September 2, 2025 • 9 mins
Trailer loading isn’t just about getting your horse from A to B—it’s a skill. And like any skill, it depends on trust, preparation, and practice.
In this episode of Dear Horse World, you’ll hear the first video from Tik Maynard’s Trailering 101 & Common Trailering Problems Masterclass on NF+. Tik explains why most “loading problems” are really relationship problems, how to set your horse up for success, and why rushing almost always backfires.
This is just one lesson from a 19-part, 3.5-hour masterclass, now updated with four rider case studies that show exactly how Tik works through common trailering struggles.
👉 Watch the full course on NF+ at and use code DHW for 15% off your annual membership.
Because a horse that loads quietly isn’t just convenient—it’s peace of mind.
--------------------------------------
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Most horse owners don't admitit, but more than half of us
struggle with trailer loading.
It's stressful, sometimes dangerous, andin an emergency it can be terrifying.
That's why NF Plus partnered with Horsemanbestselling author and behavior expert
tick Maynard, to create Trailering 10 1 and common trailering problems.
(00:23):
This masterclass has now beenupdated with four case studies.
That follow riders working throughtheir trailering challenges alongside
tick, step by step with 19 videos andover three and a half hours of content.
It's one of the most comprehensivetrailering resources available,
but it's not just aboutgetting your horse from A to B.
Tick shows you how to read your horse,respond with clarity, and create
(00:47):
calm, confident loading experiences.
The best part, you can start usingthese techniques right away, even
if you don't have a trailer at home.
In this episode, you'll hearthe very first video in this.
Series where tick explains why trust andrespect are the foundation for solving any
training challenge, not just trailering.
(01:08):
If you'd like to continue the seriesor explore your own personalized
learning pathway, head to noel floydplus.com and use code Dhw for 15%
off an annual NF plus membership.
Because a horse that loads quietly isn'tjust convenient, it's peace of mind.
(01:34):
Trailer loading is such a huge topic.
There's so many variables, um, so manydifferent situations, so many kinds of
trailers, so many kinds of forces, somany kinds of, uh, uh, people, uh, how
they want to interact with their horse,how they want to train with their horse.
That there's no simple 1, 2,3 step process for teaching
your horse to trail load.
(01:54):
What we're gonna try to go throughis, is look at the big picture, look
at some of the different situationsthat are gonna come up, and, um,
try to empower you to how, how tofigure out these puzzles on your own.
And that's kind of how I think about alot of things with horses as a puzzle.
Now, before we even get to the trailer, Iwant you to think about the relationship
that you have with your horse.
(02:15):
Um, you know, we use a lot ofwords like trust and respect.
And, uh, often we don't have definitions,working definitions for what this
means for how we relate to our horses.
You know, if I come home, uh, after a longday at work and I go upstairs and uh, I,
I wave to my wife or I, I call to Sineadand say I'm home and she goes out the,
(02:38):
uh, out the back door to do something,or she locks herself in the bedroom.
You know, I don't have a catching problem.
I've got a relationship problem,and a lot of people approach
horses with that idea of.
Of I've got a catching problemor I've got a loading problem.
Whereas what we really haveis a, a relationship problem.
When we talk about the word trustwith horses, what that means is
that we're constantly settingour horses up for success.
(03:01):
And even when things happen thatare outside of, uh, you know,
things that are not our fault,let's talk about trailer loading.
With trailer loading.
There's no 1, 2, 3 step processthat I can take you through.
Instead, I wanna look at the big picture.
Uh, there's so many variables.
With trailer loading.
There's different kinds of trailers,different setups with the trailers,
(03:21):
different situations with how thetrailer, you know, is related to the
barn or the paddocks or the arena.
Different kinds of horses, uh,horses that are high on energy,
horses that are dull, horses thatare relaxed, horses that are nervous
or scared or distracted or fearful.
And you have all those samekinds of things with people.
You have people that are nervous,you have people that are distracted.
You have people that are in a hurry.
(03:43):
Uh, what we wanna look at is allthese different variables that
can happen and try to figure out.
Why something's happening.
Before we even get to the trailer, wewant to back up and we want to think
about our relationship with the horse.
So many times people thinkabout the relationship with
the horse or the problems withthe horse at specific moments.
You know, somebody might havetrouble catching their horse.
(04:04):
And the way I like to thinkabout it is if I come home.
And I, I'm calling for my wife.
I say Sinead, I'm home.
And uh, she goes out the back dooror she goes into the bedroom and
locks the door and, and does her ownthing and doesn't wanna talk to me.
I don't have a catching problem.
I've got a relationship problem,and it's the same thing with horses.
A lot of the times when we think wehave a specific problems to do with
(04:26):
the trailer or to do with catchingor to do with mounting, or to do with
leading, that's not just particular.
That moment, that's a whole relationshipproblem that we have with the horse.
What trust is with a horse is that we'llconstantly set up our horse for success,
even if something is not our fault.
Even if something is not my faultand I put my horse in a situation
(04:46):
where it ends badly, that's on me.
That's a little bit less thatthat horse is gonna trust me.
If I take my horse into a warmuparena and there's all kinds of people
trotting and cantering around, andsome kid on a pony that's outta
control, runs into me and my horse.
Even though that might be that, youknow, that Pony's fault or that kid's
fault or that coach's fault, the horseI'm riding is still gonna trust me
(05:08):
and that situation a little bit less.
And so that's on me to be proactive,to look ahead, to predict things
that are gonna happen in the future.
That's what being a goodhorseman is all about.
It's about preparing for the future,uh, being able to predict the
future and getting good at readinghorses what respect is, that's not
something that a horse gives us.
That's something that we earn.
(05:29):
The way that we earn respect isby using the appropriate amount
of pressure, the appropriate, uh,balance between, um, reinforcement,
um, and, and, and punishment.
For every situation, it'sabout being ready and reading
our horse in that moment.
One of the big things to do with trailloading is that people don't think of
(05:49):
it often enough as a particular skill.
People are, are ready toalways go for a lesson.
They're ready to practicetheir shoulder in.
You know, people take manylessons, learning flying changes.
People are going for a lesson twoor three times a week learning how
to jump or do cross country, orif you're a western rider, reining
or cutting or sliding stops.
We think of these thingsas particular skills.
(06:09):
How often do we go take alesson on how to lead our horse?
How to catch our horse,how to groom our horse.
All these things are particular skillsthat can be made better and better.
Just because you are okay at leading yourhorse or okay at catching your horse,
doesn't mean that there's a whole notherlevel that we can get better at it.
With trail loading, it's the same thing.
(06:30):
Don't just go out and trail loadyour horse when you gotta go Some.
This is a particular skill.
I want you to think of it as important andas unique and specialized as shoulder in.
So you've got this relationshipnow, and now I want to go out and
practice this particular skill.
Maybe you take a lesson, maybe you watcha video and don't just make it okay.
Make it really good.
(06:58):
Trailer loading is a little bit likea lot of other things that we do,
that there has to be a foundationthat we have to build first.
You know, if you're gonna go out and jumpyour horse, you have to have a foundation
of being able to walk dry and canner.
A groundwork foundation, being able toride into new spaces, into open spaces.
So before we even start with thetrailer in this course, we're gonna
back up and we're gonna work on somespecific exercises on the ground.
(07:19):
Then we're gonna go back andwe're gonna look at the trailer.
We're gonna sort of identify differentways that trailers might be oriented
or how to load a horse into a trailer.
There's different ways totake a horse into the trailer.
We could lead them in.
We could send them in.
We could draw them in.
Sometimes you could use multiplepeople, two or three people.
What we're really trying to do is takeinto account how the horse is feeling
in that moment and not rush through it.
(07:40):
But to teach things slow andthoughtfully, slow and thoughtfully is
always gonna be fast and in a hurry.
All right.
One time I, uh, I was helping anevent rider, a close friend of mine.
She had a, a 5-year-old stallion and.
She invited me over to her farm togive her a trailer loading lesson.
(08:01):
You know, her, her styling wasvery well behaved in most respects,
but he wouldn't go on the trailer.
And, uh, I, I went over there and I helpedher for about an hour, and I showed her
some little things and, and I got her tothe point where she could take the horse
on and off the trailer quite easily.
And then I left.
And, and as I left, she, she said to me,she said, tick, I'm gonna call you out.
I want you to come out once a weekand I wanna get better at this.
(08:22):
And I, I said, that's great.
I didn't hear from her for two months.
Uh, so I just assumed things weregoing well and I saw her at a horse
show two months later and I said,how's it going with that, with that
stallion, with the trailer loading?
And she said, uh, shesaid, it's going well.
I just gotta go out, you know,two hours before I have to leave
to get the horse on the trailer.
And I thought, geez, two hours.
(08:44):
It takes you two hours toget the horse on the trailer.
And she said, no, no, it justtakes me a couple minutes.
Like the horse pretty much just walks on.
And I said, well, if it just takes youa couple minutes, why are you going out
there two hours before you have to go?
And she said, 'cause if I goout there five minutes before I
have to go, it takes two hours.
And this is a great, you know, a greatthing that it shows us is that the
(09:05):
horse really reads the mindset thatwe're in, uh, how prepared we are, how
relaxed we are, and if we're in a hurry.
You know it's not gonna go well.
One of the number one rules oftrail loading is don't trail
load when you're in a hurry.
Most horse owners don't admitit, but more than half of us
struggle with trailer loading.
It's stressful, sometimes dangerous, andin an emergency it can be terrifying.
That's why NF Plus partnered with Horsemanbestselling author and behavior expert
tick Maynard, to create Trailering 10 1 and common trailering problems.
(00:23):
This masterclass has now beenupdated with four case studies.
That follow riders working throughtheir trailering challenges alongside
tick, step by step with 19 videos andover three and a half hours of content.
It's one of the most comprehensivetrailering resources available,
but it's not just aboutgetting your horse from A to B.
Tick shows you how to read your horse,respond with clarity, and create
(00:47):
calm, confident loading experiences.
The best part, you can start usingthese techniques right away, even
if you don't have a trailer at home.
In this episode, you'll hearthe very first video in this.
Series where tick explains why trust andrespect are the foundation for solving any
training challenge, not just trailering.
(01:08):
If you'd like to continue the seriesor explore your own personalized
learning pathway, head to noel floydplus.com and use code Dhw for 15%
off an annual NF plus membership.
Because a horse that loads quietly isn'tjust convenient, it's peace of mind.
(01:34):
Trailer loading is such a huge topic.
There's so many variables, um, so manydifferent situations, so many kinds of
trailers, so many kinds of forces, somany kinds of, uh, uh, people, uh, how
they want to interact with their horse,how they want to train with their horse.
That there's no simple 1, 2,3 step process for teaching
your horse to trail load.
(01:54):
What we're gonna try to go throughis, is look at the big picture, look
at some of the different situationsthat are gonna come up, and, um,
try to empower you to how, how tofigure out these puzzles on your own.
And that's kind of how I think about alot of things with horses as a puzzle.
Now, before we even get to the trailer, Iwant you to think about the relationship
that you have with your horse.
(02:15):
Um, you know, we use a lot ofwords like trust and respect.
And, uh, often we don't have definitions,working definitions for what this
means for how we relate to our horses.
You know, if I come home, uh, after a longday at work and I go upstairs and uh, I,
I wave to my wife or I, I call to Sineadand say I'm home and she goes out the,
(02:38):
uh, out the back door to do something,or she locks herself in the bedroom.
You know, I don't have a catching problem.
I've got a relationship problem,and a lot of people approach
horses with that idea of.
Of I've got a catching problemor I've got a loading problem.
Whereas what we really haveis a, a relationship problem.
When we talk about the word trustwith horses, what that means is
that we're constantly settingour horses up for success.
(03:01):
And even when things happen thatare outside of, uh, you know,
things that are not our fault,let's talk about trailer loading.
With trailer loading.
There's no 1, 2, 3 step processthat I can take you through.
Instead, I wanna look at the big picture.
Uh, there's so many variables.
With trailer loading.
There's different kinds of trailers,different setups with the trailers,
(03:21):
different situations with how thetrailer, you know, is related to the
barn or the paddocks or the arena.
Different kinds of horses, uh,horses that are high on energy,
horses that are dull, horses thatare relaxed, horses that are nervous
or scared or distracted or fearful.
And you have all those samekinds of things with people.
You have people that are nervous,you have people that are distracted.
You have people that are in a hurry.
(03:43):
Uh, what we wanna look at is allthese different variables that
can happen and try to figure out.
Why something's happening.
Before we even get to the trailer, wewant to back up and we want to think
about our relationship with the horse.
So many times people thinkabout the relationship with
the horse or the problems withthe horse at specific moments.
You know, somebody might havetrouble catching their horse.
(04:04):
And the way I like to thinkabout it is if I come home.
And I, I'm calling for my wife.
I say Sinead, I'm home.
And uh, she goes out the back dooror she goes into the bedroom and
locks the door and, and does her ownthing and doesn't wanna talk to me.
I don't have a catching problem.
I've got a relationship problem,and it's the same thing with horses.
A lot of the times when we think wehave a specific problems to do with
(04:26):
the trailer or to do with catchingor to do with mounting, or to do with
leading, that's not just particular.
That moment, that's a whole relationshipproblem that we have with the horse.
What trust is with a horse is that we'llconstantly set up our horse for success,
even if something is not our fault.
Even if something is not my faultand I put my horse in a situation
(04:46):
where it ends badly, that's on me.
That's a little bit less thatthat horse is gonna trust me.
If I take my horse into a warmuparena and there's all kinds of people
trotting and cantering around, andsome kid on a pony that's outta
control, runs into me and my horse.
Even though that might be that, youknow, that Pony's fault or that kid's
fault or that coach's fault, the horseI'm riding is still gonna trust me
(05:08):
and that situation a little bit less.
And so that's on me to be proactive,to look ahead, to predict things
that are gonna happen in the future.
That's what being a goodhorseman is all about.
It's about preparing for the future,uh, being able to predict the
future and getting good at readinghorses what respect is, that's not
something that a horse gives us.
That's something that we earn.
(05:29):
The way that we earn respect isby using the appropriate amount
of pressure, the appropriate, uh,balance between, um, reinforcement,
um, and, and, and punishment.
For every situation, it'sabout being ready and reading
our horse in that moment.
One of the big things to do with trailloading is that people don't think of
(05:49):
it often enough as a particular skill.
People are, are ready toalways go for a lesson.
They're ready to practicetheir shoulder in.
You know, people take manylessons, learning flying changes.
People are going for a lesson twoor three times a week learning how
to jump or do cross country, orif you're a western rider, reining
or cutting or sliding stops.
We think of these thingsas particular skills.
(06:09):
How often do we go take alesson on how to lead our horse?
How to catch our horse,how to groom our horse.
All these things are particular skillsthat can be made better and better.
Just because you are okay at leading yourhorse or okay at catching your horse,
doesn't mean that there's a whole notherlevel that we can get better at it.
With trail loading, it's the same thing.
(06:30):
Don't just go out and trail loadyour horse when you gotta go Some.
This is a particular skill.
I want you to think of it as important andas unique and specialized as shoulder in.
So you've got this relationshipnow, and now I want to go out and
practice this particular skill.
Maybe you take a lesson, maybe you watcha video and don't just make it okay.
Make it really good.
(06:58):
Trailer loading is a little bit likea lot of other things that we do,
that there has to be a foundationthat we have to build first.
You know, if you're gonna go out and jumpyour horse, you have to have a foundation
of being able to walk dry and canner.
A groundwork foundation, being able toride into new spaces, into open spaces.
So before we even start with thetrailer in this course, we're gonna
back up and we're gonna work on somespecific exercises on the ground.
(07:19):
Then we're gonna go back andwe're gonna look at the trailer.
We're gonna sort of identify differentways that trailers might be oriented
or how to load a horse into a trailer.
There's different ways totake a horse into the trailer.
We could lead them in.
We could send them in.
We could draw them in.
Sometimes you could use multiplepeople, two or three people.
What we're really trying to do is takeinto account how the horse is feeling
in that moment and not rush through it.
(07:40):
But to teach things slow andthoughtfully, slow and thoughtfully is
always gonna be fast and in a hurry.
All right.
One time I, uh, I was helping anevent rider, a close friend of mine.
She had a, a 5-year-old stallion and.
She invited me over to her farm togive her a trailer loading lesson.
(08:01):
You know, her, her styling wasvery well behaved in most respects,
but he wouldn't go on the trailer.
And, uh, I, I went over there and I helpedher for about an hour, and I showed her
some little things and, and I got her tothe point where she could take the horse
on and off the trailer quite easily.
And then I left.
And, and as I left, she, she said to me,she said, tick, I'm gonna call you out.
I want you to come out once a weekand I wanna get better at this.
(08:22):
And I, I said, that's great.
I didn't hear from her for two months.
Uh, so I just assumed things weregoing well and I saw her at a horse
show two months later and I said,how's it going with that, with that
stallion, with the trailer loading?
And she said, uh, shesaid, it's going well.
I just gotta go out, you know,two hours before I have to leave
to get the horse on the trailer.
And I thought, geez, two hours.
(08:44):
It takes you two hours toget the horse on the trailer.
And she said, no, no, it justtakes me a couple minutes.
Like the horse pretty much just walks on.
And I said, well, if it just takes youa couple minutes, why are you going out
there two hours before you have to go?
And she said, 'cause if I goout there five minutes before I
have to go, it takes two hours.
And this is a great, you know, a greatthing that it shows us is that the
(09:05):
horse really reads the mindset thatwe're in, uh, how prepared we are, how
relaxed we are, and if we're in a hurry.
You know it's not gonna go well.
One of the number one rules oftrail loading is don't trail
load when you're in a hurry.
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