I would love to say that the weather made me cancel going to the horse trial. The weather for the week prior was great, no rain, lots of sunny days but horse trial day was supposed to be rain and storms. I would love to say I wasn't prepared, or that the truck broke down, or that my dog being ill (He really was and I was going to take him with us and assign my husband nurse maid duties) caused me to cancel.
But it was none of those things. Friday morning came around and because there was all these scheduling issues in the afternoon I decided to do the unthinkable. Usually when I rent a trailer from my feed store, which I have the last couple of times because they have big open stock bumper pull trailers, my husband and I go get the trailer together. I'm not great at backing up to hook up the trailer, so hubby has that duty. But Friday just turned in to a scheduling nightmare. I stood in the kitchen, hubby already gone off to work on the motorcycle, looking at the keys in my hand and the truck in the driveway. Hmmm, evil one eye brow arch.
I can do this. Which became my mantra the whole way to the vet to drop off my dog for the days worth of care and fluids he needed to hold off whatever infection he has, and the whole way to the feed store. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. Thankfully my feed store thinks ahead and has handy helpers right there to guide people backing up, and help with the hook-up and checking of lights. All hooked up, lights working, off I go. I made it home, and through the big scarey front gate, then the big scarey pasture gate.
HAHA! I even texted my husband after I'd parked the trailer in the pasture to gloat. This was a big deal for me since I had almost never driven the trailer alone, and never hooked it up on my own. Then I spent four hours playing with the High Queen's loading/non-loading skills. I even got her all four feet in the trailer half a dozen times. Big sigh of relief.
Except when dawn rolled around the next day the best I got was the High Queen half way in and it went down, down, down hill from there. Head to desk, SMACK! There goes the 85$ entry fee, and the trailer rental fee, and all the money I spent to fill the gaps in tack, clothing, and training. Damn it.
I contacted a friend who I feel is the expert on all things Thoroughbred. She says that OTTBs are used to being handled extensively everyday, and that because Seneca had gone without trailering for nearly a year between her joint issue the previous summer and then my deployment, that the High Queen had decided not only was I not her boss and herd leader that she didn't have to listen to me period. That has some merit, and I will be taking the High Queen back to some behavioral modification refreshers. That and the new trailer comes at the end of May. I will freaking solve this before next fall. I don't care if I have to set up a round pen around the trailer and make the High Queen live there for the whole summer with the trailer, we are going to have a coming to God over this I will not trailer crap. Hell the 3yr old, who had never been a good loader from the start loads himself on the trailer now, there is no reason a big girl of 10 can't do it to.
WE WILL LOAD! That is the new mantra.
But it was none of those things. Friday morning came around and because there was all these scheduling issues in the afternoon I decided to do the unthinkable. Usually when I rent a trailer from my feed store, which I have the last couple of times because they have big open stock bumper pull trailers, my husband and I go get the trailer together. I'm not great at backing up to hook up the trailer, so hubby has that duty. But Friday just turned in to a scheduling nightmare. I stood in the kitchen, hubby already gone off to work on the motorcycle, looking at the keys in my hand and the truck in the driveway. Hmmm, evil one eye brow arch.
I can do this. Which became my mantra the whole way to the vet to drop off my dog for the days worth of care and fluids he needed to hold off whatever infection he has, and the whole way to the feed store. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. Thankfully my feed store thinks ahead and has handy helpers right there to guide people backing up, and help with the hook-up and checking of lights. All hooked up, lights working, off I go. I made it home, and through the big scarey front gate, then the big scarey pasture gate.
HAHA! I even texted my husband after I'd parked the trailer in the pasture to gloat. This was a big deal for me since I had almost never driven the trailer alone, and never hooked it up on my own. Then I spent four hours playing with the High Queen's loading/non-loading skills. I even got her all four feet in the trailer half a dozen times. Big sigh of relief.
Except when dawn rolled around the next day the best I got was the High Queen half way in and it went down, down, down hill from there. Head to desk, SMACK! There goes the 85$ entry fee, and the trailer rental fee, and all the money I spent to fill the gaps in tack, clothing, and training. Damn it.
I contacted a friend who I feel is the expert on all things Thoroughbred. She says that OTTBs are used to being handled extensively everyday, and that because Seneca had gone without trailering for nearly a year between her joint issue the previous summer and then my deployment, that the High Queen had decided not only was I not her boss and herd leader that she didn't have to listen to me period. That has some merit, and I will be taking the High Queen back to some behavioral modification refreshers. That and the new trailer comes at the end of May. I will freaking solve this before next fall. I don't care if I have to set up a round pen around the trailer and make the High Queen live there for the whole summer with the trailer, we are going to have a coming to God over this I will not trailer crap. Hell the 3yr old, who had never been a good loader from the start loads himself on the trailer now, there is no reason a big girl of 10 can't do it to.
WE WILL LOAD! That is the new mantra.
Oh man, that's rough! My mare decided that after two and a half trailer trips that she was no longer going to load! Picked her up when I bought her: fine, moved her from temporary home to boarding: fine, took her to her first show: wouldn't get in to come home! Except that she HAD to! I was glad that a) I was sure she would load becuase she had before, and b) even if it took three hours (which thankfully it didn't) she was going to load because we didn't have the option to quit! We got it sorted after a few weeks of trailering EVERY weekend. Took less time each time. She's been loading like a dream ever since.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, thanks for stopping by my blog! My appy Bear is now 16h at 5. Probably won't get any bigger, but I guess you never know!
Appy's sometimes grow really slowly. Cowboy took forever to go from looking like an overgrown weanling to an adult horse. I still don't think he's done growing. He's a bit butt high right now so I think he's got a bit more to go. He might finish 15.3 I haven't put a stick on him in awhile. Probably need to do that someday soon.
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