Hoping someone can help me with this. I already lost my very detailed post so I'm going to post the basics and add as people have questions.
My 20ish mare has never had a lot of trailering experience in the 10 years i have owned her. I bought a 2 horse strait load last summer only to find that she acts up in the trailer (while in transit) to the point of falling/laying down. I did countless hours of work with her (clicker training, lots of rewards), only to find that she trailers much better with the divider out and box stall style (facing backwards). I did so much work to this trailer to make it safer for her including new divider that goes to the floor, new rubber with better drainage/grip. Vents, windows. Even new back doors. As she got more experience in the box stall, I decided that I should give it another go with the strait load. It was horrible. She panics and lays down before I can even get into the truck. My mother in law bought a big, bright, spacious 2 horse slant load. She should (I thought) do much better in the slant because of more room, brighter, less movement ect. Lo and behold she gets on just fine - even egar to look out the big window that I had open so she could hang her head out. She liked it (I thought). I had the divider closed (it scared her at first, but I worked and worked desensitizing her to it and rewarding her for being calm.) Then all of a sudden - no apparent reason she starts the leaning and scrambling thing that she does before she falls/lays down. I was looking at her through the window and called her and she stopped - egar to look out again. When she relaxed I let her off, then went on again twice more without closing her in and called it a day.
I'm feeling a little defeated. I don't want to give up on the slant load just yet - but how do you deal with a horse that panics in the trailer unattended but loads like a champ? Lots of articles on how to load, not many on how to deal with issues standing in there.