Lesson Recap: The Positives and Places for Improvment

I messaged Alison yesterday to see when she could fit me into her schedule and she happened to have a morning spot open today! I snatched it up because why the heck not?

In rare form, Gwyn decided she didn't want to be caught, but once she was, she loaded straight into the trailer. It was about 15 minutes to the farm and I brought in the stuff I needed to tack her up. She was  really good about being in a new place.

The first thing she noticed was that Gwyn was weak in her right hind and it seems it might be an arthritic hock? It could explain why she wants to escape to the right, to avoid really stepping under herself  when tracking left at the canter. It also explains why she sort of hops her hind legs together in the canter even when lunging. It's why she runs into the canter and why we have a better canter to the right.

As a result, even though we finished out the lesson, we stuck to walk/trot and she recommended I sink money into a vet for now, rather than lessons, to get this sorted. And if I make her comfortable, she'll be so much better.

So that's the bad news first. The good news is that she really liked Gwyn's walk and trot. And it's a testament to her try-try-try absolute devotion to me that she does canter and work through it. Like damn. Break my heart with even more evidence how much this horse works for me.

So things we worked on unrelated to that but keeping that weak right hind in mind.

First off, it's either a dominance thing or possibly a pain avoidance, but she tries to grab the bit out of my hands, give her an automatic squeeze to bring her head back up. Half halt if she tries to go faster from the squeeze. If I'm consistent with the correction, she'll quit within a month. The goal is to have her ask nicely to work into contact, not try and drop and snatch the reins out of my hands. Even after about ten minutes she was not being rude about that as frequently as when we started.

She was working really well for me today and we did a lot of lateral work. Shoulder in, haunches in, side pass, turn on the forehand.

For all of this we treated Gwyn like a baby horse who was just being introduced to those movements.

So I started down the long side, asking for a leg yield into the quarter line and then used outside leg and outside rein to swing her hind end around and turn back and come the other way.

With shoulder in and haunches in, she emphasized that the movement was subtle and if you over emphasize it it becomes a side pass, which is not correct. Gwyn did REALLY well with this. And with this, my goal is to keep her head centered between her shoulders and ask for either and kind of let her drift. The drift is okay and it ends up working mentally for me in how I ask for the movement. We had the benefit of mirrors (which we haven't had for a long time!) and Gwyn was fascinated, lol. It definitely helped me make sure that our legs were lined up correctly for the movements.

We did serpentine work, really focusing on inside leg to outside rein and by god for the first time I really felt her engage and take up contact and bend. It was so lovely. Like I finally understand the feeling that inside leg to outside rein is supposed to evoke. I need to continue helping her balance, and work on being balanced with her.

By the end her weakness had shifted to the left side, which would be expected if she were trying to compensate. She was tired too, though not that sweaty because our hot, humid weather finally broke and it was high 50s, low 60s to ride today. Absolutely perfect.

So now my next step is calling the vet out to do a lameness eval and see what our options are. And this only makes me more determined to continue my weight loss, to reduce the strain on her.

What have you done for stuff like this? I'm treading in unfamiliar water so I'll be reading up and making sure the vet verifies the same thing. We'll stick to mostly walk/trot I think and save cantering for the trail when it's not going to be on a turn and putting strain on her legs.

I'm open to anything, so supplements, boots, therapy for after rides, you name it. Throw it at me. I would give this mare the world if I could.

Making faces while yawning, lol

Getting a good roll in once we were home

The Rider Forms the Horsee

Back when I started riding with Jim in Washington, he gave me a book to read. It was pretty dry, but ended up being very informative of the theory behind the lessons I got from him. I regret not blogging more thoroughly about my lessons with him, as he was an excellent teacher. After we all left the first barn and I moved north and he moved south with horses, it became harder to get him to me for a lesson and very expensive with travel compensation thrown in.

Anyway, he liked to say that the rider forms the horse. Everything we do as a rider is conveyed to the movement of the horse in some way. The trainer that I'm working with now has the same philosophy. I had my second lesson today and I'm hoping this marks the start of a breakthrough.

Some history:
I have had a recurring issue with Gwyn. She does not like to turn left and the faster we're traveling, the more she resists the bend. Not so much on the trail, but enough that when I attempted a dressage test that involved cantering, we ended up outside the ring on our counter clockwise canter circle. It was a disaster. This one issue is why I haven't attempted to really do serious showing because what's the point until I fix our left turning problem? When she spooks, she spooks to the right. If we're turning on a jump course, she doesn't want to go left. She drops her shoulder a lot when we do left circles. You get the picture.

At first I thought it was somehow related to her snakebite or eye damage (all on the left side of her face). Then I thought it was because I wasn't strong enough creating wall with my right leg. But nothing I could think of was fixing it. And so until I could get us both back in regular riding and budget in regular lessons, we focused on trail stuff where turning left really isn't that big of an issue when your horse is willing to follow a trail regardless.

Today, I traveled to the trainer's place. There is a $25 difference to trailer to her versus having her come to me. I live maybe 2 minutes away. It's worth the $25 savings. Eventually I will ride to her, which she says is possible. I decided to make sure that loading would be stress free and set up a temporary pen around the trailer. Gwyn has always loaded really well when I provide a barrier like that. She did balk briefly but I brought her around again walked her up to the entrance to the trailer and the damn mare self loaded like a pro. I made sure Saffron had some hay to munch on while we were gone since I was keeping her in the dry lot, which is harder to escape from, and off we went.

Fluff Mare is groomed and ready to hop on the trailer. Well, not hop. It's got a ramp, there's no hopping needed. 

Winter fuzzies. 24/7 turnout for the win. Surprisingly, today was pleasantly warm! Perfect winter riding weather.

Getting ready at Trainer's. There were lots of new horses to see and hear!

I got there as her previous lesson was finishing (which I knew about).  Gwyn was very up and alert. I tacked her up without issue and went back to their winter riding area for the lesson. Trainer does have an outdoor sand ring but waits for the ground to freeze before using it so that there aren't a ridiculous amount of ruts and potholes.

Trainer started with groundwork and reinforcing the giving to pressure and standing quietly as a reward and release. Every time Gwyn wanted to get 'up' and giraffey about the other horses she had to move her feet. Within a few minutes she was standing very still, head low and foot cocked when she wasn't being asked to move. Then it was my turn. I need to remember palm down and release. I'm in the habit of getting into a battle of strength with her and I shouldn't be.

Then it was time to hop on and we worked on having Gwyn stand still after I mount, which is admittedly, a bad habit that I've allowed for a while.  So I got on and off a few times. If I got on and she walked off, we immediately backed up and she had to stand still. Then we worked on me fiddling with my stirrups for a bit and making sure her feet didn't move until my feet were in the stirrups. This will be something I need to work on at home.

Then it was back to working on the 90degree turns and my position and I told her what I was practicing at home. I get very bracy which makes Gwyn really bracy and it's all a hot mess. I do really well looking where we're turning but instead of lifting my rein for turning, I open my hand and keep it low, which doesn't help Gwyn turn. This is slightly different from how Jim had me working with Gwyn, which was with that leading rein. I'm getting better results with the raised inside  rein.

My turns to the right were excellent, but to the left she was still dropping her shoulder and falling in. Then Trainer pointed out that when I look to the left, I actually look to the left and downward, where I look up and to the right. My left arm is also VERY sticky compared to my right and my left shoulder is 'up' compared to my right. When I focused on opening the distance between my shoulder and chin when looking left all of a FUCKING sudden Gwyn stopped dropping her shoulder and we got BEAUTIFUL light bending to the left.

So all those damn issues seem to stem from me. And goddamn if that isn't relieving, LOL. I can work on myself, I can do excercises to limber myself up and strengthen that left side.

And the rider forms the goddamn horse.

After that we worked on lightening the halt with a trot, halt, stand, back up, trot on exercise. My goal was to not haul on her mouth. I sit back well enough for the halt but I pull on her mouth too much. My goal is to be lifting my hands not pulling back. And you know, as soon as I started doing that I got light, on contact, square and nearly prompt halts from Gwyn.

We ended on a very good note with a light, responsive and balanced halt. I untacked and Gwyn self loaded once again. I'm hoping with these monthly lessons that the repetition of positive loading experiences will just cement in her and this will become consistent.


So yay!

Tuckered out (but only kinda)

Reindeer antlers for goofiness

I started mucking the runs only to realize that Gwyn had gone into her stall and couldn't be seen... She was helping herself to hay, the naughty creature.

1.01 miles YTD 35.52 miles

Brief Blog Hop pause while I enter in my mileage for the Distance Derby, which is still going, despite some hiccups this year.

After hearing that the weather was supposed to be lows in the 40s (after highs in the 40s...) but clear and just super windy, I was determined to ride. I had all the stuff from my lesson two weeks ago just rumbling around in my brain and while I did work on the stuff on the ground, I wanted to know that I could replicate the feeling of Gwyn moving so well without having a voice talking at me and giving me instructions.

SHE WAS SO MUDDY

I swear I just got done writing that post about how it all just blends in and then the mare comes over looking muddy as all get out. So we had a LONG grooming session and made sure all the mud crusties were gone. In excellent news, the mud knot is still secure and her tail is mud free!

Not happy about suddenly not having her hay. Also, she was holding her breath and made me think I had to get a new girth. I let her fuss a bit, tightened and went up two holes immediately.

When you work full time (or close enough) and have kids, this is winter riding.

The lights do a good job though! It's hard to tell because phone pictures (duh) but the arena was decently lit. 

"Mom, dis light is bright"

I was toasty warm. I had a wool undershirt, fleece riding pants, my winter muck boots, fleece vest, then sweatshirt, gloves and a balaclava (that fits under my helmet! joyous day!)  

I was slightly disappointed it wasn't colder so I could try out my DIY quarter sheet.

The ride was GREAT.  I started in hand and we practiced disengaging the hindquarters ( I figured out that's what she was teaching me to do!) on the ground. Then I hopped on and we did some more practice disengaging the hindquarters and moving her feet when she tried to say that all the gusty wind was a reason to not stand still while I mounted. Oh no, mare. Not a good reason. 

I hopped on a polite mare, finally and we started off walking and warming up. I practiced holding my hands out and doing the 90 degree turns to get her to start stepping under herself. And we did lots of walk halt reverse transitions, focusing on straightness in the reverse and adjusting the hind if she got wobbly. I tried to mix it up and make random patterns in the arena.  If Gwyn started to get squirrelly because of the wind or she thought the deer were horse eating deer, I immediately got her feet moving more complicated.

That being said, for it being a VERY windy night, with strange shadows cast everywhere, I had a very focused horse underneath me. It was LOVELY.

I'm going to close my eyes because bright light.

I tried a bit of trot too, to see if the techniques would carry over and discovered the most amazing trot. It was impulsive but not rushing and she was SO balanced. We did some big sweeping circles and some tighter circles, all at the sitting trot and I felt like I was riding a dressage horse. I swear. She didn't giraffe at all, and I focused on keeping my hands higher than I want, which probably ends up not being that high and when we would turn, I'd look and move both hands in the direction I wanted to go (same idea as at the walk)  

Oh my gosh it was lovely. 

I got bolder and loosened my reins and Gwyn dropped her head further but still with that self carriage. We practiced more hindquarter disengaging, pretty much anything to keep our minds busy. I did hop off at one point and set up some trot poles to go over. She was pretty good, but Saffron kept getting in the way.

We did some more random stuff before I called it a night. I'm so excited. I can't wait to do more!

This is my new happy mouth and there are already chunks missing. Is this normal? What's going on? 

RIDING LESSON ZOMG

Pardon me while we take a break from the regularly scheduled bloghop for my lesson run down and note review so I can remember what to work on!

My riding lesson was today and there's not much media of it, just selfies while I wallowed in self pity because the weather was slightly nasty.

This is my "I am not impressed, weather" face

"Ewwwww wintry mix! NOOOOO"

Okay, but seriously that's it. I should have set up the camera to record it all but didn't think about it. I was more concerned with dressing warmly.

I wore:

• thick wool socks that were compromised the moment I put on mesh, summer weight paddock boots and stepped outside
• Kerrits winter tight
• merino wool baselayer (I'm still wearing it, it's so soft and warm)
• fleece vest that I got from when I was a volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium (roomy yet warm with zipper pockets!)
• My columbia jacket, rated for super cold weather (I was sweating in the house)
• A balaclava I got from Meijer and wore for the first time today. 
• half chaps
• ariat maxtrax zip up boot (not happy so far with the fit but still breaking them in)

I was SO WARM!  :D :D :D :D :D

But seriously, I was warm enough I didn't need gloves.  The balaclava was perfect. I pulled it down off my head when I put my helmet on, but it kept my neck and ears protected from the wind. I'm a fan!

I think this is my new default for winter riding, barring the shoes, the wind goes right through em. I still need to work on gloves, but this is an amazing start.

It was rainsnowing when I left the house and I grumbled my way across to the barn. Gwyn saw me grab the halter and threw me the middle hoof and left. She knew. She knew. But it didn't take long for her to be amenable to capture (like a minute... haha) I curried the mud off, brushed where she was dry and started dolling her up. I wasn't sure what I'd be doing so I stuck polos on her front legs, partly because I was cold and partly because purple.

Trainer AML arrived as I started to get the saddle. I signed her liability release and we got to know each other. She watched me tack Gwyn up and was pretty much getting the feel for Gwyn's personality and how we worked together.

I hopped on and started warming up. I talked about what my goals were (eventually eventing, but for now solidifying the basics) and what issues I knew we had (dropping the shoulder, bending, feeling very dead to left leg, working on the bit).

Right away we started to tackle the shoulder/bending/working on the bit/straightness stuff.

Good stuff:

• My seat is excellent (FUCK YEAH!), I am well balanced and sit up
• I look where I'm going instead of at my horse
• My hands are soft with caveats**

Basically, I want Gwyn to have self carriage, and that can be taught. I want Gwyn to know that when pressure is released, we relax. To that end, she's having me do some weird stuff to get the feel and overexaggerate the movement.  We started with just the concept of giving to pressure. She had me hold my hands out, palms down and WAY up high and immediately release when Gwyn dropped her head and took a step back. This became the foundation for back up. And by the end me just sitting up and raising my hands was all it took for Gwyn to step. But she's wiggly.

So then we worked on me feeling the connection between the rein and her hind leg. So my right rein should be cuing her right hind leg to step in and under herself. There's a certain swoop feeling when she truly steps in and across, versus sidestepping. The goal there was cue with the rein until I feel the swoop. Then get more and more together.

Again, and I've heard this from so MANY sources, control the feet, control the horse. So there were some deer moving through the woods during the lesson and Trainer AML got to see some of Gwyn's spook scooting and we used those same basic principles to get her focused and get her back and straight and listening to me as the herd leader. I have a habit of pushing or pulling Gwyn where I want her to be, and that just sets me up in a battle of wills with a part appy mare.

Then we did the 90 degree exercise. Basically instead of doing circles, I make very geometric movements around the arena and steer like I have a steering wheel. This is all to give me the feel and I have the suspicion that this will eventually be very subtle but I have to retrain old habits.

Let me tell you, doing this exercise, picking random 90 degree turns to take, all of a sudden I felt Gwyn start to carry herself, she was in a rough frame and we were straight in the contact before and after turns. She wasn't falling in or bulging out. I swear it was like magic and the horse and rider I knew we could be was starting to emerge.

A lot of the stepping under exercises I can do on the ground as well as in the saddle, so this gives me a lot to work on and practice until my next lesson (scheduled for december!)

All in all, I really liked the lady. She was tough but praised when you got it right. Just what I like. 

Amusing Anecdote: Saffron was NOT happy about the new lady and tried to run her down. Trainer AML just used her equid knowledge and sent Saffron off. I have never seen the donkey like that, but I think it's because Saffron knows where she is herdwise with us, and she was trying to suss out the new person, who firmly said "Nope, I'm also higher than you"   Saffron sulked in a corner of the arena for the rest of the lesson. LOL Then, by the end, came over to play nice.

Non Bloghop post :D Of pictures!

There's a light off the barn pointing toward the arena and then two in the corners shown. It gets lit sufficiently well to ride and lunge! The black lines are where I set up the trot poles. Not to scale (Obvs)

Tonight I got the kids in bed early (thank you fall rollback!) and decided that I was going to lunge. I lunged Gwyn on Sunday after the thunderstorm but since I have my lesson on Thursday and I've been super inspired by watching these video blogs from a trainer in Ireland, that I was going to commit with Gwyn.

Sunday was kind of hilarious. I got most of it on camera, but suffice to say that Gwyn was NOT careful over the trot poles I was lunging her over. She was stepping on them, skipping them, it was a disaster. A hilarious disaster.

Tonight I resolved to lunge her on the flat, since it was dark out. I do have some flood lights to light the arena. See the diagram! I figured it might not be lit well enough to do pole work.

She worked pretty well for it being cold and dark. I focused on rating her trot back from the giraffe zoomies down to a forward trot with impulsion that had her really use her back. She was moving really well so I thought, what the heck, let's see how well she does with the poles. 

Saffron was racing around us with super donkey zoomies, which was hilarious and I REALLY wish I'd been able to catch it on video or in a picture. She was joining in on the lunging!

Anyway, we got closer to the trot poles and I sent her over them with a nice forward, but not giraffe zoomy trot and she. just. floated. Her back lifted her, she was careful, her feet went exactly where I wanted them to be. In disbelief, I sent her through again. Perfect feet, great lift through her back, again.

We did it a couple more times, she never touched a pole. I praised her and walked over and gave her scritches. We switched sides and boom, a repeat going the other direction.

The only thing I changed before I left the previous session was changing the poles to alternate raised ends. That's it. I didn't change distance at all. I think she just has to actually think about her feet when there's an added challenge level and it was too boring and easy for her to do on Sunday.  We took selfies at night and I resolved that this was not so bad and maybe I'll start riding at night during week. I walked back to the house a bit cold but elated that it worked so well.

Selfie with the phone flash.

Selfie in 'natural' light, far from the floodlights.

Selfie in the floodlight. It's a nice bright white, solar powered! I only turn them on when I want them on so they stay well charged.

Also a bonus for winter riding, the happy mouth bit is not super cold, LOL. I feel no guilt when I put her bridle on.

The trot poles that she was better at night over than in the day time. Dork.

Training Fail

I had a complete and utter brain fart when it comes to training Gwyn. Thankfully things were not bad, though they could have been catastrophic.

When you introduce new things to horses you want to make sure you break it down into component pieces. As an example, you don't hook a horse up to a cart without making sure they're familiar with all of the little pieces (harness, something moving behind them, ground driving, pulling weight, etc)

In my excitement about having both snow and my skijoring harness, I figured I'd introduce Gwyn to weight.

I neglected to introduce her to something sliding across the snow when she moved.

Ah.

Taking a nap in the snow. This has all since melted.

Looking good! We made it through winter fat and no ribs! Thank you LOTS of hay!

Anyway, I put the harness on her, I wasn't even planning to ground drive her, just lead her around the pasture with a slight amount of weight in Kaylee's sled and the sled hooked up to the lines of the harness.

We took maybe too steps and my mistake kicked me in the ass. She absolutely flipped out. And it's definitely my fault. She went flying up the hill, the sled flapping behind her, then down the hill and into the front pasture.

Saffron and I kind of looked at each other like... "Uh... maybe we should go after her..."

The small amount of weight I had used (my grooming box) was remarkably undumped, a testament to how quickly she bolted. I trudged through the snow, Saffron at my side, to find the sled in two pieces, and thankfully no longer hooked up to Gwyn. If I had attached it differently, it might not have broken the way it did. 

I left the sled and approached Gwyn and apologized. She was snorty but calm. The harness was still on her. I led her over to the broken sled and let her sniff. I took the harness off and did what I should have done first. I put the harness in the sled and pulled it beside myself while leading Gwyn back to the barn.

She calmed down immediately, gave it a side eye, but didn't do much more to be scared.

To further reduce the damage, I piled hay on top of the sled and led her with the sled into the arena. She was eating off of it as we walked. I think the damage was reduced...

We walked around the arena for a while and then, to salvage some of the time I had, I did some ground work to get her focused on me in the 'scary' side of the arena. 

So, thankfully the nightmares that flashed through my head as I watched her race up the hill did not come to pass. It's salvageable.

And there are no more sleds for sale and the snow is gone. We'll work on dragging a 2x4 board instead. And we'll do it properly this time.

New Goals

My riding plans for the rest of this year and the first third of next year have been curtailed. Due to being on blood thinners now for the duration of my pregnancy, I am forbidden from riding Gwyn. This may or may  not work, I expect a bareback ride here or there on property, but my trail riding days are at an end until the baby arrives.

I don't want Gwyn to languish for the next 30 weeks, however, so I want to have a plan in place to work toward so I keep her engaged and keep her skills present and sharp. I see no reason why I can't ground drive her. The big danger is me falling and bleeding internally. If Gwyn is an idiot, I can release the lines and let her get over herself while I stay safe.

Things I want to work on through the winter with Gwyn:

• Going on walks
• I think I'm going to try handwalking her on the pollyann trail. That way we're still getting off property. 
• Being tied on a high line
• For camping purposes
• Ground driving
• Maybe this will work out some of our steer issues that we have, or at least allow continuous work
• I've purchased driving lines and I already have a surcingle, so as soon as those arrive we can get started
• Pulling small loads around
• Earn her keep using the arena drag, dragging pastures too
• Obvious snow fun on skis or sleds (for the following winter.... >.>) 
• work up to driving training
• Tricks - Useful or Fun
• lay down 
• smile 
• bow
• line up with a mounting block
• pick things up
• ground tie
• pick feet up with a point
• lower head on cue
• Painting

3.25 miles!

Today was a good ride. No pictures, but the weather was great. The insects, however, were nasty. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes. ICK.  And the horse flies, oi! Unlike yesterday, there were people at the barn, so I was more bold in my riding. My goal for today was to do a lot of trotting and just stay in forward motion to build up my endurance.

I had lunged Gwyn first because she was really up after watching all her buddies get turned out to pasture for the day while she stayed in as I groomed her. She was NOT dirty today, and her coat was super soft! Lunging was good, I pulled out the cavaletti and lunged her over that, then pulled out the barrels for jumps when she started getting lazy with the highest height of the pole. She was really good!

I hopped on and set out into the fields. She started out with a nice, loose rein trot, it was FANTASTIC. I decided to try and be more upright while posting since I think I lean too far forward. As soon as I set my shoulders back, I noticed my elbows naturally bent. Oooo!! Light bulb moment! My leg also swung forward a smudge, but I think it's okay. Now I want to get this on video/picture to see if it did what I think it did. I did more for me on this ride, then for Gwyn, until we had our sticky moments with steering away from the barn.

We had no spooky moments by our spook point, which was good, but I gave it decent berth just in case. We also walked for a short time on the road and had a car drive past us, slowly, thankfully, and Gwyn didn't lose her mind. Hurray!

All in all, a good time. And our average pace was up since we did so much trotting. I put her fly sheet back on and sprayed exposed Goober Pony and went on my way. Such a nice morning.

Solo trailer loading

Okay, okay, I was going to ride, and then I got a GREAT idea as I was fixing a bolt on the trailer. I had enough time to hook up the truck and work on trailer loading for a little bit before needing enough time to unhook the truck and go pick up Kaylee. So that's what I did.

Eric is not a horse person so I need to be capable of independence when it comes to trailering Gwyn. And that means hooking things up and loading. I decided to make today a low stress test run. We had nowhere to be aside from getting Kaylee, but worst case I could always go get her with the trailer hooked up.

Hooking up was easy thanks to my awesome back up camera on the Silverado. I only had to get out and raise the trailer and then back up a little more. I'd already fixed the ball size so it would be more secure and that made me feel better. I even K-point turned the whole rig to get it into an ideal spot for trailer loading practice.  It opened into an semi enclosed space with fence on two sides, the barn on a third and an open fourth side. However there was lots of green grass, and her pasture was at the far end. 

Om nomnom eating!

At first Gwyn was a pill. She reared and pulled away and ran over to the far fence line to be near her buddies who had all just gone outside for the day. I brought her back while the girl who cleaned stalls watched with concern. She tried to rear and spin again and I roared at her, sending her backwards for about 15 feet before immediately switching gears and calmly walking forward again. I do not tolerate rearing and spinning. Everything else I was prepared to outstubborn her on.

I had three carrots to use as encouragement but would only give them if she was fully on. The process went like this:
Gwyn put a foot on the ramp. The ramp is newer to her, though she had to use a steep one to be professionally shipped so it's not THAT novel. When it proved to be steady she did a couple forward and backward deals. She likes to try and escape around the side of the trailer and always to my right. I had her in the rope halter and just used the trailer corner as leverage so she couldn't go far and had to come back and face inside. Eventually she stepped all the way in. I didn't have any chest and butt bars and had opened up both escape doors. She walked all the way up and stood with me. I kept feeling like she thought she could hop out the escape door (and maybe could...) So I gave her a carrot and hooked up the chest bar. I did not tie her.

Before she went flying back I asked her to back up and she came off nice and calmly. This was encouraging! I left her to graze as a reward and a break and went to grab a flake of hay and a length of twine. I stuffed that in her hay net and tied the twine to one of the tie rings so I had a breakable point and grabbed her again. This time getting her back on was even easier. She happy started eating the hay and didn't care about the chest bar so I tied her to the twine. It was nice and loose and she had a lot of length to play with.

I praised her and walked around to the back. I used the divider to push her butt onto the left side of the trailer and connected the butt bar. She leaned back a few times but didn't panic when the butt bar didn't move. Even MORE encouraged, I closed up the right side butt bar. 

This was taken after our adventures were over but it gives you an idea of what the open back looks like. I had the center divider swung over to the right and clipped in and added the hay after our first successful load.

I went around to praise her again and she was looking rather nonplussed about the whole endeavor. I opened windows for some airflow and closed up the back ramp! I had successfully loaded my self-described hard loader SOLO!!!!

I left the back dutch doors open but closed the escape doors.  And we were OFF!

Proof I was out on the road!

I didn't go very far, I didn't have a lot of time, and I was definitely under the speed limit on parts of the road but I wanted this to be very positive and a practice run. We did highway, dirt roads and town roads, successfully! I wanted to get a good feel for how braking would be with a heavier load and going in the morning on a wednesday was really ideal for that.

We got back to the barn successfully and I turned the trailer around to the same position that I had loaded her from, again in case she went flying off for partial containment purposes.

She didn't care. She had hay.

Thumbs up for Dom because I watch/read about her trailer loading training all the time. I'm a distance learning student!

HUGE AMOUNT OF SPACE OMG.  There is no way this mare will ever be claustrophobic in this trailer. She has a buttload of space, LITERALLY.  I'm so glad we bought it. 

GM Ad Photo. 

Cell Phone Photos

Getting to graze when we're all done because she was a good girl.

Back with her buddies