Reader: My horse is light and responsive at home but when I trailer him someplace he falls apart. He does not listen to my aids at all and is distracted. His head and tail are up in the air and he is snorting and dancing around. I can’t seem to calm him down and wind up getting embarrassed and upset. What can I do?
Charles: I am asked this question constantly at expos and in e-mails. This is a very common problem. I will give you some tools that will help you resolve this problem, but first I need to explain the nature of horses and why your horse is acting this way.
Horses have survived because of their flight instinct. Here at the ranch we call it “emotions.” At home, your horse is accustomed to your facility and property—your barn, your trail—and so it is relaxed. When removed from this environment and in a new location that it is not accustomed to, its flight instinct kicks in and its emotional level rises. The horse becomes concerned with its survival. Some horses become more emotional than others. I have had horses brought in at 7 or 8 years old that have lived in a “quiet bubble” all their lives, meaning their owners never exposed them to new experiences. It sometimes takes a horse like this two to three weeks before it settles down emotionally, because the horse is in new surroundings.
First I recommend exposing your horse to as many new experiences as you can. This is what I do when I bring a horse to a horse expo. An expo provides a de-spooking environment that cannot be duplicated. There are teams of horses pulling wagons, marching bands, cattle, lots of people—things that you can never duplicate at home and believe you me, we try! In the show world, a professional trainer who plans on showing a horse next year will begin exposing it to the show environment this year and school it in this environment.
The second recommendation I have is to learn an exercise that brings a horse’s emotional level down. Here at the ranch, before we take a horse out to a show or trail ride, we first take it through a process to bring its emotional level down. We do this so that when we go to a new location, the horse does not become a big wreck—it does not want to run or bolt or buck because of its reaction to fear.
The training tool that I use on all of the horses at my ranch, and then teach to their owners, is called a change of direction exercise. I teach my clients to practice this before they take their horses someplace so that when they want to trailer out, as soon as their horse comes out of the trailer, they can do this exercise to lower its emotional level.
To perform this exercise, you attach a 12- to 14-feet line to your horse and send the horse out on the line. When you put pressure on the line, the horse learns to stop its feet and face you. Next, you give the cue to go forward again and send the horse out in the other direction. For more detailed information on this exercise, read my book.
If the horse does not know this exercise before you venture out it is really difficult to teach it in a strange place where there are a lot of distractions, like a horse show, a new trail, someone’s house, a clinic, etc.
I use this exercise myself quite often. I have trailered horses to expos and as soon as I unload them they have their head up in the air. The first thing I do is to send the horse out around me a couple of times on the line, stop its feet, and then change directions. I will continue doing this until I see the horse gives me his face (turns and looks at me) and softens his body and relaxes. The reason the horse will relax when I stop its feet is because it remembers that we did this exercise at home and it was rewarded for giving me its attention by me releasing the pressure.
Why It Works
So why does this exercise work? Some people will say it is because I am lunging the horse. But lunging is not motivation enough for a horse to make a change in its behavior. I have watched people at shows lunge their horse for an hour and the horse is still very emotional and ready to buck them off. Even if the horse is soaking wet with sweat, this is not the solution. Horses need a reason to adjust their emotions and I have found changing directions provides this motivation. Why? Because it is more difficult for them to stop and change directions and most horses are lazy. It may be difficult to see when they are prancing around, but once you get past the energy and emotion they don’t even want to move their feet.
OK, so what happens when they stop and face you and then five minutes later they are upset again? Well then, you keep repeating the exercise until the horse seems more relaxed. He will soon relate this exercise to work and learn not to over react.
If your horse is really nervous, should you go ahead and show or go on the trail ride? If the horse is very emotionally upset and concerned with its environment, then it won’t be concerned about you, so “no,” I would not ride the horse. However, if you can get it to do the change of direction exercise and your horse seems to be relaxing, then the answer is “yes” and my clients have done this, even at their first show. Never try to tough it out or “cowboy up.” Your main priority should be your safety. And until you have control of your horse’s emotions you won’t have control of your horse.
This exercise is also a good way to take the freshness out of a horse, to watch for any attitude or how your horse is moving—if there are lameness or stiffness problems.
As always, if you have any questions, please visit me online at www.charleswilhelm.com.
God Bless,

Charles Wilhelm
It’s Never Ever the Horse’s Fault