Learn to Trailer Your Horse

Moving your horse from one place to another is a must whether you show your horse or not. Trips to the veterinarian hospital or to a park are common place. Loading your horse can be a stressful time for the horse as well as the owner if the horse hasn't been taught correctly from the start. Any mishaps can scar the horse for life and it will be very difficult to change the unpleasant memory. It is important to remain calm and to praise the horse whenever possible, making entering the trailer a pleasant experience.
To begin with, make sure your trailer is in good repair. Snug-fitting rubber mats provide the most secure footing for the horse and also preserves the floorboards of the trailer.
Trailers should be introduced to a horse from the time he is a young colt. Often times feeding them in a trailer that is parked and not going anywhere at all. You can start with putting the feed on the floor at the back door and gradually as the days go by, put the food farther and farther up in to the trailer until it is fully inside and completely confident inside. This can work with a fully grown horse also. Making them familiar with the trailer is key to getting them loaded.
When trailering to go out, start by walking the animal around or near the trailer in a circle without actually going inside. Praise him each time he completes the circle and scratch behind his withers to relax him. Keep approaching closer to the ramp of the trailer each time. If you have introduced him to the trailer from a colt he will have no problems. If not then keep familiarizing him with the trailer. Walk him up to the trailer or up the ramp over and over until he feels secure.
Be firm but no pushy when you feel its time to proceed further in to the loading process. If you are too lax, they will just shy away and not enter. You must make your intentions clear. Praise him by whispering in his ear and scratching his withers when he makes progress towards entering the trailer. Never force him in, but a pat on the butt when he is close to entering gives him the encourangement to move forward.
Load the horse at several different times of the day under all conditions to enforce the behavior that he must comply each time he is asked no matter what's going on around him.