Becky, if you have something around your house/barn
like a roadside curb, or a railroad tie step up. Something that can simulate the
step down like your trailer. Work your horse in hand, asking it to step just the
front feet up on the curb, stand quiet, then back off the curb. Give a verbal
command as they horses foot reaches the edge to step down. After the horse is
very quiet and willing with just front feet, work on having the horse walk all
the way up on to the curb, then again, quietly back the horse back down, giving
a command to "step" as that first foot starts to go back down the curb. Build up
to walking up your curb, forward a ways, that might be the length of the inside
of the trailer, and then again, ask them to back, and when they get to the step
down, give a verbal. Doing a bit of this kind of work outside the trailer is
safer than being inside with a reluctant horse, and the enclosure of the trailer
itself is not part of the mental part for the horse. If the horse must back out
of a trailer that is just a doors width, as to the who back of the trailer that
opens up, I'd also slowly practice backing the horse in hand through a stall
door in the same method as above. First walk the horse 1/2 way in, then back
out, then a little further, and back, until you walk the horse in through the
doorway, and ask him to slowly, one step at a time, back out through the stall
door. Keep the horse from rushing. Go very slow, ask quietly, and never get
upset if the horse gets confused. Just go back to the last point before the
horse got upset, and start again. I bet doing some of this outside the trailer,
will then give the horse confidence it will not "fall" off the step of the
trailer as it backs out. That verbal command to "step" does work for them to
know they are at the edge.
