July 3rd... Journey was fantastic today. She loaded in the trailer without a fuss. Hauled well. We had to stop at a friend's house to pick up a mare. When we got there, a bolt broke on the leaf springs/axle. So we unloaded the horses and left them to stand tied for an hour or so while the trailer was repaired.
Neither Encore or Journey got upset. No spooking, no pawing at the hitching post, nothing crazy at all. Not even so much as a googley eye at the strange surroundings, new horses, dogs, etc.
We loaded back up, no problems. This is why I believe in training them to load rather than bribing them. Journey has not been in a trailer since May 23rd. I had to remind Journey the best place to be was in the trailer when I loaded her up to bring her home that day. Because of the trailer loading training, Journey understands the easiest option is to load...and this paid off at the show as well!
We were very late due to the trailer trouble, so I quickly groomed and saddled Journey. The arena was extremely crowded. A couple dozen horses running around, navigating the obstacle course that was being set up. One of the obstacles was a trailer that the horse had to load into. I took advantage of the few minutes left of warm up before the show started and rode Journey into the trailer a few times....it is so important to teach a horse to back out of the trailer, makes it possible to ride 'em in and back 'em out...also in this case, the rules of the course were you had to dismount, lead your horse in, and back out. If you turned the horse around in the trailer, you were disqualified.
After riding Journey in and out of the trailer a few times, I dismounted and walked her in, backed her out a few more times. She never refused.
We also had to go over a low jump, open and close a mail box, cross a tarp, a teeter totter bridge, and some logs. When it came time for the show to start, they also added a bag of aluminum cans on a barrel - the goal was to pick the bag up off one barrel and move it to the next. Journey wanted no part of this and absolutely would not go near it. So unfortunately we did not place in this event, but she did navigate the rest of the course beautifully.
Some of the other games at today's fun show were barrel racing, chug-a-lug, dizzy cowboy, baton race, underwear race, and balloon toss. We placed in all of these events except barrel racing, taking home two firsts, one second, and two thirds against seasoned horses.
My nephews came to the show today to hang out. Journey is so quite, I knew she'd be safe to lead the kids around on, so they all took turns climbing on her and going for a walk.
Journey didn't seem to have any anxiety issues. She was quiet as could be. Completely relaxed. Never paid attention to the other horses or got upset when they bumped into her. She acted like an old pro. Ate and drank all day, and loaded up in the trailer fine after it was all over.
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