Trailer Time

Today I finished my Physics lab an hour early! Yay! So I went home and decided to try loading Nine in the trailer. Might I remind you; Nine has only loaded three times - once when we picked him up back in June, once to go to the vet, and once to return home from the vet.

I put a flake of alfalfa in the trailer first. Nine was willing to go to the edge on the trailer, and even picked his feet up like he was thinking about stepping right in, but didn't. I had to dally the end of his lead rope around a post at the front of the trailer so he couldn't come part way in then change his mind. He obviously didn't like this! He pulled back twice, but soon decided it would be easier to just give to the pressure. He got both front feet in, so I undallied his lead rope and let him think about everything and unload. Then, when we tried again, he only pulled back once, and then came all the way in the trailer! He went right to eating like he was out in an open pasture. He stood calm and still while I went behind him to close the gate, then come back in the side door to remover his halter.

I left Nine in the trailer for about and hour and a half while I dealt with unruly goats, then went to pick up my daughter from the babysitter. I had my dad watch Daughter while I unloaded the horse. Nine was strangely reluctant! At first I thought it was cute that he liked the trailer so much he didn't want to leave. But, then reality struck and I realized that the sun was in Nine's eyes, and he probably couldn't see the drop, so he couldn't tell how far it was. That would make me scared, why not him? I ended up yelling and whooping while hitting the front of the trailer with the lunge whip to get him out, but then he came to me and let me lead him into the round pen again without problems.