The rope popping her in the head only put the icing on what originally spooked her. Main thing is that she trusts you. It helps if she's level headed, and YOU MUST BE cool headed. Forget about the fact that she was ever in a trailer and start over. If you want to get her loaded once, crowd and force her in, if you want to keep loading her, spend the time and let her go in.
I'm lazy, so I try the easy way first :) . May be as simple as borrowing another trailer that looks different.
If you can park the trailer away from any distractions (middle of a pasture or whatever), do it. If you are able (not handicapped), get rid of any helpers also (they usually just make things worse). It's not a challenge and you won't be fighting, so you'll do OK alone (may not hurt to have someone peek from a distance just in case).
If you've got another (steady) horse that she's used to that loads, tie her close to the ramp and load the other horse. Maybe she'll load then, if not, she'll see that nothing is bothering the other horse and it'll soak in.
All of our horses load without a problem except my mare who won't set foot on the ramp without a butt rope. Usually don't have to use it, just has to be in place. Whatever works.
I get a bucket with feed in it, a brush, plenty of goodies in my pockets, and set the whole day aside to load. Then just lead her as far as she wants to go, fuss over her a little and let her see where the goodies are, then work your way in the trailer at her pace (may want to use the bathroom first :) ). I lucked out this year, I had all 4 babies (weanlings) walk right in the trailer. Last year, I was half a day on one and an hour on the next two. With her 1000 +/- pounds and your 200 +/-, fighting isn't an option, so don't bother.
Good Luck,
Dave
This post was edited by dave2 at 00:17:35 11/07/08.
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