I recently brought my mare to Simonetti Training for a refresher on trailer training as over the last few years she developed a negative opinion of getting on the trailer. Particularly when we went places, she didn’t want to load to come back, which was a combination of distraction, ignoring requests, refusing to load, side stepping all over, and then running over me when her emotions were high. We even had to walk home one time from a local show because loading was taking hours and she refused to get on. I contacted Tony and we brought her down to him for the day to learn how to communicate and get her to say “yes” to the trailer. Right away Tony and his amazing team of professionals greeted us, and we got to work on the issues. Everything was explained each step of the way as they began finding the root cause of her resistance to the trailer. The team is highly skilled in understanding horse body language and how to use our own body language to affect the horse in a positive way to change the mindset into a “yes” pattern. My mare is the type to invade space, ignore cues, and demonstrate dominance. The team showed me how to identify those instances, address them, and get control. They shared a wealth of information and helped me every step of the way to learn the skills myself so I can become proficient in managing my horse in any situation. All measures were focused on safety of everyone first, and then getting the horse to want to go in the trailer and saying yes to instruction. By the end of the day I was able to get control of my horses feet and load her in and out of the trailer many times. I left with a sense of confidence that I knew what to do and how to address any of the original issues if/when they arose. The result was night and day. By the end of the day, I came home with a horse that pays attention to instruction, loads well, and is tuned in to what I’m asking. I highly recommend that anyone having a difficult issue with their horse talk to the team at Simonetti training to learn how to overcome it and gain the confidence needed to move forward.
Ali Doyle
Wantage