Today was loading Cisco into a trailer at Liberty. I got the feed bucket ready, put the halter on Cisco and we went to the trailer. Of course Cisco was trying to eat grain out of the feed bucket while we were walking.
I managed to get into the trailer without Cisco. My goal is to get the feed bucket in the far corner of the trailer. I now have my two horse wide trailer. Cisco knows he wants in to eat the grain. He did managed to get two feet in the trailer before I got him stopped. I asked him to back out. We then walked about 20 feet back to the barn where I let him loose. We had not done any join-up, bonding or get-together exercise. That might have been a mistake.
Cisco forgot all about the grain in the trailer. He wanted to be with his friends in the barn. His friends were in the horse pasture side, not the front yard side. I asked Cisco to back out of the barn and then “join-up” with me. Cisco refused. He ran around for a few minutes, trying to get into the barn. I tried to get him to join-up with me. No, no no was his answer.
I shut the barn door to decrease Cisco’s opportunity to chose his horse friends rather than me. I asked him to join up with me. No, no no! He ran around the truck and trailer and yard for a while.
I wondered how long this would take.
Finally, Cisco joined-up with me. We walked side-by-side to the trailer, and he ran away again. I believe it was two tries after that when he finally truly got with me. We walked to the trailer. We experimented just a bit trying to figure out what I was asking.
He went into the trailer and ate a few bites of grain before turning and running out. I left him alone then to desensitize himself in the trailer.
Yep, we are well on the way to loading at a trot or canter into the trailer at Liberty!