Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Trailering success!

Yesterday we had great improvement with the trailering!

I figured I could take Paddy with her, but then decided that the sooner she learns to go by herself, the better. I don't want her to get attached to him and then have to go through all this all over again when she travels solo, so we just went solo.

I took out the head divider so she has a wider range of vision and nothing to bump her face into if she started flinging it around for some reason (which I'm not sure she does, but just to be safe).

I groomed her first, we went for a nice hand walk on the trails, then loaded up. I tell you, this pony is so smart and good. She loaded right up. She walks on the trailer with NO hesitation. So we loaded up and backed out a few times, just to practice putting her feet where I ask her to. Then we loaded up and I put the butt bar up and then went up front to give her a cookie. Then I went back and put the other butt bar up and went up front to give her a cookie. Then I closed her back door and went up to give her a cookie. Then I closed the other back door and went up to give her a cookie. Then I closed the ramp up and went up to give her a cookie. Then I tied her, gave her a cookie, and got in.

And she started pawing.

And I just drove quietly down the driveway and by the time I was at the road she stopped pawing. She gave a whinny as we turned on to the street, then she was quiet. She did whinny at each turn (4 whinnies), but NO MORE PAWING!!!! We took the same 10-minute loop and came home and unloaded. She wasn't lathered in sweat. YAY!!!!! We unloaded and reloaded a few times, then I took her out, gave her a little bath, and put her in the pasture for lunch.

I call that a huge success and I was SO PROUD of her!!!

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