Rinse and Repeat

Here's your random photo of the day.  Let's play "I spy"....

OK that's a spider that I found after putting on splint boots.

Back to regularly scheduled topics. 

Chili has occasionally been difficult to load, so last week I wanted to set aside a day to hook up my truck and trailer and practice loading, as well as beginning to clean it out to get it ready for winter.  It is the Midwest after all and despite the fact the weather has been unseasonably warm, it's not due to last forever.

I managed to back the truck up perfectly to hitch the trailer, so that was excellent starting point.

Then I went and got Chili.  The last time I tried to load her was for the little local schooling show with my husband in the misting rain.  She was difficult and a bit of a piss, but I ended up resorting to a butt rope to get her on.

So with a couple hours before I had to go to work, it was rinse and repeat: trailer loading style. 

I originally tried asking her to just load like normal, ie just walking her on which used to work.  Well not so much. 

I went to the whole "work the horse away from the trailer " and let them rest near the trailer.  The downside is that she's an Arabian and she doesn't care about putting her feet on the ramp, it's rather the whole actually staying inside of it that she doesn't want to do.

So I ended up trying to load her with the butt rope by myself, which was a little bit creative, but about 35 minutes, she finally went in. 

It took about two minutes for the next time and then the 3rd and 4th attempt were effortless with her even self loading with the straight load dividers up.  Usually I just swing the straight load divider over so she has more room.

So while I don't think this is the end of our trailer difficulties, at least I think it gave her an idea that loading on the expensive, new shiny trailer I bought specifically for her isn't an optional thing. 

Sunday, I planned to go trail riding with a barn friend and it was time to put the trailer loading back to the test.  In our favor though is that the other horse is Chili's BFF so incentive to any degree.


So much love for that Fjord.  We are also standing on top of a tire at the park

The Fjord loaded first, then Chili decided to hesitate for a minute.  I just tossed the lead rope over Chili's rump and apparently she had butt rope flashbacks, so she just hopped right in. 

We had a pleasant ride at the park

Complete with lake wading.  It's actually an equine watering spot as the edge is too muddy for the horses to actually drink.

Trying to be artistic, but all you can see are my horse's giant ears. 

Then it came time to load back up to go home.  I asked if Chili could load first and closed up the divider and toss up her lead rope on her back and she walked in!

So who knows...maybe a sign that we'll accomplish things, someday!

Or maybe another round of rinse and repeat is somewhere in our near future.

How about your horses?  Good to load or not so much?