle.  Changing directions like that gets the horses attention and saves you a whole lot of time mindlessly lounging her in circles all day.  After about 20 minutes take her to the trailer door while you stand at the side.  Position yourself so that she can't dive between you and the trailer and have her looking straght in.  If you want to you can open all the windows so that it is lighter in there as well.  Let her rest there infront of the trailer for a bit then take her back out and move her feet a bit more, bring her back for a rest.
 
Now is the tricky part.  Stand at the side again out of her way and to the side.  Have her looking in and click to her to load.  If nothing then tap her on the belly with the stick.  Start out with a tap though and the minute she looks inside or leans forward stop taping and give her a rub.  let her smell it or snort at it what ever she wants to do.  Each time she makes an effort to step forward and give it a smell reward her with a rub.  most horses will run back and to the side but just stay with her and when she comes back up give her a rub and start again.
 
When she does load, let her rest inside, if she bolts right back out thats ok too just have her move those feet.  Lounge small circles and change directions, back up with energy and then bring her back.  Ask her to load and when she does just stand there and give her rump a rub.  Let her rest for a bit then if she doesn't come out back her out and put her to work again for a few minutes.  This time when she goes in she should be set, let her rest in there and you step up in the empty side and really rub all over her.  Finish it on a good note and do it again the next day.  We do this with colts, older horses and everything inbetween and without fail they all walk in the minute your hand gives them the direction.  I usually work on this for about a week and then give them a rest from it for a while and when I come back to it they are better than ever.
 
Hope this helps a bit.  Good luck and stay safe.

I've had the same problem with my mare... I always guessed that my girl had a bad trailering experience, as before I got her... well, she was sent to between 4 and 6 different states.
 
My girl would completely lock up, or place her front hooves on the trailer and then completely freak out. I just got her to trailer for the first time that I've owned her a few months ago when my friend and I went on a trail ride a few miles away and had to trailer to the trail (and I've owned her for about 7 or 8 years now).
 
In the past, I've tried to feed her in and near a trailer (if the food was placed inside the trailer, she'd have nothing to do with it). I've tried making her load with a butt-rope, placing 2x4's on each side of the trailer and trying to get her to walk up on it, and nothing...
 
She finally got up in the trailer when my friends dad got behind her and popped her on the rear... It only took that one time... now she's good as gold, but still hesitant to load.

Too many people try to play tug of war with their horse.  The horse should walk forward when you do and never leave your side.  Kind of like a dog that heels.  IF they start to refuse you BACKPEDAL with them, keeping the horse at your side.  Then forward again.  IF they won't go forward then someone needs to have a whip behind the horse.  IF the horse backs up they back into a whip.  IF they stand or go forward they get praised.  If you don't have a friend to help sometimes you can pop the horse on the side with the end of your lead rope...only do that if they back up.
 
Watch how you drive.  Our pony refused to load for a while when we hauled her in the dust and heat...she must have been uncomfortable that day.  Accelerate slowly, turn slow, brake for train tracks etc etc.  Maybe go for a ride in your trailer, is it excessively noisy?  bumpy?  Check the tire pressure, brakes etc.

Chris Cox Trailering video is EXCELLENT!!!!!!
 
Plus what Trainer said is always good advice.

to me it sounds like trainer is using clinton andersons training method.
i will have to perfect her  lunging then in this case. she goes pretty well just doesnt understand stops yet. looks like a got my work ahead of me

LOL  Yeah its a bit of Clinton, Cameron and years of trial and error!  But it does work so long as your release is right on.

I would research some clinton anderson trailer loading! Hes very retard proof! If i can understand it you can lmfao! Good luck!

I recognized some of the C. Anderson method in Trainer's description.  A very good description, too.  I could visualized exactly what you were saying. 
 
I was fortunate enough to attend one of his tour weekends in July.  After less than 15 minutes of working with a trailer-soured horse, Clint pointed to the trailer from 20 feet away and that horse immediately trotted away from Clint, dragging the lead, and into the trailer!  Clint reasoned that the horse gets to make the decision to be in the trailer.  Its the place where he gets to stand and breathe, anywhere else and Clint was making him MOVE-MOVE-MOVE those feet!  Lastly, Clint stated the horse would need lots more practice at home to reinforce that day's lesson.
 
I am such a novice that I would not have been able to explain it so well.  I'm a fan of anyone that has achieved even a small measure of working with a horse this way. 
 

my horse had an issue with trailers a while ago, he loaded great then when we closed the doors he started freaking out, come to find out there was a loose piece that we didnt catch and it was hitting him on the butt when the trailer moved, he also had an issue backing out of the trailer, he wasnt all that trusting with the whole back up deal and still isnt, but hes gotten better, what i did was gave him no other way out then calmed him down made sure he was ok and ready to do what i asked then kept a firm but a easy hand on his shoulder and you would have thought he had been the worlds best backer-uper ever lol
good luck!!

Trainer,
 
I think you know of my horse....the 4 1/2 year old QH that I have been writing about lately.
 
Today....I am ashamed.
 
My horse has loaded twice before....once when I bought him....walked right up the ramp into the trailer.  A month ago, some barn buddies brought their trailer to the barn, and I asked if I could load for practice......and we loaded with no hesitation.  Perfect.
 
Today....however....was completely different.
 
I had him saddled and ready to load, and he would not go in.  This trailer was a 3 horse stock featherlight goosneck....nice trailer.  There was one horse already inside with the gate shut as a divider.
 
I wanted to continue to be patient, sensing fear, not stubborness, but the owner of the truck and trailer (and barn owner) was persistant to push.  Adding too much pressure to the lead rope just makes the horse worse, and you can make the horse rear while backing.
 
The owner took a long lead rope, wrapped it through the trailer wall as leverage, and it ended up bad.  Horse flipped over backwards and just ended up getting a bit scrapped up....but I stopped the whole ordeal after that.
 
The horse and I had worked up quite a sweat, and I was not wanting to ruin my horse any further.  I gave him a bath, and let him back to his stall to relax...hoping he would forgive me for allowing this.
 
Later this afternoon, I returned and fed the horse at the back of the trailer floor, allowing him to eat off the trailer floor and just hung out there for a couple hours. 
 
He can walk right up to the trailer, but wont step in.  The trailer is about knee high on him.  If you ask for firm pressure to move forward, he only goes backwards.
 
Not sure why now, but maybe he is just too young and I need to keep reinforcing the loading so he remembers?  I have had him four months now.
 
Thanks for helping.....my plan now is to take it really slow and start rebuilding.  I like the idea of doing more ground work....we have mostly just been riding lots of trails and been doing some arena work with balloons for Mounted Shooting Training. 
 
Is it ok for me to feed him in the trailer like that?  I tried to move the hay in deeper to the trailer, but he didn't go in.  Only day one, but was after a bad scene!
 
Eric

Sorry to hear of the bad experience........  My new filly has had some bad trailering experiences so we've worked on it a little and she gets herself in a tizzy.  Only worked on it twice, wasn't in a really good area.  Got her to get all the way in except for her hind feet and finally relax and just stand there and ended with that.  I feed my horses in the trailer.  I want them to think of it as a happy place and when they are chewing, they are thinking and relaxing.  We need to work on backing up, knowing where her hind feet are, I've discovered.  She'll back up on flat ground but really doesn't want to step off the 6 inch edge of the wash rack.  Time to get out the poles, etc.   I'd follow Trainer's advice and sending him forward around you, over tarps, etc. and see if that helps.  Goodluck!

I think they all have their off days when they want to be boogers.   Dani has been nosing her way into trailers from the git go.  Not too long ago she broke a breakaway halter pulling out of the trailer.  We had a good session last weekend - which took a while but...  I try to have endless time and not get in a hurry with her but Sometimes even Zag balks.  Recently he's been loading himself!!  I don't get it.

I don't think that one session is going to mess your horse up.