I’ve been told I bark orders. But, in order to keep the trailer loading/unloading as unchaotic and safe as possible, I have found it works best that way. Everyone knows their job, and when to do it, or waits for their cue to help. Works wonderfully!
10 Likes
Safety first! One good wreck in a trailer will make anyone a believer!
2 Likes
I have my own trailer and take my friends out. I have my own trailering routine and actively take charge of loading and unloading. I always check if the horse is untied before I let down the butt bar. I only go out with horses that are decently behaved and they get better about loading over time. It’s so easy to make a dumb mistake like forget to untie and have the horse rip through the leather halter.
And yes I got a straight load with no mangers and escape doors on each side precisely so I don’t need to get on the trailer with the horses.
4 Likes
I wonder why a non-horsey person would be expected to know that blankets are blankets, not pajamas. It was a fair question, and not something to hold ones tongue over.
10 Likes
Many years ago as a teenager I had my first horse at a local show in S. Florida. He WOULD NOT load in the trailer to go home. Mind you, he was a kind guy, a stocky “morgan”??? or so I had been told (he did have a roman nose and a short thick neck…)
ANyway, a pair of 20 something cowboys came by, and offered to help. Rope around butt - nope. Rope through front frame for leverage - nope. Hooked arms under his ass to “lift” him in… nope. THey finally gave up. I rode him home - about 5 miles or so.
6 Likes
I was always sure those methods wouldn’t work with my first TB, never even tried as I thought he would get hurt. Nice to see validation that they don’t work for all horses.
1 Like
The first year I fox hunted, we were at a local cider mill for their farm days and did a parade for the crowd with hounds and horses. My grey mare was at the peak of her dappled stage and were were the only thing of color in a field full of bays and blacks. I heard a little girl say “Ooooooo Daddy! That one is so pretty! What kind of horse is that?!”
Her father responded “That’s an Appaloosa!”
3 Likes
Welp, now we have a 5 second hold on a curb bit to “get his nose in” in order to “make sure he understands”.
What. The. Eff.
In other news, my young horse had a… “moment” yesterday that included broncing all the way across the arena (including launching herself across all 4 trot poles at the same time). When I stuck it (by the skin of my teeth, FWIW) and immediately put her back to work like nothing happened… Little Mister Trainer was without words. 
13 Likes
Did you ever figure out what it was about the new trailer he didn’t like?
2 Likes
If you’re asking me, we decided it could be the very strong smell of brand-new rubber mats on walls & floor.
When Push came to Shove (moving barns) & he HAD to get on, a bunch of cheap apple-scented potpourri seemed to help.
Along with backing the trailer right up to the barn doors to make a chute.
After the initial load, he was about 80% “meh” & loaded fine, 20% needed some patience & time to load.
2 Likes
“This saddle has fit every horse I’ve put it on.” Even horses that are the same breed will have different builds and require a different fit. Sure you might get lucky and end up with maybe a couple horses who are similar enough that you can use the same saddle with the assistance of a good half pad, with shims for more adjustability, but saddles can’t really fit multiple horses perfectly IME.
10 Likes
A horse let himself out of his stall after I fed breakfast. As soon as I noticed I hussled over to corral him back into his stall or a paddock to be delt with later since he was happily standing and eating the grass. The barn know it all clucked at him “to get his attention.” The horse knows cluck means go and he trotted off right before I got to him. It took an extra 5 min to get him safely put away.
The barn know it all had no idea that clucking at a loose horse will generally make them move. How they missed that fact in their 30+ years of horse ownership, I will never know.
2 Likes
Oh! I had this one too, but a little different.
Horse is new to the barn, clearly has had a rough past (might have been a bucking horse?), and is refusing to be caught in the pasture. I’m quietly walking him down, just letting him figure out I don’t mean harm. He’d been out there for quite some time.
Owner of horse, not experienced (that’s our trend at the barn, honestly), comes out and starts walking quickly at the horse, kissing at him.
I had been trying to catch him for probably 30 minutes at that point, had come close a few times, would probably have gotten him in another 15 mins. I just left once the owner started doing that, because I knew I was back to square one.
Took them 4 additional hours to get the horse caught. Serves them right.
7 Likes
While I agree with your assessment of the phrase and those who say it, if you think about it most saddles can fit many horses perfectly. Given the number of saddle models compared to the number of horses it’s obvious one model wil fit a lot of horses. That said those many horses never seem to belong to the same person. 
I have a dressage saddle that has fit a wide variety of horses very well. Only one of which belonged to me. It didn’t fit either of my other horses. 
12 Likes
A few years ago I was hand-grazing my gelding while holding a clear plastic bottle of fly spray. You know how Repel-X concentrate turns milky white when you mix it with water?
Some woman drives up to the barn with her kids just to “see the horses”, and says to me, “Wow, did you get all that milk from her?”
24 Likes
My non horsey sister upon seeing my buckskin pony for the first time " Oh Look - he’s donkey colored!"
7 Likes
a fellow boarder was grooming her Cushings horse near the tack room at the verrrrrrry public barn in Golden Gate Park, where there were always a lot of non-horse people around… And someone asked her (for the millionth time) Why does your horse have such curly hair and she countered: “She’s a Quarterpoo. Part Quarter Horse, part Poodle.” Visitor said: Oh. (seemed like she believed it!)
16 Likes
We had an Irish marked, tan with white italian greyhound.
We stopped at a store and ran in there for some supplies and, having the dogs with us, I stayed in the vehicle, the iggy on my lap, people watching out the window.
This father and small son walked by, oh and ahed about the pretty iggy, kid asked what is that, all knowing father answered, a ferret! and they walked on.
9 Likes
I’ve found that most saddles would need at least a slight flocking adjustment when put on another horse for it to truly fit perfectly like a custom would so I think our experiences differ but that’s ok, agree to disagree.
2 Likes
