Load with the pig’s eyes, not your own plans
A pig’s eyes sit wide on its head, built for watching the world sideways rather than judging what lies straight ahead. Depth perception is poor, shadows across a ramp look like holes, and a bright doorway beyond a dark trailer reads as a wall. That is why force fails so reliably: the pig is not refusing your destination, it is refusing to walk into what looks like a trap. Solid sides work with this vision instead of against it — a pig presented with a solid boundary on both sides simply follows the corridor, the way it would follow a hedge line in a field.
Prepare the whole route before the pig moves
Walk the route yourself first and fix it. Gates should stand open and fastened back, gaps at the sides of the ramp blocked with boards or bales, and the ramp itself as low and shallow as you can make it, covered with straw or earth for grip and to kill the hollow ring of trotters on metal. Scatter feed along the path and a better pile inside the trailer. Check the trailer before the pig is anywhere near it — floor sound, latches working, partitions set — because a breakdown mid-load, with the pig already suspicious, costs you the day. Load a settled companion first or pen the trailer within sight of other pigs if you can — pigs follow pigs far more willingly than they follow people.
The board technique, in small patient steps
Work with a solid pig board held behind the pig, just clear of its body, with a second handler on the other side if the route is wide. Pigs move away from steady pressure at the shoulder and rump, so the board does the asking: small steps forward, then hold. When the pig stops, you stop — let it sniff the ramp, chew a mouthful of the scattered feed, and decide. Inch the board forward again only when it is calm. If the pig turns and faces you, do not push the board into its face; simply hold the corridor, let it turn back in its own time, and resume. Never grab ears or tail, never shout, and never let anyone get in front and pull: a pig pulled from the front sets its feet and becomes furniture.
Time, heat and knowing when to pause
Choose the cool part of the day and budget far more time than the job should take, because rushing is the one ingredient guaranteed to spoil it. Pigs overheat quickly when stressed, so have water ready and watch for heavy panting or a pig that keeps lying down — both are instructions to stop, move the boards back, and let it recover in the shade. If the day is truly lost, leave the trailer in the pen with feed inside overnight; a pig that has eaten and slept in a trailer loads itself the next morning more often than any handler expects.
Loading day goes best when nobody has to improvise their part. Setting the jobs out as Care Teams duties in KinsLe — one person on the board, one on the feed line, one on the gate — means each helper knows their role before the pen gate opens, and the pig meets a calm, rehearsed team instead of a committee.