Drew
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Post by Drew on Oct 25, 2015 3:45:52 GMT
Encountered a topic that may generate some discussion in the ground work area...
We experienced our first off-site to another farm with the riding club. My daughter had a great experience, they went to a farm owned by a race track vet and worked on very basic pacing on the clock, ground poles, short cross poles, etc. on the exercise track. They had a blast...it was a lot of fun
Anyway we rent per ride/lesson with a really good mount but were advised before the off-site, by the owner, that the horse likes to "rush out of the trailer" and "treats help". My first thought was, "Is that a desired/acceptable behavior?". My second was "Treats!, to get in/out of the trailer?" I asked them if they intended to correct it and told them it's not difficult, and the response I received was, "well, he's too old and that could be stressful." Wow.
Anyway the horse just seemed a little anxious and it wasn't a big problem...but the horse was uncharacteristically nervous with the normal routine of unloading...in what has been an otherwise very predictable, solid horse. It's a shame to have such a well rounded horse otherwise and not take the minimal effort to correct this part of his ground manners. My opinion is that this horse could easily be corrected in a couple of afternoons, probably less, and with virtually no stress. You could probably load/unload a couple times at feeding grooming and you would go a long way towards correcting. I don't think his age has anything to do with it...I think he's learned that the faster he gets out...the faster he gets away from the trailer. If the horse was mine I would ground work to repetitive/predictable one step forward/backward, then go to the trailer and repeat, one step at a time load, stand in the trailer a few minutes...one step at a time unload...maybe throw a lead around his rump to put pressure only if he goes too fast...repeat until comfortable/accepting the trailer and load/unload process...but I would not let the horse get away with shying from the trailer or nervousness around the trailer...even if I just had to start with making him stand and stare at the ramp...then closer...then on the ramp, etc. Lots of praise and release when doing right...and get back in/out of the trailer if going to fast...
I remember performances at rodeos where rodeo clowns loaded horses by pointing towards the trailer door...they get in and just stand still...then the announcer would tell the clowns they did it all wrong...then unload on command because they got in the wrong order and get out and back in the trailer in a different order on voice, hand signal, maybe even get in backwards, etc. That stuff is entertaining...but it shows that routine loading/unloading should/can be a non-event, without stress.
What really surprised me was that the club had maybe 15-18 horses trailered to the off-site and there were at least 4 mounts (besides ours) that I thought were too anxious, trailer shy, one even flat out obstinate...I did not think the handlers were going to get the animal in the trailer...around 30%. I was surprised at how many folks tolerated...and to some degree, were unaware but encouraging the poor ground manners...just to get the horse into the trailer instead of teaching the horse not to be scared of the trailer. Pulling on them...then high headed, etc. One horse shied from the trailer while tied...broke a halter and ran around loose for about 20 minutes. The dangers are obvious but it also just takes too much time. It was like sitting around and watching a boat ramp on Sunday afternoon at the lake...you just didn't know what was going to happen next. I was surprised.
If we (collectively) had spent that time, before hand, with the horses to get in/out of trailers we could have easily saved an 40-45 minutes on the outing and unnecessary anxiety on the horses.
Thoughts?
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Post by horseguy on Oct 25, 2015 17:22:03 GMT
This described experience has very broad implications. I cannot begin to address my own views, experiences and advice in a single or probably multiple posts on this topic. I will begin with the issue of danger.
Over 35 years ago I was the local Pony Club instructor. During my PC tenure we had a parent who was loading his daughter's horse at their farm for such an outing as you describe. The father while loading was kicked in the face by his daughter's anxious horse, and as a result he endured 14 reconstructive facial surgeries over the course of several years. Needless to say, I felt a great deal of guilt for not addressing the issue of trailering more often and in more depth than I did as Club instructor.
Horses are prey animals. As a result, their balance between fight and flight in times of stress weighs heavily toward flight. This is why an anxious horse rushes out of a trailer. It is also why most horses that refuse to be loaded or are anxious about loading into a trailer will go into fight mode when pushed past their threshold of anxiety endurance. The dangerous problem here is in not knowing where that threshold is in a particular horse. The seriously injured father was kicked in the face for two reasons. One, he did not know where to stand safely incase his daughter's horse went into protective fight mode while loading, and two, he did not know where his daughter's horse's threshold of anxiety was between flight (refusal) and fight (kick). The best advice or answer I can offer is, if you do not fully understand the flight/fight threshold of the horse you are loading, then be sure you absolutely know the safe place to stand when loading that will insure your safety from the horse's potential protective fight response. Never vary from this procedure and never allow anyone around the trailer when loading a horse to violate this principle.
Having said that, a horse's anxiety around trailers, in my experience, is learned from humans. Once that anxiety is in a horse it can only be reduced or redirected by sound consistent training from humans. I state this obvious concept because so many horse owners today believe in the "ignore it and it will go away" training method, which is no method at all. The horse's anxiety must be addressed, but first it must be measured and this can be dangerous so it requires an advanced trainer to insure the safety of the people and the horse involved in the retraining. This measurement is two dimensional. The trainer must evaluate both the level of anxiety and the threshold at which the horse will fight. I will break down these levels and thresholds into categories of horses because the retraining must be altered or customized to address the individual horse. It is true that the bottom line is simply desensitization for all horses, but the path to successful desensitization varies from horse to horse.
The first category of horse that trailers poorly I will call "Highland" after my dear old gelding polo horse named Highland. Highland was nothing more than a malingerer that just wanted to stay home. He reminded me of Corporal Klinger in Mash who spent more energy trying to get a discharge from the Army that it would have taken to simply be a soldier.  Every polo season that I had a new groom, who was responsible for loading the horses to go to a match, would begin the season feeling Highland was a seriously anxious horse when loading. It usually took two or three trips before the groom saw Highland for the lazy bluffer he was. I did however always explain to the grooms that they were best served by erring on the side of caution and I commended them for their cautious approach. All that was required to load Highland was a loud voice. I would tell the groom to lead the horse to the trailer, wait for him to balk and I would yell at Highland, often from a distance if I was busy doing something else, and he would walk on. From then on all the groom needed to do was raise their voice at the appropriate moment and loading Highland went smoothly. Surprisingly, a great many horses that load poorly are Highland/Klinger type horses. All you need to do is call their bluff. The way you call their bluff is to observe their anxiety (sweating, shaking, stiffness in the joints, heavy breathing) level, of which the Highland types have very little or none, and second determine their threshold of fight. To make this determination, I start with tossing a little dust or gravel on their butt from a safe distance when they balk while another person leads them onto the trailer. If they are unphased by the dust on their butt. If they still do not move forward toward the trailer opening, I will use a very long stick or pole to prod them, starting at the rump and moving down the legs to the pasterns until they move forward or strike. If they swing evasively left and/or right, I will erect wings to prevent it. These can be gates, jump standards and poles, or any safe means of preventing lateral evasion. Many trainers today will tell you this testing will raise the horse's anxiety level and it is wrong. My answer is, I am more concerned about my own anxiety about being injured and it is a necessary fact finding step. We always had a saying about these things at my barn, PC or day not, "We can always get another horse, but people are irreplaceable". I therefore advise gathering information on the anxiety level and fight/flight threshold of a horse when loading as well as in other dangerous circumstances. This post is getting long, so I will end for now explaining the other types of poor loading horses. They are, besides (A) the Highland/Klinger types who are the bluffers, (B) high anxiety - low threshold of fight/flight horses, very dangerous often explosive, (C) high anxiety - high threshold of fight/flight, these break your heart as they sweat and shake but do not act out, theyt are quite workable, (D) low anxiety - low threshold of fight/flight, these are stoically unpredictable in many ways and a different kind of dangerous but workable with a good plan and firm steady persistence, and finally the (E) low anxiety - high threshold of fight/flight horses, but still refuse to load or unload poorly, these I call the short bus crowd, what they need is what ever it takes to coax them out of their dull resistance, even if it is treats. These five types of poor loaders are just my way of looking at the trailering issue. All the types can erupt dangerously but some never do. The secret, as in all training, is a proper evaluation before you begin a training program. Sometimes age and habit is more difficult to correct than in other horses, but with clear and consistent work after a through evaluation that addresses the individual horse's resistance, followed by repetition to desensitize, all of these types can me taught to trailer well. I will write more later, as I hope others will post on this huge topic. After six decades around horses, I have a few little tricks I will share more later about this all too common behavior problem that really is, as Drew points out, quite unnecessary if time is taken to correct it. |
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Post by horseguy on Oct 27, 2015 15:15:42 GMT
In my first post I explained the type (A) Highland/Klinger types who are the bluffers. These are horses that for some reason act like they will not trailer but they will quite easily. They typically need a little firm reassurance. I use voice.
The type (B) high anxiety - low threshold of fight/flight horses, can be very dangerous and are often quite explosive. I believe it is for this type that the head bumper was invented.
If you are teaching this type to load or, more difficult, retraining this type to load, set aside a lot of time and have some help. if you are prone to fear yourself, ask a professional trainer to do this work. These horses begin immediately showing signs of anxiety. They can explode into all kinds of fits even to the of rearing and falling over backwards at the trailer in an extreme cases. The process is base in keeping their anxiety low. The first big help is to have another very calm horse in the trailer before attempting to load them. This has a calming effect on the anxious horse. Next, I always back the trailer into a barn door opening at least 4 feet and block the spaces between the trailer and the opening. If you have sliding double doors, this is very easy, you just shut the barn doors up against the trailer. If you must use plywood or something else opaque. What this does is make the trailer part of the barn. The comfort of the barn combined with the containment of the smaller space seems to make the process go easier. Whether you have a ramp or step-up trailer (I like step-ups for difficult horses) the process begins by simply leading the horse into the trailer like you would lead him into a stall.
Surprisingly, a small percentage of these type horses will simply walk on the trailer in this setup. Many will balk at the ramp and require trailer ramp desensitization, which is stepping on the ramp over and over until the ramp does not create anxiety. Usually once the ramp issue is overcome, the process goes smoothly until they realize they are in or partially in the trailer. While some will not back out or spin in a stock trailer and exit at his stage, most go through an on-and-off the trailer phase here. Again, while projecting to the horse that you have unlimited time for the process, we use repetition to desensitize. I have always felt it is in the exiting the trailer that the horse is most dangerous. These panic exits can be very damaging to people and horses. Be careful. After a panic exit, a horse usually is dead set against returning. This is where persistence is the key along with great patience and lots of time.
Many people give up somewhere in this slow tedious process, but what is important to remember is that horses get bored and we use that boredom in the long run to motivate them. I suggest not giving the horse any breaks. Breaks only tend to reenergize their anxiety. The goal I keep in mind is to get the horse thinking, "What do I have to do to get his guy out of my life with all his over and over restarts into the trailer?" The answer is to go on the trailer, and this is how we succeed. Think wind erosion.
After a while, which might be an hour, the horse will lower its anxiety just from familiarity with the people training him and the circumstance. Additionally, the anxiety stresses the muscles and builds up carbon dioxide that will tire the horse in a feeling drained kind of way. This is good. Very fit horses fatigue like this over a longer time. Be ready for that.
How it all goes down varies. Some horses will step on the ramp or step-up trailer floor and back off many times at each repeated step in the process. Trust that they will tire of this step-on-step-off routine. At this point many people will try to lift their feet and place them on the ramp or floor to hurry the process. This technique works on some types but is dangerous with this type. I am definitely Not a fan of Pony Boy, but this is a situation where his famous saying, "How long does it take? As long as it takes." applies.
It's the combination of fatigue, boredom and inevitability projected by the trainer that loads these horses. They might rush out a few times but after that we close the door on them and let them deal with being in a trailer. In fact, in the cool fall weather like we have now, I will leave this type out in the trailer for a day and even overnight with hay and water once I am sure they will not do anything crazy. This makes the trailer "their home" and from then on, it is easy to load them if they are not push into anxiety.
There are so many variations on how the process of retraining to load with a high anxiety horse with a low threshold of fight/flight that what I have written will no doubt invite questions, criticism, and comment, which I welcome. Few horse like this act exactly the same way in the loading training process. I welcome comments and the rest. I can always learn new ways and want to. |
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Post by jimmy on Oct 28, 2015 14:21:09 GMT
Years ago, for many years, I used to go look for horses that "won't get in the trailer"
I prided myself for being able to teach any horse to load.
I have gotten where now when I see someone struggle with loading a horse, I have to look the other way, or walk away.
If it's just one person with a green horse, that's different. He may just need someone on the lead, or someone behind with a flag or something. The horse just needs a little help, but you can see he's just figuring things out.
The other scenario is when there are four or five people trying to load a horse. There seems to be a direct relationship with the number of people involved, to the ignorance involved.
Being mostly surrounded by and attending western events, I never saw all this trouble until I started going to dressage shows, (with the exception of thoroughbred farms, where they seem to think the more the merrier.)
The dressage crowd had by far the worst loaders. I don't know why the people who present themselves to be privy to supposedly superior training techniques, couldn't figure out the simplest things like teaching a horse to load properly. There was a large amount of excuses and justifications of why their particular horse was different somehow and more special than every other horse on the planet. Or the protective nurturing excesses of "he's had a bad experience" excuses.
I remember one show where a big expensive warmblood had to come a day early, because it would take them 6 hours to load. In my book, that would be 5 hours and 45 minutes of doing the wrong things, and instilling and solidifying in the horse he really cannot load. I watched them for 45 minutes when they were trying to leave, trying to ignore it, until I couldn't stand it anymore the sixth time the horse got away from them, running around and people in a panic, and more people showing up to help. I arranged myself along the usual path of his escape, and waited for the inevitable, and caught his lead as he ran by once again. feigning ignorance, as if I just happened by. They were so frustrated with him, they asked me if I could help too. So I said sure, but everyone else can just sit down. As I neared the trailer, he did what he was trained to do, which was whirl and leave, but I was prepared and sat down on the rope and doubled him. He almost fell over backwards. Shock and awe. I led him back to the trailer, he made a couple of half-hearted attempts to leave, but no longer had any commitment to it. I presented the trailer to him, kept his mind looking in there, and with a couple of taps on his hip, mostly to keep him from trying to arrange his hindquarters to leave, he simply walked in the trailer. Five minutes, tops.
To add to that, I unloaded, him, much to their anxiety, and loaded and reloading him several times. Until you could just present the trailer to him, and he would load himself. The problem was, no one had any examples that this was even possible.
The point of the story, is that it is almost always the people, not the horse.
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Post by jimmy on Oct 28, 2015 14:35:16 GMT
Another story. There was a fairly successful dressage horse that supposedly could only be loaded a certain way. He was great in every other way, but because of a "bad experience" the owners insisted there was one process and only one process that would load the horse. It always took about 15 minutes, so they were satisfied with that. It involved the horse stepping on the ramp, then you had to let him settle, give him some carrots, and then ask for a little more. The other person would stand passively behind him with a whip. You couldn't pressure him, or he would run backwards. So they had this long process, to avoid that, apparently. Once he was in, there was another careful process of closing him in and trying him, etc. As if any moment, this horse would freak and tear the whole thing apart!
Watching this, I could see how they had trained the horse. He knew he always took three steps, then waited patiently for his carrots, before he would take another step, and then wait for more carrots. He had the whole system, and them, figured out pretty good. And if you didn't follow this regime, sure, he's not loading. They claimed it took them months to teach the horse to not be afraid of the trailer in this manner.
I don't remember how I got involved. I knew them and was just having a conversation or something. As they began to load him, I was just asked to hold the rope for a minute while they had to do something they forgot. When no one was looking I gave a little tug on the rope, he acted like he was about to run backwards, and I slapped him hard on his ass. He walked up the ramp and ate the carrots in the manger waiting for him. They came back and were puzzled. I just shrugged my shoulders.
To me, they had spent the greater part of a year enabling this horse to his worst traits. When really, there was no fear, and he was just a sleepy headed warm blood, who had their number.
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Post by horseguy on Oct 30, 2015 14:30:52 GMT
Jimmy, I think I understand your comment about dressage horses generally being difficult to load. I have known a lot of dressage riders, some very successful. What has always struck me about the riders in that discipline is most have owned very few horses compared to many other disciplines. The opposite extreme might be polo players who must bring at least six horses to a game, often seven with a spare. In polo injuries are relatively common and therefore every season one or more horses often must be replaced. Polo players over a career will therefore own a lot of horses and they are generally very intolerant of horses that seem to want or need special treatment loading or unloading. So, I think the number of horses you own and use has a lot to do with the culture of a discipline, especially around things like loading.
Years ago I visited the barn of as nationally successful dressage rider and the name of every horse this not-so-young rider had owned and competed was on a plaque of sorts in the barn. I think there were eight names. Wow, I thought, I have owned more horses than that in a week's time. My guess then is that if you invest so much, and dressage riders may invest than most, into a horse they get special treatment. Therefore, I think what a dressage rider will do and the time they will take compared to say a polo player around loading is probably vastly different.
I will say this in in defense of dressage horse owners. Some horses due to human damage can get pretty quirky about loading. They can get pretty screwed up. I would say that I have never gotten 100% past that kind of damage. I have removed a significant percentage of the quirks and fears from very damaged horses but never all, so I have had to bit the bullet and work around some quirks as long as I had some horses. But the question always is, was it the dressage rider who "installed" the quirks? On that I'd say, treating a horse like an only child makes them quirky.
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Post by horseguy on Oct 30, 2015 14:48:13 GMT
I wrote earlier about loading the (C) high anxiety - high threshold of fight/flight, these break your heart as they sweat and shake but do not act out, they are quite workable. I call these horses Stoics. They feel great anxiety and do not usually explode or do anything truly dangerous. Instead they sweat and shake as they object to loading in obvious fear with very passive resistance. I always wonder how a horse gets this way. It appears that maybe they were anxious and acted out when first trained, and their fear was met with extreme correction, so they learned to shake and bear the punishment, fearing worse punishment might follow if they persist with their fight or flight.
You must take a lot of time with these, if only out of fear of a stress colic. These horses are genuinely afraid but will not actively oppose training. With this kind of horse I will lead them to the ramp or step-up and lift a fore leg and place it on the ramp or trailer floor and let them get used to it. This will usually be followed by some prodding or lifting of the hind, as they will do to load racehorses into the starting gate, in order to move the horse closer so the other leg can be placed on the ramp or trailer floor by lifting it as you would to clean the foot. This is followed by patient waiting and reassurance. I will offer grain, hay, or treats if the horse can get beyond their anxiety to accept them in this circumstances. Having another horse in the trailer is very important. When I played polo and had this kind of prospect, we'd load four horses into the stock trailer so the anxious horse in training could join a herd. Once in among other horses they tend to relax and in time they begin to understand that it's OK to just go onto the trailer. I have not had many of these horses, but the ones I have encountered are heart breaking because it is very obvious that early on in their training they were probably pretty easy to train if the owner/trainer had any patience at all. |
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Post by horseguy on Nov 10, 2015 14:54:47 GMT
I have been avoiding writing about loading the (D) low anxiety - low threshold of fight/flight type horses. These are stoically predictable in many ways and a different kind of dangerous but workable with a good plan and firm steady persistence. I don't like working with this type. For those of you who were on the farm when Candy arrived, this type is Candy. These horses are quietly very determined not to get on a trailer. They generally don't make a big fuss until you are left with only the possibility of using some degree of force, and they will react to force so it is not a good idea to try it. They are not scared, sweating or nervous. They just refuse to get on a trailer with an "I don't do trailers" attitude. I have seen these horses lean back into a rope for long periods of intense poll pressure. They just hang on and dig in their heels. Occasionally they might have a hissy fit but not often. They are very passive aggressive. The backing the trailer into the barn technique works pretty well with them as a rule, but when you have to come home and there is no barn to use to get them back in for the ride home, they are a pain in the butt. Whips, pokes, yelling, shaking garbage bags behind them (I like that technique) and just about every technique I know has little effect on these stoic anti-trailering horses. One technique an old horse dealer taught me at an auction many may years ago was to use a come-along winch and two halters.  It was late at night after an auction and I could not load a horse I bought. I was young and frustrated. He offered to help. We got two halters on this sale horse, to make sure one would not break, and he hooked one end on the come-along inside the stock trailer and the other long cable through the two chin halter rings under the horse's jaw. Then he cranked the winch handle ever so slowly to get tension on the cable. Then, literally one click of the winch at a time, he brought the horses knees to the edge of the trailer floor. He then said this is where you go real slow. He cranked the winch handle one slow click at a time and the horse stoically leaned back into its dug-in heels until one slow click caused the horse to lift one front hoof up onto the floor. Then with a few more very very slow clicks, the other front hoof was in. Once both fore hooves were on the wood trailer floor he cranked the winch handle more quickly but still with a slow steady rhythm until the hind legs we up against the edge of the floor at the back of the trailer. I thought the horse's hind legs would slide under the trailer at that point, but they did not. Just like with the front legs, This dealer went slowly with the winch clicks and the horse lifted one, then the other hind hooves into the trailer. This guy made it look simple. I don't recommend this technique, but I have always carried a come-along in my trailer ever since. It is probably very dangerous to use it on any other type except these stoic low anxiety - low threshold of fight/flight horses. So, if you try it be sure you have the horse sorted out correctly as to type. What works also with these is taking the time to tire their mind with boredom and their body with some pulling. Eventually these horses will load. Once in, they accept being in the trailer they are calm, but they are calm throughout the loading even as they resist. They typically will not back off, once in. This type is just headstrong, I think. I have tied them overnight in a trailer with hay and water and that seems to help. Like I said, I do not like this type but I have owned them because some are very athletic. That same stubbornness can be channeled to do exceptional things in competition. I have always found working with the stubborn ones easier from the saddle than from the ground. |
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Post by rideanotherday on Nov 18, 2015 13:00:51 GMT
One of the biggest problems people have with loading horses is that they don't understand what halter broke really means and neither do their horses. They haven't really taught the horse how to come off pressure. There are some things that the horse really shouldn't have an opinion on and the ONLY option is to do the directed behavior. Being led and loading are 2 of those things. There are times in a horse's life where it may not be an expert horseman who has to handle them and for the person's safety and the horse's safety, they should be polite and quiet when being led and loaded. And for anyone who thinks that that situation won't ever come up, tell that to the folks who's horses have had to go through wildfires, tornadoes or hurricanes and got loose.
I have a friend who can't go off the farm with her horse. He has her completely convinced that he can't load. He's definitely a Klinger type. He's not scared. He will definitely put way more effort into getting out of work than what it would take if he just did what he was told. I helped her load him one time so she could go on a trail ride. It took 30 minutes and she said that was the shortest it had been in years and for me, it was about 25 minutes too long.
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Post by horseguy on Nov 18, 2015 14:38:33 GMT
There are times in a horse's life where it may not be an expert horseman who has to handle them and for the person's safety and the horse's safety, they should be polite and quiet when being led and loaded.
Yes, leading and loading are both times when a horses must comply for the safety of the person and of the horse.
Someone sent be a big 17.1 Frisian/TB cross, 5 yrs old, unmanageable, I was told. The horse arrived and the owner backed him out of the trailer and quickly handed me this lead rope that had to be 14 feet long. As I gathered up the long lead rope I was puzzled at why someone would have such a long lead, and then ...
There I was in the driveway holding the very end of that rope. Ah Ha, the lead is so the horse can rear and the person still can hang on.
5 years old and rearing ion a lead rope, wow I thought. The owner came back two weeks later and the horse lead easily on a normal lead rope. How did I do it? A horse that rears on a lead, exposes their belly and more. I'm not opposed to swinging a 4' piece of 2" EMT plastic conduit. The horse became safe not so much because it learned to lead. It just learned not to expose its belly.
Horses must be made safe. Sometimes we must do what we must do to make them safe.
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Post by rideanotherday on Nov 18, 2015 14:48:26 GMT
Sometimes teaching a horse to protect it's soft parts is part of the process. They have to learn that there is a price for acting the idiot. Unfortunately, by the time the average horse owner decides its an issue and goes to a professional for help, the horse has gotten used to behaving in a particular pattern and the cost that the horse DOESN'T want to pay for a particular habit is often correspondingly higher than if they'd have been corrected appropriately the first time.
An old horseman once told me "you can expect no better than you allow" and I have found this to be true with both men and horses.
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Post by horseguy on Nov 18, 2015 16:52:11 GMT
An old horseman once told me "you can expect no better than you allow" and I have found this to be true with both men and horses. Yeah, it's true of horses and men ... maybe women too.  |
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Post by rideanotherday on Nov 18, 2015 17:50:18 GMT
An old horseman once told me "you can expect no better than you allow" and I have found this to be true with both men and horses. Yeah, it's true of horses and men ... maybe women too. |
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Post by rideforever on Nov 18, 2015 18:38:36 GMT
Reminds me of a dinner theater I once attended. Ok, fine. It was an organized trail ride. A friend and I hauled down four horses and two 8 yr old girls. (4 riders, 4 horses).
We had a lovely ride, and then grabbed some food. While we ate, we watched a lady attempting to load a good looking black gelding
She would walk him up to the edge of the trailer and just before he'd have to pick up a leg to step in, he would can't his hips to one side or the other...oops! She would back him up not more that 4 steps and circle around to try again. 40 min later, she had quite a crew of folks trying to help. They were running a lunge line up through the trailer to try and pull him in. People on either side trying to keep him straight. What a mess. He never got upset though. At that point they probably had enough people to pick him up and throw him in the darn trailer
The best part? We were parked pretty close to them, and had the girls load our horse. Jaws dropped and we rolled out of there giggling.
Moral of the story: well trained doesn't just mean broke to ride
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