Tell Your Horse “You Go In There”
I enjoyed the loading article in the September 2005 issue. I’ve been teaching horses to self-load for years.
A point to consider when trailer training is choosing a command word other than “walk” as a cue to “go in there.”
I use “load” or “aaaannnd load,” depending on the temperment of the individual horse or pony. I believe that using a new command specifically for trailers helps the horse or pony to assimilate the new situation and realize that the job is to move forward into the trailer.
There is an unusual advantage to training a “load” command. After schooling many horses and ponies using my method, a few owners have told me they used the “load” aka “you go in there” command to tell recalcitrant horses to enter stalls in new barns or at shows/clinics. The owners tell me it works like a charm.
Diane Nafis
New Jersey
