Re: RC: Trailer Loading

["Truman Prevatt, PhD" <tprevatt@mindspring.com>]

If you have the luxury of getting them young and starting them early
then many problems can be prevented later on.  Our foal was taken to the
trailer and let sniff the floor with her mother in toe when she was
maybe a month old. She watched her mother load a few times. The we asked
her to go in. Caution here, be sure to stuff something in the groves for
the latch so they can't get the small feet in there. Since we don't have
a ramp we made a ramp with a 3/4 inch of plywood. She sniffed it looked
at mom standing there munching on hay, sniffed it again and carefully
walked in. Lots of praise.

We did this every day for a week. By the end of the week the plywood was
gone and she was hopping in and out. Then we took them for a small ride.
Then a longer ride. We did all this since we were moving and the foal
and mother were transported to our new home - about a 2 hour drive away
- when the foal was 3 months old..

Now you can't keep her out of the trailer. When we load up to go
somewhere and she is not going, she pitches a fit.  Open the door and in
she goes.

So I think the key here is to get them young, take your time, let them
learn that it's not all that bad - in fact can be fun.  Once they have
had a bad experience then this is when it becomes an issue.

And the trailer does matter. One that lets in a lot of light and they
can see through seems to work better than one they can't see through.
Slant loads with drop down doors seem to work well since when the doors
are down, they can see through the trailer to the outside and they are
moving toward the light rather than into a dark room.

Truman