From First Light

To tie your horse on the trailer or not – what halter to use

I would tie my horse in a trailer only for two reasons:

1. Your horse tries to turn around. It really is our responsibility to make sure the horse is OK with the trailer. This means to me he feels safe enough to not want to climb out during the trip. The way to accomplish this is described in my E-book. Another thing which is really important is to drive the trailer considering the horse. Imagine having a full cup of coffee on your dashboard and don’t spill any while driving. That will take care of your horse not liking the trip with the trailer because of inappropriate driving.

2. So that horses can’t dominate each other while driving. Sometimes we have to transport two or more horses in a trailer, who normally wouldn’t  stand next to each other with hay in front of their noses. This can lead to severe dominance games. And the only thing they will be able to use is their teeth. I have seen horses with deep bit marks and this could have been prevented by tying them just short enough that they can’t bite. It’s just for the trip, they’ll survive being tied (when you have prepared them for it).

What halter to use in the trailer to tie your horse.

As usual you get a lot of advice in the horse world. Very few are based on truth. To load a horse into a trailer, I always use a rope halter. They are comfortable yet don’t invite to lean on for the horse. I don’t see any use for traditional web halters. They have been invented because the look pretty and you can leave it on the horse, so he is easy to catch. I’ll get into this in a later post. As far as educating the horse, traditional web halters only have disadvantages. They are wide, soft and can break. Three reasons why not to use it to teach your horse to yield from pressure. Your horse always learns something, also when you’re just leading them around. The place behind the horses ears is very sensitive and most horses have big opposition to pressure in this area. It is important to teach your horse to yield and be tied. Many times horses are just tied and when something spooks them, they pull back until the halter breaks. In some cases it may be good the halter breaks, but every time it happens, your horse has (sub)consciously learned he can do this. This will make it worse. Every year horses and even young foals die because people just tie them without proper preparation. This is very sad and unnecessary.

As long as you are not sure, just don’t put a knot in your leadrope when you tie a horse. Use a long leadrope and just wrap it around a strong object. This way the horse can pull back without feeling much pressure. Because of the long rope he will still be tied and everything stays safe. Another great tip is to tie them high. By doing this they can only pull with their own weight. When tied low, they can use all the power in their hindquarters, which is a lot.

I will definitely devote an article on teaching your horse to be tied. This post was about what halter to use to tie your horse in the trailer. So that question is not easy to answer. Because when everything is perfect, you don’t need to tie them at all. Which is also the best scenario when you would be involved in an accident. I hope this will never happen to you, but I know a few stories where they were really happy the horses were loose on the trailer. The trailer actually landed on his side and the horses where standing straight up in it, wondering if this was a new exercise. If they would have been tied, it could have ended differently.

So what to do? If you are not sure, just use the web halter. If this gives you a secure feeling, this will benefit the horse and you for the trip. There’s an even better advice, which may not be what you want to hear: if you can’t load your horse in the trailer by just sending him in out in front of you … if you can’t load your horse by yourself … if they only way to get your horse on the trailer is by force (this is where the horse has no choice), then it is probably better to stay home!!! No type of halter is going to save your horse when he panics. The main reason why horses are restless on the way is because they didn’t choose to go into the trailer by themselves. So do some preparation and  …

Happy Trails!

About the Author

From the year 2001 until the end of 2009 I was a Parelli Natural Horsemanship professional. In 2010 I decided to teak a break from teaching courses and lessons. I still love the Parelli program very much and hope many people will join in the future. So how could I still help? I know many people had trouble loading or travelling with their horse in a trailer, so …

I decided to become an ambassador for safe and comfortable trailer loading and transporting of horses.

I plan to do this by offering all I know about trailer loading to ensure safe and comfortable loading and transport for both horse and human. And…. by promoting horse trailers with slant loading, since this is the most comfortable way for horses to travel.

In those eight years I have loaded many horses and have also transported some of them on commission. With several of my personal horses I kept on challenging and improving my trailer loading abilities and have travelled extensively through Europe with them.

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