Trailer loading is a very common issue that people run into with their horses, it is extremely common for horses to be afraid of the trailer and to have resulting trauma from bad loading experiences or often being forced into the trailer. Some people may spend more than 15 minutes loading their horse, or in some cases, hours.

If you’ve wanted to learn how to do away with trailer anxiety and manage trailer loading issues, this 10 video series consisting of over 5 hours of video might just be for you. It discusses common causes of trailer anxiety as well as going into detail on how to start developing shaping plans to help your horse become comfortable with the trailer. It also includes videos discussing Fear in Horses and things you should consider before getting started.

This series may be beneficial for anyone looking to address fear behaviour as many of the tactics used to help with trailer anxiety are similar or identical to how you may help desensitize horses to other objects that you fear.

The series goes in depth with talk throughs of 4 sessions with 2 different horses, discussing what behaviours to watch for and things to consider to avoid having your horse go over threshold and to help build confidence by not shaping too quickly. It talks about shaping closing the divider and the trailer door as well as training the horse to enter the trailer and build duration.

Both horses are two very different personality types so the series is helpful in learning how to troubleshoot and remain patience even with very anxious horses whose trauma association with trailers may make them more difficult to train.

This is part 1 of a 2 part series as the sessions with these horses continue. Those who purchase part 1 will get a discount code for part 2 once released.

Shelby Dennis is an IAABC Certified Equine Behaviour Consultant with many years of experience training all types of horses. Trailer loading issues are one of her favourite things to address and she has successfully turned numerous problem loaders into reliable haulers.