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