"Quick, shut the gate!!"

Luckily, not!! I just felt like naming this post after one of Pat's trailer loading don'ts. My neighbors borrowed a trailer for the week and so decided to try loading their horses. So, Ruby, Charlie, and Sheba had an interesting day today. By the way, I've never talked about Sheba before, because I don't play with her much. She's a bay 25 year old LBI Quarter Horse who hasn't been in a trailer in 8 years. Well, Ruby had never seen a trailer before. My friend Miranda had Ruby, I had Sheba and Miranda's mom Bev had Charlie. Charlie was the most willing to load, so we loaded him up first. Ruby got hyped up! She wasn't even near the trailer, and she started doing a passage. I'll admit, she looked amazing (her tail was up the highest I've ever seen it, too), but I felt bad for Miranda. She was trying to restrain her and Ruby got away. But she ran right to Sheba, so no big deal.

Well, when Ruby went in the trailer, Bev tried bribing her. Ruby went in part way for the food, yet she was extremely unconfident. Talk about RBE!! And due to contrast in methods (Bev and Miranda are anti-Parelli), I'm no longer allowed to use Phase 4 with their horses. So, all I can do is stand by and watch. Anyways, we got Ruby to go in halfway, but she won't move her hind feet yet. She's thought about it, though. So, that's great for Ruby's first time!

I also tried loading Sheba in. She was sweating up a storm! The most I got her to go in was about halfway. Sheba was really unconfident, too. She kept trying to hide behind the side of the trailer. Also, she kept pulling back on the rope. But boy was Sheba thinking! I think she dug a hole halfway to China. So, it was quite easy to pick up Sheba's thinking pattern: pawing. Well, she tried a lot one time, so I decided that that was a good note to quit on. I took her away and she wouldn't eat any grass. I think she was too RBE to care, if that's possible. I'm happy with how I handled her RBEness. She wanted to walk fast, so instead of holding her back, I had her hindquarters in a few circles, and then forehand and then had her squeeze between a post and she calmed down. It was difficult on such a short rope, but I managed! :)