Back in Nov. I bought Bob —saw him on FB, owned by a woman I know, checked all my boxes, saw him, bought him. Everything including the PPE done in 3 days. And I wasn’t looking for a horse. I’ve had Bob six weeks now --we do some mounted archery, a ton of trail riding at the state park, and he’s just completed his second fox hunt. He is everything his seller claimed and he even ground ties, which she did not mention.
Yesterday, Sunday, I am taking two horses to the hunt. I take Bob out of his pen, walk him to the trailer --and out pops my DH who came down to help (sweet man). Bob has an OMG moment because DH was wearing black and it was well before sun-up. At that point, Bob wouldn’t load --despite the fact he has loaded at least 20 times perfectly [self loads]. I try a few things, but DH keeps helping (he’s really trying but it isn’t helping). Finally, I resort to the lunge line through the front, then back around Bob’s booty, and with a good hard pull, Bob loads. Nothing self-loading about it.
Second hunter loads perfectly, and off I go.
Great hunt, Bob is a rock star.
After the wonderful brunch, I go to load Bob and take him home. No. No. No. Bob will not load. My gal-pal wacks him a good one on the booty and Bob loads --but again, this is NOT the quiet, smooth, self-loading that I prefer.
I spend the entire evening after the hunt watching Ty Evan’s videos on loading --there are 3 --total time about 3 hours of video.
Sigh.
Today, bright and early, I go down to the training area, take out a bunch of props that are similar to what Ty Evan’s used in his video, open the trailer, and whistle Bob in --he comes to a whistle --did I say that already?
Bob comes over, I put on his halter. I take a deep breath --and I am fully prepared to spend as long as it takes to get to stage 1 --Bob with his feet on the ramp (stage 2 is head in the trailer --stage 3 is horse completely in the trailer --I think it will take a week or so).
I lead Bob to the trailer --and he walks in.
I take Bob out of the trailer, walk him around the yard, take him back to the trailer and he walks in.
In the course of an hour, I loaded and unloaded Bob six times.
No problem.
Now I understand that the key to being a great trainer is to watch videos. When I do that --Bob learns!!! We skipped all the exercises.
Of course I will do exactly the same thing tomorrow, and the rest of the week until the next hunt, and I’ll move my trailer around the yard.
Maybe I should watch some trick horse videos next . . .
Note to Self: