Trail Riding--More Excitement than Planned

Today Duchess was going with me on a trail ride. At least, that was MY side of the story. Duchess usually loads fine and is well behaved under saddle (if a bit pushy when she can get away with it). So it was very surprising when she flat out refused to go with me in the trailer.

Part of it was a lack of foresight on my part. Kat stands so well that it's easy to lead her in, drop the lead and say "Stand," then run around anf close the trailer door. Duchess kept following me back out. After two tries, she didn't want to go into the trailer anymore (probably thinking "something's not right here," and I don't blame her). And it would just be stupid to tie her before shutting her in from behind. I'm going to have to work something out there.

Eventually just turned her back out (no point in making her more upset than necessary) and waited for John to get home. He got home, we got her loaded (minimal fuss), closed the door, and off we went. John came along to help get the trailer closed up again when we were there.

Now, part of the problem was definitely that Duchess did not want to leave Fantasy. Duchess has gotten very maternal about Fantasy. So even though we got her into the trailer, she was NOT happy. She kicked--a lot--for 15 minutes! Yikes. But the idea here was to convince her that leaving is okay; want her to realize that when she goes, she's going to come home. That she should be calm in the trailer, because the world isn't at an end.

Then for 10 minutes she was pretty much fine. We got to the park, let her graze a bit...tacked up and rode out onto the trail (John walking alongside)...She jigged and jogged a lot. Poor baby just didn't know what was going on, was scared.

After a little bit, she started to relax. We went back to the trailer. (We passed by a group who had arrived as we were leaving. I'm sure that they had some interesting comments about us leaving so quickly. Ah well.)

She loaded into the trailer first try, but dumb Mommie forgot to unlock the escape door, so Duchess had nowhere to go when Mommie stopped. Oops. Quick-reverse and exit. Unlocked the doors--she didn't want to go in. Showed her the lunge whip, she went right in. Closed her up and took her home. Nothing of note on the way home at all.

Hopefully with this experience under her girth, she'll be happier about future travels. I want the sweet girl to relax and feel secure.

Want to make a quick comment about the lunge whip. I want my horses to respect it, but I don't want them to fear it. Duchess was in a situation where it was likely she could get worked up. I didn't want her to feel very frightened or threatened when the whip came into play. She when I got it out, I rubbed her with it around the chest and loins while muttering soothing noises. Yes, yes, of course she's seen it before...I just wanted to be sure that it was not a surprise, and it was not interpreted as a threat. And things were fine.

(Added on Friday, January 21, 2005 @ 08:22:05 PM)