It's raining.
Governor Inslee extended the Stay Home Stay Health until the end of May. Nowhere to go, don't want to make mud by riding in the pasture, I am finally forced to face my trailer demon.
I hate trailer loading because Odin doesn't like it. Odin doesn't like probably because he can sense that trailering is a giant hole in my horsemanship tool box. I am simply not confident with it as I did not grow up with trailering. When I grew up we rode to trails over hill, over dale, through empty pastures and down two-lane roads with no traffic then into the forest. I was that lucky.
As an adult, I've mostly boarded my horses at places with riding arenas and access to at least short trails. I've shown a little and paid for the trailer ride to shows. I simply did not have to deal with trailering. I had people for that. How posh. Ha.
When I re-embarked on the horsemanship journey almost 5 years ago I wanted to learn how to teach my horse(s) how to do x, y, and z. In grad school I learned that in order to teach, you had to know your subject inside and out. Horses are more forgiving than undergrad students but I learned to avoid making many mistakes and to refer to an expert on a subject if I didn't know it.
When I first got Odin the Mustang I boarded him at a stable and spent a good month of training on trailer loading. He would load with my trainer because she is confident about trailering. I gained some tools for my tool box but then it was up to me to practice, do my homework. Horses know when you're faking confidence but how to move forward when you a) have the goal in mind, b) have a few tools, and c) need to exude confidence?
The answers are: a) practice what you know, b) forgive yourself if you make a mistake and go back to what you know, and c) practice until you're bored.
What do I know? Positive reinforcement. As I've said before, my favorite resource is Alexandra Kurland's book, The Click that Teaches. She has a short section on trailer loading, which I avoided reading until this morning. Luckily I practiced a lot of exercises that lead up to trailer loading: targeting, standing on a mat, and leading. She points out that trailer loading is just an exercise in leading. She also points out that many people and horses are afraid of trailer loading because of previous bad experiences. Her exercises make it easy, make us all feel confident.
What to do? Put a familiar target and a familiar mat in the trailer. I put the orange and yellow flag for a target and the red mat in the place where Odin would stand. I put a blue mat near the entrance to the trailer. We hadn't worked on that mat yet but this would be a good place to start.
First, we practiced putting on the fly mask because buzzing flies aren't going to help if we're annoyed and distracted. Then we practiced fly spray, which he views as acid touching his precious skin. Both of these were at liberty because Odin loves positive reinforcement. I doubt he would go near the trailer without the halter and lead rope at this stage and the point isn't to drag him into the trailer. The point of the halter and leadrope is just so he doesn't go back to eating grass because he'd prefer to ignore me and the trailer.
I also need to mention that Randy was weed-whacking nearby with the gas powered weed whacker for extra distraction, which is good for knowing how to proceed when the environment is a little busy. It's good practice for having your horse's attention when you're in an unfamiliar location and asking him to load.
Halter on, he snorted all the way to the blue mat that was in front of the trailer door. Snorting is a sign of being over threshold, which is not the goal but he kept walking forward. He was telling me he didn't like it but he recognized the stand-on-mat exercise and was interested. Then he stopped so I brought the mat to him and we began that exercise: stand on mat with two feet, click and treat. He's good at that game, even with weed-whacking nearby, which is a very good sign.
The mat kept moving closer to the trailer until finally it was easier to put the mat in the trailer. We spent a lot of time with two feet in the trailer then back out. Repeat. Then he put all 4 feet in without my asking and stood there. Great! Click, treat, back out. Take a break. He grazed while I futzed around in the garden.
Generally I can get Odin in the trailer but staying in there is another issue for him. Front feet in, pause, click and treat. Repeat. Four feet in, pause, click and treat. Repeat. Ok, now go touch the target at the front of the trailer. Pause, click and treat. Repeat a couple times then we are done for the day. If I'm bored with the game it probably means that I am confident enough.
These are fun games to play while it's raining to build and reinforce confidence. I'm hoping that by the time the Stay Home Stay Health order is lifted both Odin and I feel very confident about trailering. Half the challenge is loading. The other half is staying in there so we will practice the how-long-can-I-stand-here game when we get to that point.