Made It

Human(s) 1 - Pony 0

Or maybe not 0 since my BM wasn't able to get her loaded last weekend...

At any rate we were able to get Katai loaded up and back to our current barn on Thursday evening. It only ended up taking about an hour but it was a lot of stress to me and my pony and I hate that. I had to be the "bad guy" and put a lot of pressure on her. I kept giving her options to take a break or have the pressure taken off but she was being "manipulative" (verified by my BM and barn friend who were there to help and be my support system).

I started out making it easy. I walked her up to the trailer and offered her treats and just did my best to let her take the easy option. Unfortunately she didn't want to do that and as soon as I put any pressure on she lost it. I spent almost 45 minutes just trying to get her to walk up to the trailer and stand there for a moment.

It really wasn't happening but she also stopped rearing (I learned how to deal with that when I first started working with her to trailer load) and was starting to be a little more respectful.

At about 50 minutes I admitted that I'd never made that little progress in that length of time and my barn helpers went and got some grain to do sort of a good cop, bad cop, sort of thing. Once she saw the grain she walked right in but wouldn't get far enough in for us to get her locked in. This trailer was a ramp and so we couldn't just push her in the same way that we could have with a gate.

Eventually I looked back to see the BM and the barn owner and Jane pushing the ramp shut and I freaked out as my pony threw her butt backwards into the gate. I was expecting to see them flattened by my pony but they held it somehow. Below is an actual reenactment of the battle of the trailer ramp.



At any rate we triumphed (unlike the video would have you believe) and got Katai back to our barn. After all the work and stress she was pretty sweaty when she got off the trailer so after letting her relax for a minute I gave her a bath and then turned her out with her buddy. Her buddy is the boss and after briefly showing her butt to Katai, Katai walked away, they touched noses and went back to eating hay together.

It was a little sad because it would have just been nice to leave her at the new barn rather than taking her away for a month and then going back but I didn't want my current BM to be out the income and I can't afford to pay for two barns for a month. I am glad that I get to enjoy another month of lessons with L and that I have another month with all of my barn friends. Luckily my new barn is just down the road so we've still got plans to do things together and see each other at clinics and shows.