Stop Putting The Horses On The Trailers!!

We no longer live in the age of the pioneer, where horses are our main mode of transportation and we live within riding distance of anything we may need. At this point, riding a horse many places that are not made for riding horses can be pretty dangerous. Mainly because cars are much larger, louder and faster than our spooky pony friends and I've never heard of any pleasant experiences when people or horses get hit by moving vehicles. This makes trailering horses more of a necessity than a luxury.

Since I've been at the barn we've had several reasons to use a trailer, and with my plans for the future, we will have to use a trailer a whole bunch more.

Ironically, scaredy pants Cash took the path of least resistance when it came to trailer time. Well, if you call the path of least resistance me, getting lost in his wooded 100+ acre pasture for 1.5 hours and having to get a search party of tiny girls on horses with buckets of feed to find and catch him. Once all that was over then, by golly, he was a dream to load! He barely looked at the stock trailer before doing a graceful 8 inch step on to be carted away to his new home.

I didn't have to experience Marvel's trailer load to arrive at the barn but I did get to load him up to take him to the vet to be neutered. I don't know if he knew that's why he was getting on the trailer and that caused him to act up a bit or if he didn't want to leave his fun new home (That totally has to be it right?!) but he was a bit of a pain in the neck. He didn't WANT to get on the trailer. He wasn't particularly frightened of it, but, I mean, as long as I was asking, his answer was a resounding no. He toyed with my emotions by sticking his head in the trailer, to which I shouted, "Good BOY!" then backing up 3 steps past where he was before he did that. Then he stepped a foot on and we repeated the process. Then both front feet. Then a back foot. Finally he walked right on the trailer, possibly due to becoming bored of the game or annoyed at my silly happy dance. PS, he tried to play this same game when we loaded back up on the trailer but he didn't anticipate two 300 pound men locking arms behind his hiney and taking this game from A to Z in record time.

Now comes the fun. Panda. Panda, panda, panda. We were waiting weeks for this horse. There was always something so we decided, "Carpe Diem. Why do tomorrow what you can do today. I can do anything better than you. I want it now. Just do it." and we hopped in the car to grab him. For a full explanation of why we almost shot ourselves square between the eyes see my article entitled "Panda." In short, this horse was playing a whole different game than Marvel, but it was still a game, and it lasted close to 3 hours. This game was called the "Why? Make me!" game. Similar to the, "I don't have to, you're not my real mom!" game, here we have the horse questioning our judgment and opting for the easy way out because that opportunity has always been open to him. Eventually, with a bit of food (fatty McFatty pants loves him some grain) the horse was non-traumatically placed on the trailer.

Jelly Bean gets an honorable mention here. When we decided to seize the day, we took it for all it was worth. Jelly loaded up on the trailer with less todo than Cash. We took her to go get Panda and she had to load on the trailer twice! She was a pro both times. We had a little moment where coaxing, and then scary thing waving, commenced but honestly no real problems were had. Especially considering this weird older man she'd never met was bumping bottoms with her in the trailer all the way home.

Last, and in no way least (because let's face it, we don't want her to try and outdo herself) we have Indie. I was not fortunate enough to be present during this event but I will sum up the events in the way they were relayed to me as best I can. She was ready to go when they arrived, trailer doors come open, but instead of games, she was real live legitimately terrified of this moving horse killer. Many hours of attempting to load the horse on the trailer the ladies were asked to step away from the trailer and let the menfolk handle the situation. Sometime after this point blood was shed. A lot of blood. All down the front of her face. Apparently she reared up and split her head open, from the middle of her forelock to the middle of her nose, down to the bone. The best part is that she wasn't on the trailer when she did this, but it did knock some sense into her and after that she loaded right up. All joking aside, this required some pretty immediate veterinary attention and some pretty long term desensitization. PS, she healed up great and is being ridden like a champ!

So if there is one thing, no, maybe 2, that my readers can take away from this article I would have to say:

1. Please, we are begging you, from the bottom most parts of our heart and pocket books, PUH-LEEEEEEZ practice loading your horses up. Honestly.
2. When you go to look at a horse, have them PROVE to you that they can load the horse on a trailer. Panda was not worth what was paid due to the heartache we did endure and will continue to endure. Indie had so many vet bills after this incident that could've been avoided. If the horse can't load in a trailer and you want it to be a show horse have them both drop the price and work with the horse (I promise, it's not going anywhere soon. :P). It is ridiculous for people to look over this extremely relevant bit of training.

So maybe don't stop putting the horses on the trailers, stop NOT putting the horses on the trailers!

Indie, before getting stitched up by our local vet.