Best. Advertising. Video. EVER!
After all the craigslist fails, the overpriced “in” breeds, the trainers who don’t know that yanking on a horse’s face isn’t something anyone needs to pay $500/month for, and just everything else that is wrong (and, quite simply, stupid) in the advertising portion of the horseworld, this ad is amazeballs! It’s cute, tells you exactly what she does, shows she can do it, and the horse’s look pretty happy about it all. I mean sure, she might have wanted to include her contact info at the end of the video (just a thought) but even missing that, it’s still better than most of the crap out there!
Ok, sure, there could be a bucket of feed or something in the trailer that makes the horses run into it BUT how many times have you tried to bribe your horse into a trailer using sweetfeed or something like that? Did it work? I sure never had any luck with it! lol
23 Comments
Most. Awesome. Vid. Ever. Like you, Snarky, I don’t care what may or may not be in that trailer, obviously this is a much more efficient method than you see from the average Joe. I do wish we had these kinds of trailers in the U.S. – I think open trailers are much less scary for horses. I have a custom rear-facing straight load trailer where the horses back in – sounds crazy but they seem to really like it, and loading is much less dangerous. But my ponies are not as excited as these guys!!!
There HAS to be bribery involved for that to work. There has to be.
However, there’s nothing wrong with bribery if it, well, works. Clearly it does. I love the ‘allow horse to realize legs still attached’ line, too.
And the adorable little black Shetland.
What that video at least appears to show is the end result of a lot of positive reinforcement (and bribery) to show these horses the trailer isn’t just not a bad place to be…it can even be fun.
Just as a note, though…even if you get your horses to this point, always drive carefully. Nothing like bad driving to make a horse forget it knows how to load properly…
Not a trailer, btw, that is a flipping big horsebox! I would think by the way that the horses are behaving there is someone just out of sight in the box, and I would also think that, with a person this responsible , such a thing would be a must….
Horses learn better if there is something in it for them. Clearly getting into that van has it’s rewards. But who cares, as long as it works. Never ceases to amaze me how some people can half beat a horse half to death (remember the guy who made a barbed wire halter for his horse and then dragged her behind the trailer when she refused to get in? ) and others can point at a trailer and their horse run to get in. It’s called time, consistant training, patience, and some type of reward the horse(s) find worth it – not fear and worry. Gold stars to any one who puts the efforts into their horse training ( and turns out willing happy horses ) as this gal surely has! Nice change from yahoos riding yearling TWH from a few days ago!
That’s Emma Massingale, she does cool stuff with horses, her site is here: http://www.emmamassingale.com/
That video ROCKS! Love it. She has obviously done something to get those horses excited about getting in that van. Adorable ponies too!
I wonder if she’s using the ‘feed in the trailer’ technique for dealing with problem loaders.
Maybe so. Interesting stuff, for sure.
I saw someone loading sorta like this about six weeks ago. She held the end of the lead line in her left hand, stretched out her right arm and gave a little flick of the wrist towards the horse’s rump. He just strolled right on in like it was his barn stall. Great to see.
That was great! Of course there was food involved. But after my mare had ONE accident, just a lot of banging, no serious injury, all the food in the world would not entice her into the “monster”. She had to load and back out 2 times before she would load and stand. Took me a few trips to figure out that was her deal. No amount of treats would convince her otherwise. 3′s a charm was my moto after that.
Notice how well the horses obey her commands in addition to the loading. The first stood motionless and ground-tied while she applied the leg wraps. And she had complete control of the two loose horses that loaded themselves at her command from outside the arena! Color me impressed. She’s spent some serious time working with those horses. This goes way beyond “treat in the trailer”.
She COULD have gotten those horses to load without food inside. IF they were well trained, and knew that a trailer ride led to going somewhere fun. Even with food in the trailer, unless the horse gets something else from the trailer ride but food they won’t do it a second time. A friend of mine–who is also an excellent trainer–just throws the lead over the horse’s back, points it at the trailer, and the horse loads itself. No magic, just patient, tactful training.
Awesome and creative! and no wiffle bat in site!
Nice to see someone doing it right. Got love the horse that went /around/ the entire rig before loading itself. Who cares if there was a bribed treat? If a treat motivates them to behave and get things done. . .better that than the run of the mill stuff we see everyday. Happy horses, happy day.
Treats are not needed to train your horse to trailer load. It is patience and knowledge of how a horse thinks. My friend is a trainer that works with the wild/feral horses that I rescue and she has a wild horse she rescued that she uses to work with the disabled using voice commands. No treats are involved only respect for the horse and the time and patience to allow the horse to understand what is being asked of it. Watching a skilled trainer work with those principles is like watching a ballet.
Watching her other videos is well worth it…looks clearly like she knows how to ride and train exceedingly well! Very impressive!
After all the horsemanship blah blah we then feed problem loaders in trailers. By dinner day two they fly in!
I don’t care if feeding isn’t the ‘right’ way to do it. If it works, it works. You come and work at my stables come pony club morning when there’s 15 horses that need loading and half of them are dragging their kids around the car park because the bratty kids won’t ‘do’ loading training and I sure as hell aren’t getting a cent putting the horses on the trailer (nor do I have 30mins of horsemanship time per horse) and it takes time out of my morning work! I walk up the ramp with a bucket of molasses soaked feed and in they go lol!
Haha, best training ad EVER! I love the “special” horse who runs around the trailer first, lol XD
And as for whether or not the horse was bribed, who cares? Most – if not all – animals (including us) are highly food motivated, may as well use that to your advantage, make the experience easier for you, and more fun for the horse.
I’m still laughing hysterically…. that was the best vid ever!
Obviously the horses are bribed with grain or something. To make a point in her sales pitch. She obviously did an amazing amount of work to teach those horses to load. Why not add a small bribe to make the video a little more fun?
Very cute video. I have two horses that were trained to load in a similar method. You can’t leave the trailer open now without them loading themselves. As long as you’re patient and calm, and make it fun for the horse, horses really don’t mind loading. However I always use protective equipment: pillow wraps, polo wraps, and a poll guard. You can never be too careful.
If you don’t know how to teach your horse to load like that then you need to get Pat Parelli’s trailer loading DVD. I gosh I said it … yes people Pat Parelli
AND jennifer r no food is required – amazing eh
No, I don’t actually think that we do need to do that. All we need to do is do it properly, like this woman. No gimmicks,. no expensive speshul halters, no expensive speshul books, just plain old common sense. Honestly, would you go to work without being paid? So why would you expect a horse to do it??