Loading a horse into a trailer is not a separate skill that horses and their handlers need to learn. Loading is simply a response to the step cue you’ve taught your horse through heeding. The horse that has learned to stay at your shoulder, trust your consistency and trust that he’s got your full attention whenever you’re with him. He has learned that your step is a cue for him to take a step. So he will match you step for step and walk right into the trailer.
The step cues are the same and the horse’s response to them should be the same as if you were asking him to walk down the barn aisle or into an arena. When the horse understands heeding, walking into a trailer is just one step away from what he already knows. When people have trouble loading their horses it’s usually because they didn’t introduce the trailer properly in the first place. Horses that have been forced into trailers or had some other bad trailering experience get afraid of them. Other horses are not afraid. They have just decided that they are not going to get in the trailer and are simply being disobedient.
But there are horses that don’t mind it loading themselves into the trailer and the horse in the video is one of them. He watches the trailer, goes round it, and then loads himself into it. It looks like this horse has done it before and now he is just showing off. I like it at the very end where he looks at the camera and says “See how good I am!” Watch the video!
https://www.facebook.com/HorsesVideos/videos/486627838203314/