Especially if the amount of horse hair in my car is any indication.
Today, my friend Andrea invited me to go to St. Lazare to ride the trails. Andrea has a lovely two-horse straight load Sundowner with a ramp. I figured with all the loading practice lately, that this would be a piece of cake.
However, Luba was of a different opinion. She would get her front feet on the ramp, but was worried about going all the way in. I kept my cool and we kept trying for about a half an hour before Uwe came to help us out.
His firm no-nonsense approach and some encouragement from me and my carrot stick behind got Luba convinced to load up into that metal cave on wheels. Backing out was a bit exciting, as she is not accustomed to a ramp. She kept expecting the big drop off. We loaded her 4 times and each time was less exciting.
The trip was uneventful. Both horses calmly unloaded and stood quietly tied to the trailer while we tacked up. Luba boldly led most of the way on the slushy, icy trails. The sun even made an appearance!
For the return trip, Luba let me lead her on the trailer without fuss. But Skye was not so keen. Luba stood quietly on the trailer while we all took turns trying to convince Skye to hop on. After a while, we unloaded Luba. This seemed to work, as Skye loaded, and then I again led Luba on.
What I learned today is that is it good to load your horse on as many different trailers as you can. Sometimes on the right stall. Sometimes on the left stall. Step-ups. Ramp loads. Slant loads. Rear facing. By themselves. With another horse. First to load. Second to load.
Ay, there's the rub...
...But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
We spent the month of March putting in as many long slow miles as we could. 74 to be exact. All of this on the same 2 miles of road and driveway, the half mile paddock track and the trails in the bush when the footing was good. And sometimes even when it was not so good. We are itching for some new scenery.
So I decided that it is time to tackle my bad karma for loading Luba in the trailer. I enlisted the some on-line help from Parelli trainee Kellie Sybersma. After about 2 weeks of almost daily practising without actually going anywhere, Luba is self-loading like a pro. I tried to take some video evidence of this last week, and she got on so fast, I barely had time to start the video :)
Today, my friend Andrea invited me to go to St. Lazare to ride the trails. Andrea has a lovely two-horse straight load Sundowner with a ramp. I figured with all the loading practice lately, that this would be a piece of cake.
However, Luba was of a different opinion. She would get her front feet on the ramp, but was worried about going all the way in. I kept my cool and we kept trying for about a half an hour before Uwe came to help us out.
His firm no-nonsense approach and some encouragement from me and my carrot stick behind got Luba convinced to load up into that metal cave on wheels. Backing out was a bit exciting, as she is not accustomed to a ramp. She kept expecting the big drop off. We loaded her 4 times and each time was less exciting.
The trip was uneventful. Both horses calmly unloaded and stood quietly tied to the trailer while we tacked up. Luba boldly led most of the way on the slushy, icy trails. The sun even made an appearance!
For the return trip, Luba let me lead her on the trailer without fuss. But Skye was not so keen. Luba stood quietly on the trailer while we all took turns trying to convince Skye to hop on. After a while, we unloaded Luba. This seemed to work, as Skye loaded, and then I again led Luba on.
What I learned today is that is it good to load your horse on as many different trailers as you can. Sometimes on the right stall. Sometimes on the left stall. Step-ups. Ramp loads. Slant loads. Rear facing. By themselves. With another horse. First to load. Second to load.
Ay, there's the rub...
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