Ask and they oblige

Decided to stick close to home this weekend.
Hand walked Luba for 30 minutes Saturday morning and trimmed her feet.
Hung around to watch her for a while.
Had a 3 month old Standardbred filly breathe on me and tickle me with her whiskers.
All in all a lovely morning at the farm.
No signs of colic or Potomac :)

Today, my friend Donna trailered over with her gelding, Skye, to join me on my typical roads and fields ride.  Luba was wound for sound. Took forever for her to line up at the mounting block and stand quietly. When she finally did, she couldn't hold back a small stomp with her back foot. As if to say, "Let's go already!"

Headed down the road to ride in the neighbour's fields. A couple miles of walking to warm up, about 5 miles @ 6.5 mph average, and then another couple of miles walking to cool down. Luba felt good and was very happy to move out - trot, extended trot and canter with a few sideways spooks thrown in for good measure.

Donna has a lovely 2 horse straight load gooseneck trailer with a ramp. She was kind enough to let me practise loading Luba.  I lead Luba on without too much fuss, Donna encouraging from behind and putting up the butt bar. Luba ate a few mouthfuls of feed while on the trailer, but that was it. I was hoping she would just tuck into her sloppy breakfast. Oh well. A couple of mouthfuls is a start.

So just waited a few minutes and then unloaded. Luba was a bit surprised, trying to find her footing on the ramp - looking for a step - and came off a bit fast. So Donna suggested we try again. This time I just stood at the back of the trailer and pointed her on and she went! Wowzers! She did that once last week at the Ganny, when Tracey was already in the trailer with her mare. This is the first time she has loaded for me like that into an empty trailer :) :) :)

So just to prove it was not a big fluke, we did it again! By this time, she had the ramp figured out and came off quite nicely.

Trailer loading with Luba always reminds me of my teacher Sonja, who says, you can't "make" a horse do anything. You ask and they oblige. Usually.