Solo trailering

Jessey

Jessey

Well-Known Member
Dec 20, 2004
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Suffolk, UK
Monkey travels really well with company, but solo is a different story. When I picked him up as a 2yo he was solo in a lorry, and stomped and kicked most of the way from Kent to Norfolk!

He loads really well, but if I lead him in he will sometimes shoot back before I can get to shut the breach bar and ramp. So I switched tact and I now stand outside and point him in and he goes. But either way he is anxious about it, his little face is pitiful.

I have spent a lot of time using a clicker to keep it all as positive as possible. He won't really eat hay or haylage in the trailer. He has a mirror in the trailer. I fixed a bucket to the front ramp (which doesn't open anymore) and put his horselyx in there (his favorite treat of all time) so he gets reward as soon as he goes in, and I've spent a fair bit of time just stood with him giving him a scratch for calm behaviour. I even fed him in there last night.

The additional challenge I have, Jess screams bloody murder when we go out the gate (including when I ride and he now ignores it then), so he screams back in the trailer, the drove is a mile of horse fields and they all call in reply to him as we pass, which winds him up even more. It's a dead end road, this is the only way out. I have wondered about getting him some pompoms (earmuffs) to dull the auditory overload?

I am a bit torn on next steps, I hate that he is so worried by it all :( but he has always been anxious, and gentle repetition has got him through all the other things that worried him initially. So the options I see are to load him without going anywhere (desensitize) or just load and go (flooding), but either way, do it daily, or give it time to sink in in-between? and short trips or longer ones to let him settle into it more?

Added pressure, we go away at the end of the month, and ideally he needs to travel solo (25-30 mins), my friends have kindly said they will take their 2 over, drop one and come back for him but their 2 don't separate well and that means leaving 1 on it's own somewhere no matter which order you do it in and as we are going for L's birthday I don't really want their horses stressed before we start.
 
I won't be much help as I had terrible problems loading AJ and had to enlist Joe's help. Joe thought AJ was really worried, due to the circumstances surrounding his first journey (ie from his breeder's in Devon to me in Yorkshire with an overnight stop).

He's fine to load now (getting off calmly is still a WIP but getting better) but does fidget and fuss when we first get going. He mini rears and ports but I haven't seen him kicking the lorry.

Joe told me that taking him for short rides would be the worst thing I could do as he mustn't learn that creating a fuss gets him off the lorry. AJ does settle eventually with a longer ride but he sweats up a bit. I've only ever travelled him solo.

Sadly I didn't ask Joe what to do if the horse continues to stress even on long journeys.
 
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Bodshi said:
Joe told me that taking him for short rides would be the worst thing I could do as he mustn't learn that creating a fuss gets him off the lorry. AJ does settle eventually with a longer ride but he sweats up a bit. I've only ever travelled him solo.
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That is helpful, thank you. This is exactly what my gut was telling me, that short trips are likely reinforcing the drama. The issue with loading and not leaving is that he is constantly wanting to look for Jess, even if she is quiet (she doesn't fuss if I load him in the middle of the track as she knows we won't leave) he worries every time he hears her move.

Monkey is a real trier, even though he is worried, he loads and unloads really very nicely.

My only other thought, to get him ok with the solo travel without the extra pressure of the other horses and leaving home, is to drop my truck/trailer out somewhere, ride to it, and trailer him home. That maybe not leaving anything but the reward of getting home might make it a good experience???
 
Jessey said:
My only other thought, to get him ok with the solo travel without the extra pressure of the other horses and leaving home, is to drop my truck/trailer out somewhere, ride to it, and trailer him home. That maybe not leaving anything but the reward of getting home might make it a good experience???
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I would try it.
Have you a battery radio you could hang in the trailer, and put on radio 4 so he hears voices. Alternatively put on loud music, turn the volume up whilsts your driving out past the other horses so it blocks out there calls.

I use load music in the shed when im weaning the calves from there mums. It stops them hearing the mums who are out in the field calling back. Gradually over a week i turn the volume down.
 
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I forgot to update here. I didn't mess about loading him for the rest of last week, then we did a longer solo trip on Sunday and it went well. We went 25/30 mins over to a friends, rode for an hour and travelled home again. He loaded straight away both times and was def much better, probably 80%. Only a couple of kicks and shouts each way. He was a sweaty mess both ways but it was also 26c outside and there's no front vents in my old trailer, though I'm sure some of it is still stress. It definitely felt like progress.
 
Our trip at the end of May was a disaster loading and travelling wise, ended up taking Jess which I already mentioned in the other thread.

Since then I have been taking him out with Jess as much as I can to try and get him really comfortable with the trailer so that next time we try it alone he feels braver, and he now happily eats when Jess is in there with him and they don't move an inch. This past weekend I loaded him alone, let him stand for 10 minutes without moving and he's right back to stressed, can't eat and shuffling about, I didn't push it, just offloaded him once he relaxed a bit and took them both out together.

But I am at a bit of a loss to move forward, he seems very comfortable travelling in company, but has been at that point really since last summer, how on earth do I transfer that to travelling alone? It is important to me to be able to travel alone, and that he is good enough about it that I can be confident taking him out on my own, because we don't have any company routinely (there's no one else at my yard).

I have already stopped all the rattles I could fined. I thought about trying some aromatherapy in the trailer to make it relaxing, that's on this weekends list. My trailer does get hot, so I have brought another vent to fit in it, another thing on the weekends list. The trailer is also pretty dark, so I am going to give the roof a clean, then look to see if I can paint the inside white, on another weekends list! Anything else I should be thinking about doing?
 
Well at a loss for ideas I have arranged to borrow a friend’s truck that I can leave hitched up to the trailer for a couple of weeks (it’s a complete faff getting mine in and out daily as the trailer is parked in the middle of the track) and I am going to put Monkey in daily on his own without moving until hopefully he stops getting so anxious, he can be fed his balancer, have his lick and a haynet, and hopefully he will start to feel better about it. I’d better find a book to sit and read while he’s at it!

I’ve also borrowed some pom-poms (horse earplugs) to see if noise is a factor for him.
 
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I borrowed a friend to drive this morning so I could ride in the trailer (no horse), to see if there was anything obvious and there was!

The main thing was the back top doors, the one I close (the clip to leave it open is missing) made this non-stop gawd awful metal on metal squeaking that puts your teeth on edge! And the one left open clonks and rattles incessantly! I think those might be the main culprits and thankfully easy fixes.

There were also a couple of other little rattles from the ramps, which is an easy fix. And a slight droning noise, possibly a slight brake bind or a wheel bearing starting to go, I will need to jack it up to check properly.
 
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Finally jacked the trailer up to check wheel bearings, and sure enough 1 is going, enough that it probably would have been quite noisy and felt rumbly (his side rear too). So we won’t be going anywhere until I can afford to get that fixed!
 
Finally had time to fit the new wheel bearing on the trailer 💪 I was dreading doing it because they have a tendency to be difficult, especially when you’re in a field without lots of extra tools, but it went perfectly!
I have the week after next off so hopefully we can get some solo practice in 🤞
 
By Joe I think we’ve cracked it! Between making it all quieter and lots of desensitisation, we had a successful trip out today 🤩

We went to do a 15 minute loop, no stomping or kicking and happily eating 🤩 he got a bit shouty when we got stuck in traffic (5minutes) but nothing more 💪

I then tacked straight up at the trailer at home and rode, and he was very anxious, screaming and chomping at the bit for 50 minutes, guessing it was the adrenaline come down 🤷🏻‍♀️ he settled eventually then I loaded again when we got home and left him there while I sorted bits out. So in all very successful!

Next time I’ll trailer out somewhere to ride 🤞
 
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First solo trip since September, it started great, he went straight on with a point and travelled out really well. We didn’t go far because it was in the back of my mind he might not be keen to load on the way home.
He was shouty and anxious on arrival, but settled as I went through the familiar routine of tacking up, and we went for a 20 minute walk around the forest without incident.
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He was anxious but not unreasonable. I kept it short intentionally as wanted it not to be too strenuous for him, I’m not sure that wasn’t a mistake.
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He was fine to untack although still hyper vigilant. And went on the trailer with a point, but couldn’t stand and pinged back off. Shouting started again and we repeated this another half dozen times before he just parked on the ramp.
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I tried for half an hour but every time we got close he’d come off as soon as I stepped towards the back to do the breach bar. I phoned a friend for help and with someone stood inside to reassure him he was on in under 10 minutes. He was a little bit shouty on the way home but travelled well.

I am convinced this isn’t about the trailer or the travelling any more, but his general anxiety now, so it’s just going to be a matter of practice, so I think the next couple of trips will just be on, around town and straight home again to reassure him I’m not kidnapping him!
 
I’m frustrated after yesterday, I know I shouldn’t be but I’ve spent more than a year being patient. He loads and travels perfectly in company, and I just want to be able to get him out and about confidently on my own. So I’ve begged a favour from a professional trainer friend and he’s coming later to see if he can see something I’m not and give me some tips.
 
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Much better today, took 4 asks to load at home from a point (I stand to the side and ask him to self load) under 2 minutes total, so we did it twice for good measure, 2nd time went straight on but came straight back out, then straight back in and stayed while I did the breach etc.

Went up the road, off loaded in the same place as yesterday and he was alert but much calmer than yesterday, hand walked up a track and back. 2 asks and he went on so we came home. We didn’t rush to do anything fast and he happily stood on the trailer closed up and he traveled quietly both ways.

Trainer agrees he’s not worried about the actual trailer, just needs practice and time to get over his anxiety of being alone. He didn’t actively do anything, so I was still lone working, but he did notice how his position watching made a huge difference to Monkey’s anxiety, if he was anywhere that he could potentially have chivvied Monkey up, the brakes went on, so I have to be mindful not to let anyone ‘help’ us once we go to busier places.

I’m feeling much better about it now, happy with today and that I’m not missing something simple. I just need to try and get him out weekly until it’s boring!
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He’s trying my patience! Planned to do the same as last weekend, genuinely only expected him to be better, but he refused to load from the offset at home, messed around for 20 minutes, not worried per say but would only go as far as two feet on ramp resting a back foot! Until he decided it was fine then put him on and off 4 times from a point. Not really sure what changed it.

Went to the forest, travelled like a champ, then left him stood on the trailer eating hay for 10 minutes totally chilled, off and let him graze for 10 minutes. Loaded back up straight away, on and off another 4 times for good measure and home, travelled like a champ again.

I’d take him out again tomorrow but I’ve got all day SAR training, maybe I’ll get home early enough 🤞
 
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