Went through the same thing with Archie. He loaded great for a long time, both in a stock trailer and in the slant load one we got almost 2 years ago. He'd self-load and everything. Then suddenly he decided he didn't like it and refused to load.

I still think that a bad experience is what started it for him (he had to load in behind a mare who was being nervous and loud beside him), but that was in a totally different trailer than ours, and that was the one and only time he had been hauled with another horse (well, except when he was hauled as a baby with his mom).

My mom and I tried the exact same things you did. Nothing worked. He never got as upset as your mare which made me believe he wasn't afraid of it, he just plain didn't want to get on. We thought maybe he suddenly disliked something about the trailer, so we added a rubber mat near the door so he wouldn't slip, added shavings, the windows were all down/open...nada. He'd get as far as to put his front feet in, then back out. And once he started backing there's no way to stop him, he's just too strong. One day we took him off the property for a ride, he loaded fairly well to get there (food worked this time, but we had withheld his dinner so he'd really be food-motivated), but come time to leave and he would not get on. Two big men literally grabbed hands behind his ass and lifted him into the trailer once his front feet were in. Once he was in he was completely fine.

I worked on this all the time, making sure to do it when I had plenty of time. He'd get to where he was loading great, then the next session he'd start all over at square one. Finally, we took him to a trainer in February and told him we were having trouble loading. All he did was put a chain over his nose and another regular rope clipped to his halter. He'd ask with the regular rope but if Archie resisted or tried to go back, he'd just hold steady to the rope with the chain and Archie would give to it and step forward. First time he tried this he loaded in about 2 minutes. It took a couple more sessions of this but now he will load like he used to with no hesitation, with or without other horses in the trailer. And he's not nervous or anxious about amy of it, but like I said, he really wasn't before either. He never gave the impression that he was scared. It was more like stubborn "I don't want to get on there so I'm not going to" type of thing. And we checked the trailer and nothing was out of sorts...literally this was a brand new trailer. And like yours, he had previously loaded fine in it several times before he decided he didn't want to get on.

I don't know now well it will work with you if she is a rearer with pressure but that's what worked for Archie.


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