We have a young 4 year old...

Question
We have a young 4 year old pinto/hanovarian gelding.  He has only trailered once after we purchased him.  We want to begin trainning him to trailer and have tried only once and he was very reluctant to step on the ramp and enter the trailer.  Can we give him a calming essence such as "Calms" homeopathic?  Also wonder about with holding his am feed and putting it on the trailer tomotrrow morning.  Jean

Answer
Hi Jean,
My best advice regarding trailer loading is for you to study the colt starting , groundwork, and loading tapes from http://brannaman.com I am not payed to endorse, it's just the best I've come across.

The other training method your horse would respond well to is clicker training.

Both natural horsemanship and clicker training are based on the same thing:  making the right thing obvious.  

For instance, I set it up so the horse faces the trailer doors, and reward the smallest signs that the horse even looks into the trailer.  The reward can be my stopping my small "forwards" signals, or it can be a "bridge signal" such as a clicker.  More at the http://clickercenter.com
Most important is that you as a rider, handler, trainer, owner.. that you train yourself on how to ask your horse to move forwards.

As for the horse, it is natural for him to be skeptical of going into a black box.  He doesn't trust  you .. not  yet .. not blindly.   If you somehow cajole him, force him, bribe him in the trailer, he may obey, but loose trust in  you.  If we are good "managing partners, " or gentle leaders of our horses,  we teach them about new stuff, we don't drug them, or trick them into obeying.  

Basically, it comes down to what really is the most important thing later in the horse's training:  the willingness to step forwards, when  you ask, no matter what is in front of them: a trailer ramp, a creek, a fence to jump, or a plastic tarp to step on.  

Horses learn best when we clearly let them know that they responded the way we want them to.. hence, I reward if a horse even as much as LOOKS  into the trailer...

What I would do, is proceed with groundwork.  Ask your horse to step on ramps, other gound obstacles.   Then you'd move to the trailer.

Concerns: if we push or bribe a horse into a trailer, the horse may go in, then haul poorly, panick inside, scramble, come out like a rocket when you get there and open the back gate, or refuse to go in next time.  You could starve the horse for a week, and putting food in the trailer won't make him go in.. not unless he's pretty willing to go in already, and then, we don't need to bribe, just reward.

I would NEVER use drugs to replace step by step teaching of any horse to get used to the various new situations we present to them.  The only time I use drugs of any kind is in a medical emergency situation, vet approved.

Same goes for feed:  bribing horses works, .. a little... sometimes... if the horses feel like it in the first place.  A handful of food may calm a horse down.  But, there is a big difference between bribing and rewarding .  :)

Good luck,
Rena