I have an 8 year old paint mare that I need to transport from Alabama to my new residence outside if Chicago. She had a traumatic trailer experience when she was 4mos old and have had to sedate her for any trailering. I'm afraid of oversedating or undersedating on this 800 mile trip. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have a small 2 horse straight load, bumper pull. Would she do better in a bigger trailer?

                                        Thanks

                                           Sue

We have used Bob Hubbard Horse Transportation on two separate occassions, they have been excellent both times.  The first time was about 15 years ago for my friends horse that wouldn't load in a normal trailer.  He got to his destination relaxed and happy and without a drop of sweat on him. 

BHHT isn't cheap, but they have the big semi trailers with both standing stalls and box stalls.  Maybe this would be a good solution for your horse, she might not feel so clausterphobic (she might not even realize it's a trailer) in a big rig.   I have friends who have used a couple of other transportation companies with good results, PM me if you would like their website addresses.

Hang in there you can teach this horse to load. 

I have a horse that had the same problem starting out.  With his first trainer he flipped himself over and another time lunge up in the manager and back against the back door and ended up with stitches in his head.  The worst was when he set back going in and reared up and ended up cutting through two muscles and an artery in his leg. 

I finally found a wonderful trainer who really worked with me and the horse together so now I'm able to load him myself.  I have taken the dividers out and give him plenty of space and I usually drive him in I don't lead him in.

It's a training issue and if you don't work with it, you'll always have loading problems.  I highly encourage you to spend your money towards a good trainer that can work with you and your horse or just your horse if you can't be there.

Good Luck!

Hi.  I feel your pain.  I have two horses that were bad trailer loaders.  I bought an old cheap bucket of rust trailer with the configuration I planed to use (two horse straight load with mangers and ramp.  Because that's what everyone in my family has).  I backed it up to my round pen and parked it there.  I would never haul horses in that trailer!  However, it was one of the best investments I ever made.  Here's what I did.  I lunged my horses and only let them stop by the trailer.  Finally, they wanted to stop by the trailer.  The trailer became a good place to be.  I built up from that.  I didn't get mad.  I didn't get frustrated.  But they learned that the trailer was kinda cool.  I fed them on the ramp.  I moved treats inside (I know trainers say not to use food but it worked).  I used dog training methods.  I used a command the same way in the same voice everytime.  "Load up!"  It also helps if you teach your horse some comand to take a step forward on the ground.  Anyway-- if they came out, I lunged them.  If they pawed or did anything goofy, I lunged them.  I made a game of partly loading them and backing them out.  Finally, without halters or lead rope, they would "load up!" on command.  Wait for the back up command and they were calm.  So I put halters on, loaded them up, closed the back door and then clipped the leads.  I try always to do it in that order when loading alone, because the worst wrecks I've seen are horses pulling back and flipping over.  Later I moved the trailer to different spots on the property and went through the same routine.  I bought a trailer I really love, it's a used 89 Logan Trojan in fantastic condition. Yesterday was the first time I loaded horses into it.  Both remembered "load up!" from last Summer and loaded quietly and perfectly the very first time.   If you can't afford a "practice trailer" you can make one with a piece of plywood for the floor and pvc pipe and tarp for the roof and walls.  I did this for a friend, reasoning the if a horse can learn to walk into that on command, they will load in a trailer.  My bucket of rust was $500.00 including repair to make the ramp safe.  It was hideous but the floor was safe.  This method can work on some horses really quickly, mine were hard cases and I don't have any help so I needed to train the horses and myself in some way that would be safe and stress free.  In a nutshell-- make being out of the trailer more difficult then being in it.  If you don't have time-- try backing your horse alot, back them up over and over starting at the trailer.  Eventually they will want to stop backing up and go forward-- to the trailer.  And that is always rewarded.  If you have no room, back them in a circle around the whole rig.  Don't get mad and bash them backwards, just make backing up the alternative to the trailer until the horse decided that the trailer is a better idea.  Anyway-- this has worked for me. Hope it helps.