Had a friend who spent a couple of fruitless hours trying to load his horse, then called our trainer. Asked him how it went - "Five minutes" he says. I asked what the trainer did. "Nothing. He just stood with the horse, then the horse went in the trailer." Had to laugh, because they guy obviously wasn't paying attention to what really happened.

Every demo I've ever seen on trailer loading is a variation on a single, simple theme:

* Get the horse to "join up" with you (Not just a little, REALLY joined up)

* Go to or get in the trailer

* The horse follows

After just a few reps, the horse will get in if you just walk over to the open trailer door. I always get my horses' attention for a couple of minutes at least before asking them to load. I have the trailer door tied or otherwise locked open and when I walk over to it they load readily, even eagerly.

The only time I've recently had a problem with someone else's horse it was because there was nowhere to work with him and I didn't get him totally joined up with me before asking. And he had a bad history - someone had apparently tried to whip him into a trailer. What a shame. But after just walking around the little area we had to work with for about 15 minutes and reassuring him, even that high-headed 16-hand Arab got in a little 2-horse, though he wasn't too eager about it. Trailer loading is one problem that really shouldn't be a problem. PLEASE don't get in a fight or get frustrated - get a good trainer to show you how to get the horse to "join up" and how to recognize when he's ready. It will save both of you a world of grief.