Day 134

Sunday

Today, two things were accomplished:
1. We got Harry in the trailer.
2. We gave Harry a bath.

I spent two hours trying to get him into the trailer.
It started off really hopeful and then we hit a big roadblock. We started out just calmly looking at it, examining the ramp. We played the YoYo game a bit and I got him to come up to the ramp and put one of his feet on it. After that, he kept trying to jump into the trailer, but never actually jumped in.

He kept rearing into the jump and flailing his legs up in the air. I kept trying to get him to just walk into it, but he wasn't having it. He kept rearing up, jumping sideways over the ramp, never onto it. We got the nose chain to wrap over his nose on the leadline so that he would feel something if he tried to rear up again. After an hour and a half, I was still patient, but I knew I was no where near as strong enough to pull him sideways when he goes up to knock him off balance. A couple more rears with the nose chain on and my mom suggested that I give him to Paco, who was watching the whole time (quietly, thankfully. If he had been telling me what to do I probably would've bitten his head off), and grumpily I handed Harry over.

He looked so concerned when I walked away and knew that Paco was there, like, "Oh crap, this is a man." and tried the same thing with Paco, except Paco was able to give him a good yank back down. He got Harry into the trailer, and I was sour that I wasn't the first one to get him in. After a few walks in and out and teaching Harry to not race and rear out of the trailer on his way out, it was my turn.

He was like an angel. Once he knew that he wasn't going to meet his doom if he stepped onto the ramp and sat in the trailer for a while, he was a little cautious, but wasn't scared. We've decided that, no matter how long it'll take, we're going to do this every weekend. It might suck for the next couple weekends, but after that he'll get better and faster at getting in and out, and by show time, it'll be a breeze.

We gave him a good scrubbing and after he smelled like peaches, we put him away with carrots. Brie was pretty happy that we came, didn't ride, and still gave her food. It was the best of both worlds for her! Nina looked a little depressed when we didn't take her out to play, but she was easily satisfied when we gave her carrots.

We're going to go with Jane and Annie to a local show coming up some time. We're going to bring Harry and Brie. Harry for the trailer practice and show exposure and Brie just so she can maybe start getting used to strange horses around her. It'll be good for both of them.