Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Trailer Training - Part III (the completion)
| Started out nice and easy, loading just the front feet into the correct side of the trailer. Now we needed to work on getting her to stay IN the trailer not back immediately out. She definitely has backing out down pat now! Started by asking her to load and then trying to have her stand, but it was not working. I had had to break it down into little steps. Ask to load all four feet, reward. Ask to stand inside 3 seconds after a load, reward. Started treating her to stay in longer and longer time spans. Then slowly added in wiggling the butt bar around, then to clipping the butt bar. Each time unloading and reloading again, working our way up. Then we got the rear door shut and practiced that a few times. And then, our first drive. A whopping 10 feet in the outdoor ring. She was shaking like a leaf when I let her out. We took a little break and then back in and drove up to the front of the barn. Unloaded in a new place - and then loaded up again. She was doing Great! Loaded her up and drove all the way around the block. No problems. So, I put her up for water, cleaned up the trailer from all the "stress poop", groomed her and reloaded one more time to the ultimate test. A drive HOME! :) We met Bill in the driveway as he came home from work. Here is her first trip to our house ever:  Bill and Vashti  A horse, a dog and their girl We let her wander around the yard and took tons of pictures.  Us in front of the garden Then I took her back for the night. A very brave horse |
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Trailer training - Part II
Day 2: She fully loaded right away. This time I was determined NOT to move that divider. It took over an hour to get her off. She would just shake at the step down, but she finally did it. We took a break and started over, and she popped on AGAIN. This time it only took about 5 min to get her off, although it involved more "pressure" than I would typically like. We worked on loading just her front feet for a little bit and ended on that.
Session 3: Had some time off due to rain. Started with loading the front feet 10 times, then moved to me standing at the side of trailer and sending her into the trailer. I was counting the tries. We did 76 loads of just the front feet and then she loaded herself. She backed right out, shaking and trembling and got a lot of positive reinforcement and treats.
It took until we got up to 202 for her to fully load again, and again, she came right back out. We were taking breaks, especially if she got a little frustrated. Then at 290 she went in with all four feet. By 300 she had loaded completely four more times. We took another break and when we went back she just started loading fully without any issues. I would send her in from the side of the trailer and she would go in nicely as you please. We had 48 full loads in total and she got used to standing inside a bit before backing out.
A tribute to patience and consistency - she did a great job.
Session 3: Had some time off due to rain. Started with loading the front feet 10 times, then moved to me standing at the side of trailer and sending her into the trailer. I was counting the tries. We did 76 loads of just the front feet and then she loaded herself. She backed right out, shaking and trembling and got a lot of positive reinforcement and treats.
It took until we got up to 202 for her to fully load again, and again, she came right back out. We were taking breaks, especially if she got a little frustrated. Then at 290 she went in with all four feet. By 300 she had loaded completely four more times. We took another break and when we went back she just started loading fully without any issues. I would send her in from the side of the trailer and she would go in nicely as you please. We had 48 full loads in total and she got used to standing inside a bit before backing out.
A tribute to patience and consistency - she did a great job.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Trailer Training - Part I
Step 1! Horse meets trailer...
Day one of training to load into our new (to us) step up trailer. We worked for two solid hours (mini breaks of course) to work on loading one front foot. She would get right up to the trailer, but no step up. Finally, I stepped into the left side of the trailer and asked her to step up into the right side and BINGO! She immediately loaded her front two feet and looked at me like "This was all you wanted all this time??"
Both front feet in: "Hey that grass looks wayyyy more interesting than this box"
We continued to practice loading the front feet and then backing out, after about 25 times, she popped completely in. I broke out into a sweat.... because I KNEW she wasn't coming out. And boy was I right! I couldn't get her to back out at all. Finally (like an idiot), I moved the divider as I felt she was getting panicky. Luckily I knew enough to dive out one way and she FLEW out the other like the trailer had suddenly materialized large fangs and claws. She went bucking all the way up to the barn where she contently munched grass waiting all innocent for me to collect her.
We immediately went back to the trailer and practiced loading those front feet. We did 20 more times and called it a day on a good note.
"Jailed"
Day one of training to load into our new (to us) step up trailer. We worked for two solid hours (mini breaks of course) to work on loading one front foot. She would get right up to the trailer, but no step up. Finally, I stepped into the left side of the trailer and asked her to step up into the right side and BINGO! She immediately loaded her front two feet and looked at me like "This was all you wanted all this time??"
Both front feet in: "Hey that grass looks wayyyy more interesting than this box"We continued to practice loading the front feet and then backing out, after about 25 times, she popped completely in. I broke out into a sweat.... because I KNEW she wasn't coming out. And boy was I right! I couldn't get her to back out at all. Finally (like an idiot), I moved the divider as I felt she was getting panicky. Luckily I knew enough to dive out one way and she FLEW out the other like the trailer had suddenly materialized large fangs and claws. She went bucking all the way up to the barn where she contently munched grass waiting all innocent for me to collect her.
We immediately went back to the trailer and practiced loading those front feet. We did 20 more times and called it a day on a good note.
"Jailed"
Monday, May 17, 2010
We got a trailer!
This is a 1964 Kingston 2 horse trailer. Yes, 1964! It is in great shape. Needs a little paint though.
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