Matt Feerick
Aug 2

A Detailed Look at Loading Pt.3

Over this 4-part blog series, Matt takes a detailed look at loading — helping you break down your training and troubleshoot common loading problems step by step.
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Building to Independence
Once the horse is able to go in and out of the box, you can start to ask for more. They get to the top of the ramp or step into the trailer, and now you’re beginning to communicate with them in a more refined way. You’re asking them to pause, to stand, to breathe.

You don’t want to rely on bars or physical restrictions to hold them in place. Ideally, the horse is able to stand in the box on their own, and you can mark that with food — simply reinforcing the idea that this is a place where they can rest and regulate.

A lot of the time, I’m looking for the horse to start eating — maybe from a haynet, or from food I’m offering by hand in a way that feels soft, not rushed or grabby. If I feel tension starting to build, I take them back out, revisit the somatics, and then go back in.

The goal is that the horse can truly mentally park inside the box or trailer — not just stand there physically, but actually settle and stay soft.
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Adding Environmental Challenges
At that point, I begin to introduce the kinds of things that might happen around the horse when you’re actually loading up.

I might move around in the box, wiggle some bars, or knock gently on a window. Nothing too sharp or sudden at first — I’m always reading the horse. But as we go, I begin to layer in more of the kinds of noises, movement, and unpredictability that the horse might encounter in a real-life travel situation.

Once I feel that the horse is okay with me moving around, making noise, and disconnecting a little inside the box, then I begin to introduce a new level of challenge: the partitions.
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Working with Partitions
I’ll start with approach and retreat. I close the partition towards the horse — slowly — and feel for the moment when they brace. I pause there.

Then I ask the question: Can you breathe?

If I see them take a breath — even a small one — I open the partition again. If I feel a really big release, I might step out of the box completely, give them a moment, and then reward with food.

There are times when a horse might only be able to get his front feet on the ramp — and that’s the whole session. That’s enough.

There are other times when a horse might go all the way in, stand calmly, eat, have the partition closed, take a breath — and that becomes the whole session. It totally depends on the horse.

There’s no fixed expectation. The goal isn’t to get them on — the goal is to build a horse that can stay soft and thinking, no matter what stage they’re in.
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Creating Distance and Independence
The next step is to work on distance and independence.

What I want to be able to do is stand inside the box with the horse — partition closed, still connected by the rope, dropping food — but ideally, I’m standing a little further away. Maybe I’m further down the ramp. Maybe I’m behind them, near the hind end. Maybe I’m outside the ramp, while a second person stands in front.

There are lots of ways to test different responses, but the aim is always the same: to gradually disconnect, adding the complication of distance, and see if the horse can stay in the box on their own — calm, settled, and thinking.

At this point, I’ll also begin to introduce tying. I add the physical connection to the box itself. Sometimes I keep the rope attached too — especially if it’s early days and I want the option to step in and help. Other times, I’ll take the rope away entirely. I might just hang out, sit on the ramp, and let the horse eat its hay — no big deal, no pressure.
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Sending into the Box
Once you’ve built distance and confidence with your horse standing independently in the box, the next stage is transitioning from leading to sending them in.

I usually begin this by standing at the bottom corner of the ramp, with the horse on it's line in the middle of the bottom of the ramp. I then send them forwards in to the box, I stay where I am. As their nose reaches the corner of the box, I push the hindleg across to turn them into the box and ask them to park. This movement should feel fluid and purposeful — not rushed or reactive.

If I’m loading into a trailer, I might have a second person at the front ready to meet the horse with a treat, reinforcing the position. We’re lucky in our own box, as we’ve got a small tack locker in front of the horse area — it acts like a convenient little tabletop. I mark the position with my bridge and then place the treat so they can eat calmly on their table and encouraging them to remain parked.

Once the horse understands this, I begin to add layers:
 • Ask them to go up without me, park, and stand while I play with the partitions.
 • Then I open everything and check if they’ll stay parked.
 • Finally, I walk out of the box and call them to me — still calm, still connected.

This is where the fun really starts. When your horse begins to seek the place — rather than tolerate it or need strong boundaries.

If you’re working at liberty, this is also where that begins. Start by looping the rope over the neck as they go in, then remove the rope altogether. Set it up in an arena or enclosed area. Worst case? They leave — and you either try again or go back a step. No drama, just information.
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Making the Box a Positive Place
This phase can be a really useful way to help the horse see the box as a friendly place.

Maybe now and then you bring them in to have their feed there. Maybe you tie them up with a haynet and let them rest for a while after being out in the field — so the box just becomes another spot where they relax and recover.

Because at the end of the day, that’s exactly what we want: for the trailer or lorry to feel like another stable.

And when you think about it, the box isn’t really so different from a stable — it’s just that we’ve often taught it to mean something else. Our job is to reverse that association, so the horse feels as safe in the box as they do anywhere else.
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Part 4 of the blog will be released next week...