Real Life Horsemanship

I wanted to share my experience and give a big "Thank you!" to Dennis for helping me out so much. Last spring, I bought a really sweet, gentle trail horse for my daughter. His name is Simon, and he's a 14 year-old Quarter Pony that's 13.3 hands high—the perfect size and temperament for my daughter. I trial rode him several times and he was great on trails, didn't spook at anything, and would go wherever I pointed him.

But, when I went to pick him up, I discovered a big, big problem. Simon would walk into the trailer just fine—and then immediately shoot back out as fast as he could. Once I would get him loaded or when I went to get him out, he would shoot out of the trailer and yank me with him.

It was a very dangerous situation for me and for him. He almost ran over a couple of people when shooting out, and I was worried we'd have a bad accident at some point. I think he must have had a really bad trailer experience in his life, but I had no idea how to fix it.

I saw Dennis' TV show about a month later and got his training DVD set. I watched his trailer loading DVD very carefully, hoping it could help me out. The next weekend, I went out to work with Simon and found Dennis' training techniques are easy to follow. I'm not a very good horse trainer, but his techniques sure worked for Simon and me. The thing I like about Dennis is that his methods are perfect for just normal horse owners, like me.

I followed Dennis' trailer loading instructions step by step with Simon, and within about an hour, Simon was walking slowly and calmly into the trailer and backing out only on my release—very slow and relaxed. I couldn't believe it—I figured it would take weeks or maybe even months to get him to load and unload properly without freaking out. Getting it done in about an hour just amazed me.

I worked with Simon a few other times to make sure the problem was truly fixed, and now he loads and unloads better than any of my other horses. The problem is totally gone. Thank you Dennis for teaching me how to fix Simon's trailer "rocket launching". With that problem fixed, he's now one of the best horses I've ever had.

Mike Smith
Shueyville, Iowa