Trailer Play

I was lying in bed at 6 am this morning worrying that Keno's water was frozen (since he was locked in the area behind the barn,) and I worried so much I decided to get up and go check on him in the 11 degree darkness. Well, the silly boy had opened the chained gate and let himself out into the arena area which was good because he had access to unfrozen water, but bad because he had had access to my truck and trailer for who knows how long, not to mention the access to Flyboy's hay! In any case I couldn't see any dangling tail lights or stripped windshield wipers in the dark so I just locked him up again and secured the gate with a hay string. I fed both boys (Fly got his hay in the trailer again), refilled Keno's frozen water, fed the dogs. I thought about going back to bed since I had the day off, but I didn't do it.

Later in the morning I went out and played with Fly. He was full of energy and attitude so we did a lot of ground work before starting our trailer practice. I let him work up a sweat. My plan was to teach him to go into the trailer when I sent him as opposed to me leading him in. I stood outside the trailer about four feet from the open door. He went in very willingly with no hesitation, but then turned around and came back out. So I modified the plan. I sent Fly in again and asked him to stand for a few seconds and then asked him to back out. This was not easy since I was standing behind him outside the trailer. I pulled gently on his tail and gave a few gentle tugs on the lead. He did it! His tendency is definitely to try to turn around, so that is something we worked on. He has a bad habit of trying to raise his head and swing it over me to turn even when I am trying to block him. I need to be quicker and block his intention before he takes action. That's easy to say but hard to do.

We worked on the loading/unloading for an hour (with a few breaks doing other things in between,) and then Fly took a nap while standing tied to the trailer for an hour. I am seeing definite progress. He goes into the trailer with no problem. He has to learn to stay there (untied) until I ask him to back out quietly. Then he has to learn to stay there while tied (with the Blocker ring, of course.) Then we can work on standing quietly with the slant panel closed. When I get my panel back, that is.

I took my trailer down to a local handyman who is a friend of mine. This guy is a very clever retired Vietnam vet. He removed the slant panel and is going to modify it to look like the panels in the photo from my January 9 post. It will be ready on Tuesday. I think if Flyboy can see behind himself and see another horse in the trailer it will ease some of his anxiety. My fingers are crossed.

The truck and trailer are back in the arena as the "feed trailer" again tonight. Flyboy hopped in to eat as soon as I hung the hay net. I love the small mesh hay nets. They hold up to three flakes and it takes the horses a long time to eat. I want him standing in there all night! He'll load and unload himself tons of times; I hope it's helping!