So stinkin’ cute.
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So freakin’ cute!
Hazel & Roslyn sittin’ in a tree 
Do I see roaning on Miss R? 
& a wee bit of rabicano in her tail?
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She’s a colorful one that’s for sure! Each day her lower legs take on more and more of their true colors. I’ll get a photo of her llong llegs today. And yeah, she’s about 1/4 gray haired it seems. At least on her head and neck. Her torso hasn’t shed-out yet.
and she DOES indeed have a skunk-tail! sooo cute and brushy…
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glad that’s not my foal!
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Only 4! Has he been started under saddle yet?
hmmm… funny you should ask.
He can be saddled easily. (no bridle or bit yet) And i can lay my body across his back…or throw a leg over. He’s not held me sitting upright. But any day now.
Our issue currently is hauling to my coach. He loads FINE at home here, but once i unload thim there, after that 2 hr trip he’s loathe to get back on to come home. So…we are working on loading and just driving across the meadow, unloading to a bucket of yummy carrots and alfalfa, then reloading and coming back to the barn to a big fan and a big flake of alfalfa hay. THis is day three (or will be) of that. HOPEFULLY i can get him immune to the stress of trailering and THEN we start saddle training in earnest.
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Do you take a buddy with him? Just mentioning it because I had one who did that, and he was much more comfortable trailering with another horse who was a steady eddy
He might get over it quickly once he understands the routine and that the second trip will be coming home.
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Yes, he needs a better understanding of the process, and that there is Home in the end… That it’s a two hour drive on a curvy hilly country highway is probably the main issue. I’ve taken him into the training barn twice… both times with my big sweet standardbred, Colton. Two months apart because t it took me two months after the first time to get him up into the trailer happily again… And now, here we are, back at it again. R+ so no butt rope, no haul up rope…no tap tap swaKKK, none of that.
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Is there any place nearby, but away from home, where you could take him? Maybe rent an arena, unload, do some groundwork, load up and come home but with a much shorter drive.
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i wish! but nothing.
The closest i could come to that is drive around a little on our country road and unload him into one of our own pastures…which is what i am doing. I think that this time i’ll increase the driving around part and stretch that time he’s traveling before jumping to the two hour trip. I was too hasty, rushed the process with this horse, last time.
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That’s the process that I use. Have you ridden back there yourself to determine if there is anything noisy or scary?
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No, i have not and that’s a very good idea.
My old trailer was verrrrry rattle-y and i had sheep fleece packed EVERYwhere to quiet it! This one is new and feels quite tight when i close doors. And my other horses all hop right up in there as if it were easy on them.
But i’ll try to find someone to drive me around the pasture.
Glad I mentioned it then. It can be surprising.
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i feel Quigley will be a nice quiet sensible riding horse. He LOOKS severe, smallish eyes, roman nose and shiny black… But on the inside, he is calm and reasonable, not explosive in the slightest. His gaits are pretty to look at.
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I have an OTTB that, from what I have pieced together, was started at 4 and then every time she got on a trailer that year it was a different place with different people - 3 tracks, claimed a couple of times, and finally basically dumped at the place I got her.
The first time I shipped her anywhere it was 20 minutes away to ride at an indoor and she came off the trailer stressed and soaking wet. It took a few trips, but once she learned the routine and knew she was coming home she settled down and hauled fine.
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When you bring him home, unload him and then reload. With a new supply of yummy things in the trailer. But he still has to take direction from you. That reinforces that even though the ride might be scary, he needs to go back in if you tell him too. If you unload and take him into the barn for treats you are making the assumption that he relates the trailer trip to the treats. I think you need to link the treats to the trailer more. And experience. It takes many short sessions to fix a bad loader. I have one but I have learned a lot with her.
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We had one we parked the trailer in the out door arena and fed in the trailer for several days. A hungry puppy jumps right in 
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