08/24/2026
So this clip is about 16 and a half minutes long but don't worry I'm not going to make you sit through that. However, I will fast forward through the non-productive moments and pause through the teaching moments because there's several things that I would love to make sure that the valuable information gets to you. But like I said, I'm not going to make you sit through basically watching the horse refuse to get in the trailer for 16 minutes.
So one of the things that happens is the horse gets a lot of time to look out of the trailer without being immediately and clearly redirected towards the opening of the trailer. So if you consider the horse's nose the end of a thread that you're trying to put through a needle hole, you're going to want to make sure that the nose is pointed into the hole, not off to the side of it. The longer it gets to point off to the side of it the longer you're not going to get it threaded. There's several points in the video where Rio is being given a chance to just stand there at the trailer but looking out over Mae's right shoulder.
The delay and lack of clear direction gives off the impression that it's not important to us, really, whether or not he gets into the trailer. When being allowed to look out an away, he could easily get the feeling like he has options, or there's room for negotiation. When working with trailers, we really don't want them to come to that conclusion.
There's one time where I'll slow the video down where he gets taken away for a walk but it's NOT because he deserved to be released or rewarded by being taken away from the trailer. He actually was taken away from the trailer to straighten him out. Of course straightening out is a good reason to move them off and then right back again straight, but he was taken away with a calm, "Okay. Good" kind of energy. Again, he's being given the impression that it's not really that important to us. We want anything we do with our horses to be important to them BECAUSE they KNOW that it's important to us. If we don't let them know what's important to us, they don't know what to make important to them.
There's another spot in the video where the timing to redirect the nose turning out back into the trailer got more spot on and that's when you hear great use of the nopes, yeps and goods. So I want to make sure that I highlight that as well.
Sometimes as an instructor, you find yourself criticizing more than praising. I guess because it seems that you want to help break habits to install new ones. In order to do that, it seems, you need to "point out the bad" to make room for the good. I want to make sure that any changes that were made and the efforts that were made to stay more well timed are also recognized and acknowledged.
