My horse is getting in the trailer. Very. Slowly. One foot. At a time.
Odie has to be comfortable hanging out in there by himself, before we can begin going places, so Odie can begin doing his long-intended horsey job of being a dressage show pony. Addendum to the plan: afterward he will happily hop back in the trailer and go home.
So what we have been doing lately is working on this trailering thing. At first we had two feet solid, then three and now we're working on four. Four will go in, but they're not copacetic. Four need to get in and chillax.
It takes time and writing about it will seem about as exciting as it has been for me to stand around on the end of the rope so Odie can let his horsey brain process the idea that no monsters live in the trailer.
He needs this time because when my trainer Kathleen and I tried to load him the poor horse began shaking from head to toe. I am not exaggerating this for narrative effect.
He still tried to do what was being asked of him, God love him. But there he was with two feet propped up in the trailer and every muscle twitching like someone had just tasered him. Kathleen thinks he may have flipped out over a butt bar once.
Which brought to mind that although his previous owner did not seem to have a problem loading him, she wore her helmet to do it. Who knows what happened. Anyway, he's a smart enough horse. He's getting over it. Just very. Slowly.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Slow is good - you'll get there (and in better shape than if you tried to go fast!).
ReplyDeleteMy gelding shook all over and sweated profusely when he was first trailer trained. It's scary seeing such a large animal quivering in every muscle in his body. You worry that he won't be able to stand up.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, it was scary. The other thing that was happening was (this is a lovely acronym courtesy of my sister) he had a DBO--diarrhea blow out--every time we practiced in the trailer. What a pain to clean up every time! I had a little talk with Odie about it, and we do 5 minutes of lunging before going out to the trailer, so now there's no more shaking, sweating or DBO.
ReplyDeleteYou're doing a great job and before you know it Odie will be trailering like a pro! Looking forward to our coffee drinking trailering session!:)
ReplyDelete