Trailer Loading

The next day, Knútur came back to work on our issue of trailer loading, why we asked for help in the first place.

Knútur felt we should start with the basics. The object is for Thokki to be led into the trailer. So now comes leading lessons.

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I shot these videos with the intent of documenting how this was done rather than how to do it. So think of this set as not How To, but How Done. I put aside the aesthetic of pacing the videos to hold interest in the viewer. I assume that the viewer is already interested in training horses and wants to see the pace of how it was done rather than how it should look on a tv with a remote control at hand. If you are bored, jump to the next video or... well, this is what actually took place. No corners of faults have been cut.

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Now it is time to take Thokki to the trailer and analyze the problem and come up with a plan for a solution.

We saw that he was more confused than upset about getting in.

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It was a conceptual issue... we had taught him to follow a lead, but now he would have some stepping lessons.

I've edited out very little of the process in order to demonstrate that a stressed horse does not learn as well as a calm one. It takes patience and repetition. Here is how it happened:

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We decided we would all take a break: Thokki for grass, us for coffee. Then we would continue.

Over coffee, Knútur came up with a fresh approach.

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Let's try it!

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We now we can do it on our own. We gave Thokki a rest to go back to living with the rest of his small herd.

A reminder: this was filmed and edited in pretty close to real time, the time it actually took to do the training! I've seen people spend a lot more time than this winching a yearling onto a trailer and stressing him against trailers and learning for the rest of his life...