Caiti.jane
Your horse is terrified of loading. Imagine someone telling you to go into a dark cave that and you did not want to go there. The person would not let up and tried to force you to go into the cave anyway. That is what is going through your horses mind. She needs to understand that there is nothing to be afraid of and the only way to do that is to get a good join up follow up with your horse. I understand that you tried a join up by chasing your horse in a paddock for an hour. Stop whatever you are thinking of doing next and go to the lessons on join up. Study them well and if possible have someone coach you through the process. As far as doing join up in the pasture it is possible but it is much better to use a round pen. If you don't have access to a round pen Ronda, one of the Uni members had a great idea and constructed on using poles stuck in the ground and rope with little 'flags' to keep the horse in the pen. Go to Youtube and look on how to make this round pen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN0TlAzUmsY

After you have achieved join up and follow up then go and watch the videos of Monty loading very scared horses and after a short time they just walk in as calm as can be.
Take your time in training. You have made it harder on you and your horse so you will need to be calm and patient with both your horse and yourself. Don't let anyone take over your training if you are not successful the first time. People will try to help you, but unless they understand the concept of Equus they cannot help you go forward. If you watch Monty or for than matter any successful trainer, their voice is commanding but not harsh or loud. One or two word is all they use, the rest is your body language.

Cheers

If you have not much time or resources,keep your pulse rate down,make sure horse is paying attention ,that he will lead on a loose halter rope and, very importantly,back away from you when you ask him to, with very little halter pressure,lead him up to trailer ,back him away, walk him in a gentle cirle,loose halter rope,lead him up again,back him away again........ continue this until he puts one foot on ramp,do not turn round and look at him ,keep walking onto ramp,back him off and repeat,gently does it,he will load,don't give up and never sell your horse!

P.S. other choice is ride her to the new town!

Hi again cati.jane,
This is all excellent advice from everyone.
One more point that may help, with a dominant mare, is it possible to have a light at the front of the trailer, (float)? Even a window or side door, allowing light into that area?
A horse will walk behind you if you are firm and straight on, not looking at them but telling them, with your body language, this is where we are going and if they can see where they are going it helps a great deal, as was said would we go into a dark scary place !!
Hope this helps as well.
Ronda
PS: Something else that helps is practise a trailer like situation. A few tarps drapped to appear like a trailer.
Start with the top, open at all other sides and walk her through, then add a side and walk her through, then the other side and walk her through and finally the front and walk her in, standing there with her, reassuring her with a soft praising voice, then gently back her out.
You will have to do each step several times until she remains calm.
By doing this you will earn her trust and she will follow you anywhere.

Hi Caiti.Jane,

First question, do you have a dually halter? If so, that's perfect, if not try to get yourself one a.s.a.p.

A few weeks ago I went to a demonstration of Monty and Kelly in Devon. Also there they had a demo about loading into the trailer.
The owner of the horse couldn't get him into the trailer to take him to the demo, so a team of Kelly and Monty went down to help the owner and it took them 45 minutes to get him into the trailer. In a "normal" situation it takes the team 5 minutes!!!
Oké, the horse was at the demo and Monty said I am not sure if I have 45 minutes to get him into the trailer, we will see and give it a try. The horse had a dually halter on!!!
The very first thing was the join/up and follow/up. After that MontyWhat walked on a wooden board lying on the ground. You can see this board in the lesson: Access All Areas: Part 4. First Monty walked himself, stepped on it and took the horse with him. That was a little bit scarry because the wooden board made a sound. He walked over the smallest part first. After a few times the horse followed him and then Monty started to walk in the lenght of the board and the horse was following him.
Then (they had this all prepared) the horse had to go through a narrow passage. The team made this from fences, what came from the round pen. If you see the round pen you know what I mean and the hight of it. Monty let the horse follow him through the narrow passage and also backwords!!! A few times untill the horse is alright with it.
Then he started with the trailer. First a few steps on the loadingboard and backwords. And then Monty walked into the trailer and the horse was following. On both sides of the trailer they build a fence so the horse couldn't "escape" to jump of the loading board and hurting himself or Monty.
Monty said, when you are going to start to train this, be confinced of yourself that the horse will do it. Like it is a normal situation and he will walk in with me.
If the horse resists you see what Monty is doing on the video. When you are leading your horse into the trailer DON'T look back and don´t look him in the eyes, because the horse will think that you are not sure about the situation and you will confuse the horse. Look forward and have a firm walk.
Hope you understand what I mean and that I am clear enough.

Don't make yourself nervous now, because there is a pressure on you that if your horse is not loading you have to sell him. And then my question would be, and then? He still wan't load, when he is sold.
If you think about that you have to sell him if he is not loading, the horse will feel that. Your hartbeat and adrenaline is up and you are nervous and prob. also very tence. Because HE HAS TO GO INTO THE TRAILER OTHERWISE.........
So do first thing to do is what Dennis says Join-up and follow up and then hopefully we can help you with our other suggestions.
And what Sasafras says never sell your horse!!!!
And what Monty says; think you have the whole day, then instead, I have a few minutes!!!!
Good luck, May.

Hi caiti.jane your poor mare has been terrified by her previous owner re trailer loading and it will take you a long time to overcome this and lots of patience. My first horse broke out of his agistment area once and rangers roped him on a bitumen road and dragged him onto an open cattle/horse trailer - this tended to ruin him for floating for his life. Hopefully it will not be so bad for your mare. My fellow had been nervous of floating prior to this experience but afterwards it used to take hours for me to load him and all my patience. A few hints that may help - lighten the interior of your float as much as possible - I spray painted mine white so that it wasn't such a scary cave, encourage your mare to walk into other confined areas such as stables and shelters and under verandahs, have a tasty hay bale in the float and finally try to make you mare appreciate that the float is a good place to go. The other advice here is all great - join-up, follow up, the importance of the dually, Mays explanation of Monty's methods. One other thing that I find helps is to lightly tap the horse with the lead rope on the shoulder or neck while encouraging her/him forwards with the dually -big rewards for any forward movement (oops I use treats here) but if she backs up discipline with the dually - back her up further and circle her etc. then ask her to move forward again. The dually is your most important aid here. Good luck with it and let us know how you get on.

thank you everyone for the advice. hopefully it will help. there was a big window at the the front of the float and the side door was open, plus the inside was painted white. we tried leaving a trail of chaff up the ramp and inside the float, but she just ate the bits she could reach and gave up on the rest. this was strange considering she was so skinny at the time. I dont have a dually halter and my family cant afford it right now. i threatened to ride her there but we would have to go through lots of cities to get there, which wouldnt be good because she would probably start spooking again. we are moving from Maryborough to Cairns which is 3 days drive away. apparently she had loaded easily into a cattle truck before we got her- are horse transport vehicles similar to this?? also when we were trying her out, she seemed great and didnt spook at anything, but after buying her she started shying at every little thing- leaves, cars, people walking along, birds, etc. it started to gget so bad that she would leap sideways when we were walking aloong and then take off at a canter. would this have been because of how the previous owner made her get on the float? i have since 'desensitised' her so she hardly spooks anymore, but dad complains that when he rides her shes still very jumpy. why would this be? i like the idea of using tarps because my family doesnt own a float but i'm planning to borrow a friend's one.

Hi Caiti Jane,

The best advice I can give is buy Monty's Load Up DVD. This will show you exactly how to deal with a remedial loader. It will be worth spending the money on.

Also, in answer to your question, generally horses will load much easier onto a truck than a float, so using a horse transport truck is a great idea, as a short term solution. Just do some research online first to make sure the company you use has not had any bad reviews. I have used a couple of different ones to move my horse back and forth from Qld to Sydney, and they have all been fine, but I'd still recommend doing some research.

If in the meantime you can do some work on leading and backing away, and walking over a board and tarp that will help when it comes to load him in the truck. But highly recommend your best course of action is the Load Up DVD.

Good Luck.

Also, if you can't get a dually, the next best thing to use is a rope halter - you should be able to pick one up for $5 - $10.

Hi catijane,
Something else you can do, if you cannot afford even a rope halter is make your own.
In the new video, I recieved this morning from Monty it shows how to do this.
Monty had a very difficult race horse that was going to be destroyed because of his behaviour.
He slipped a looped rope around his neck then mad a loop to go over his nose and it worked perfectly.
I have used this method before I purchased the dually.
It's aquick and easy fix.
Have soft hands and don't use force just gentle pressure.
A tight budget I understand. It would be good if you were to try and save some money for this single most important purchase.
Ronda

Hi again catijane,
I was just on my site at youtube and I was looking at Montys videos.
He has one on loading that you can watch several times.
You will find it very informative.
Go to youtube and on the search bar type in:
Monty Roberts Trailer Loading
Hope you feel encouraged when you watch this,
Ronda

Hi catijane - the horse transport idea seems a good one if you need to transport her that far. My Quarter Horse arrived at my parents place near Bundarra NSW in a horse transport truck and the guy who drove the truck told my he had no problems with him on the truck but his owner had mistreated him when trying to float him. I was nervous about how I could float him to Melbourne ( a 15 hour drive) so decided on a a horse transport truck. The guy who drove the truck was amazing and so gentle with Uggs and also my 2 poddy heifers I brought with him. I tried to find his card for you as he came from Qld but I no longer have it. It didn't take him long to load Uggs at all. If you get a good company by word of mouth or someone else here on Forum in Oz may be able to recomment one then their drivers are usually very experienced and good with problem horses. The other thought is that I believe a dually is really essential for loading difficult horses so worth the investment. It is cheaper to buy a dually than have you or your Dad injured! I purchased my second one over the phone from Edward's Saddlery in Toowoomba (Phone 0746331111) for about $69 so much cheaper than from Monty's shop as the postage is so much less. You will find it is the best investment you can make for your horse and being in Qld. you should have it in a few days. Once you have the dually watch Monty's DVD that comes with it a couple of times and then try it out on your mare - it takes a bit of practice to get used to both putting it on and using it. Also watch Monty's Trailer Loading videos recommended above. Once you have your mare responding to the dually then try loading her with this and following Monty's Trailer Loading method. If this fails try Dennis's method of loading which is new to me but sounds sensible. I was taught years ago to load a difficult horse by making it rather uncomfortable outside of the float and lots of encouragement for any movement in the right direction. So if I was going to attempt to float your mare I would:
Lead her up to the tail gate of float with the dually in a positive calm manner. If she baulks use the dually to ask her to come off the pressure but if she goes backwards move with her then circle her around you next to the tail gate using the end of the lead rope to tap her on the near shoulder/neck nothing harsh and keep your own adrenaline down. Circle her a few times then ask her to move forward with the dually again giving lots of praise and rubs etc. for any forward movement. If she backs off again correct with the dually and cirle in the opposite direction for a couple of circles. Repeat until she realises that moving forwards is a good thing to do and that she profits by doing it. Continue until she finally goes into the trailer for you - have a nice hay bag or bucket of chaff in there waiting for her when she gets there. I have now taught a dozen or more difficult horses to float in this way - in bad cases it does take time and patience but others pick up what you want them to do pretty quickly. You will probably take a few hours getting your mare into the float and once she is in give her some chaff or hay in there then back her out and do it all again. Twice will do the first day but then try it again the next day or as soon as possible after that - the longer you leave the second session the harder it will become. If you can train her to float that would be a real plus for your future together but I would still use a horse transport for this first trip.

ok thank you every one. does anyone from Australia know if Rudd's Horse Transport and North Queensland Horse Transport are any good?

by the way i do have a rope halter. the previous owner gave it to me because when Alli reared after being forced on, the metal buckle of our halter snapped.

I have raised 5 foal. I grained their dame in the horse trailer starting when they were like a week old - If their dam loved trailers so do the babies. Short rides at a couple months old. They all grew up to love trailers. If every horse breeder would just spend a little time with each foal they are responsible for bringing on this earth........