Mind reading horse.......

After Gilly's backup experience I was hoping that we had the trailering issues all under control. WELL....NOT....SO .... This horse is the most exasperating animal I have ever worked with in my life!!! I so wish I could climb inside that head to see just what is going on in there. I swear he can read my mind.

He has loaded consistently since we had our problems the other day. Walks on, gets a bit to eat, stands there resting on hind foot just as relaxed as can be...not a care in the world. You can bang and clang around in the trailer and he could care less.

Today I had a riding lesson scheduled eight miles from here at the really neat Coverall arena. Kim came up with the trailer, Gilly was standing tied and we started loading up the trailer with his tack. (Now Gilly likes to go and visit, even if he does have to do some work, he very much likes to socialize. He has never been worked that hard anyway, so I can't think there is a problem where he is going.) He is just standing not a care in the world, I untie him ask him to back up and we do some work backing before I ask him to get in the trailer. No one was in a hurry, we had plenty of time so there was no pushing him to hurry. I walk him up to the door and "you think I am going to get in there, not on your life lady!" I so wish I had gotten a picture of his face when he decided to do this! I will describe it the best I can.

Nose wrinkled, lower lip hanging, teeth clinched, eyes half shut, head flexing back and forth at the pole. Reminds me of a 6 year old kid that is getting ready to have a real fit and saying, "No, no, no, I WON'T, I WON'T, I WON'T DO IT, you can't MAKE ME...the only thing missing was stomping his feet....like Pokey!

We backed, we worked in the round pen, we moved his feet, backed some more, through ditches, up road banks, he almost fell down a few times. I moved him like I was a horse cutting a cow.....grrrrr....he did everything I asked him to do except get his big ole' butt in the trailer. We worked for 3 hours, needless to say we didn't get to the lesson. Yes, I know you aren't supposed to stop until they get in the trailer, well, any of you are more than welcome to come here and work with this bugger. I had to quit, I was hurting so bad from trying to get him in there. He didn't get to go back in the field with Pokey though, he got to go to the round pen, in the sun for about four hours, with nothing to do. It was hot and the flies were having a picnic on him, I thought he deserved it!

I came in the house, I had things to do. Got out of my riding clothes and tried not to think about the naughty horse. Then about three I decided to just see what would happen if.......
Kim had moved the trailer back to the field by her house, I went out and got Gilly and led him down to the trailer. Kim was there with Lacy, she isn't loading either but that's a whole other story! Anyway she opened the doors, I walked Gilly up to the trailer, stopped beside it, pointed inside and that @#%&@@ just walked into the trailer, cocked one foot started eating hay out of the hay bag!!!!! What the?????? We did this four times same thing. No hesitation at all just walked in as big as you please!

I swear I think this horse can read my mind, he knows when we are going somewhere and decides "nope, I ain't gonna no where!" I know Gilly is smart but man oh, man how in the heck do you deal with a situation like this one???? I am just about out of ideas as to how to deal with this one. Any suggestions?

Trailer Loading

This is Gilly ready to jump into the trailer; we had been working on it for several days and he was getting better at it. We are playing one of Parelli's games called the sending game. I wonder why I didn't think of using it before. Sheri came over and showed Kim and I this and Gilly remembered it and took right to it.

Hop right in there Gilly!!! You can see that we have the divider over. This just helps the horses not feel so confined and when their confidence is up and they are loading this way well then the divider will be fastened in place and we will start again. Gilly has already been in the trailer with it closed but won't stay in. That's OK though, he will build confidence and stay in. Then we will have to work on him loading on the other side. Gilly won't be in that side for the most part, unless there is a bigger horse riding with him. Gilly is bigger than Lacy so he will always ride on the drivers side. Heaviest horse always rides there; but he needs to learn to ride on either side. This will take longer but when finished he will be good to go in any situation.

Oh, good Gilly!!! He will stand in the trailer like this and doesn't care. I have put the stick behind him to simulate the butt bar and he doen'st mind. When I try this with the divider up he wants to back out but with work he will get used to it. He is backing out really well. This is what he had all the problems with before. He didn't like to back out but wanted to turn around and come out head first. Now he is backing out with no problem. Lacy is having more problems, she isn't as confident as Gilly. She will get herself worked into a tizzy and be dripping with sweat then finally load fine. Someday we will get to take them somewhere??? LOL