Living next door to Adventure Wonderland in Parley ensures that Warmblood filly, Holly, who made her way there after one of our foal handling courses, is pretty cool with everything she meets. Screaming children on a pirate ship would not be every horse's cup of soaked sugar beet. (Tommy doesn't normally look that serious!)
I had been asked to take my stock trailer down to see whether it might suit Rory and Holly for travelling together. It has the advantage of being roomy and airy with the sides open but it is doubtful whether one would be tall enough for Holly once she is full grown. Not only that but the arrangement of the central (sideways partition) wasn't ideal for these horses, and using the normal horse trailer partitions and bars would recreate all the same issues as a normal horse trailer.
Still, it was a good opportunity for a bit of practice. Rory learned how to back out of a trailer rather than going forwards down a front ramp...
...and Holly was shut in for the first time since she arrived from her previous home. She's coming up to her first birthday in a week's time.
She too learned how to back down the ramp. The key to doing this safely is to direct the horse's body so that if his bottom drifts in one direction, you move his head to the same side; that helps them to keep fairly straight.
As I said yesterday, we never miss a training opportunity. The engine is on!
" Great session today thanks, a lot of my questions were answered today with the trailer, so well worth while, and always lovely to catch up." AS
