Lsrd1 wrote:
I've also never done the park and feed deal with the trailer, and I can't begin to imagine ever doing that. We've had horses that were difficult to load, that refused to load, that threw a fit about loading. We always got them loaded and didn't have to beat them senseless. But we were pretty insistent that they were going in - - if they wanted to stand there for a while, ok but they had to look at the trailer, etc. We don't use treats or food as a reward just steady pressure. If they wanted to start rearing and thrashing backwards, ok now we're going to really go backwards. If they wanted to try to dodge to the side, then ok we're going to go around in circles for a bit. When they got tired of that, we let them stand facing the trailer. And we kept pretty much steady pressure one way or the other for them to move forward, they got release by doing so.
Same, with Penny, it took me standing in the trailer (not looking at her) but making her really stare at it for about an hour. If she backed up, she worked, if she stopped paying attention to the trailer, she worked, but if she stood and smelled/remained focused, she could hang out. I had to do it for a week or so before she figured out that not getting in didn't really get her anything other than standing facing a trailer, or working. Shes been pretty good ever since. 

pentack wrote:
I freely admit this happened to me. I had a mare that was awful to load. When I got my present mare, that was my biggest worry, even though she had been hauled thousands of times. Very soon, I had another mare that would not load for me or even when I was in the vacinity. I was the issue. Not the horse, not the trailer. She was feeding off my aanxiety over wether she was going to load or not. So I had my daughter take over loading without me being present. Loaded like a charm. So everytime afterwards, I got closer and closer until I was loading her up myself. Now I know she loads, I don't give it a second thought, problem is resolved and she does, in fact, load just fine now.
I sold my little QH mare to a family that this happened too. I'd never had ANY issues loading her and I had hauled that horse A LOT. The woman that bought her had trialed a horse who had thrown a shit fit about getting in the trailer, they brought it up to me several times when they looked at my mare and I showed them when they came out to see her how easy she was to load (walk up to the trailer, step up, tie, done). They came to pick her up and I let them load her in their trailer and they couldnt get her in. I think their stress and nerves about it made my mare go "wtf, I'm not getting in there". She loaded fine with me and my mom...