I've posted a little here & there on the Super Spooky Mare I have.  She is many things.  Spooky.  Hot. Barn/Buddy Sour.  A Chicken.  I am trailering her, all by her lonesome, to my trainers place on Sunday.  It's a short trip, 15-20 minutes on back roads.  This mare trailers fine in larger, more open trailers.  Easy on, easy off.  But this time, she's going into a two-horse bumper pull and she'll be alone.  I'm a little anxious about the whole ordeal.  To answer the obvious question that some will ask:  Yes - she will get in & out of the two horse trailer fairly well. I give her some hay, and she seems a fine, albeit a little nervous.  What I'm wondering is this:  Do you think she'll 'settle in' once the trailer starts moving?  I am worried that she'll have some sort of "horse fit" and hurt herself in the trailer when we get moving.  Maybe she'll do just fine.  I plan on taking her for a few short test runs before the big ride on Saturday. 

 Wish me luck, please, on the ride out there, while we're there and on the way home.  I'm thinking she'll be so tired after her 'lesson' that she won't have the energy to protest or get stressed out on the ride back home.  This mare has had little socialization in the last 8 or 9 years, and one of the biggest problems I have with her is that she wants to fight every horse she comes in contact with.  I'm hauling her away from home to a place with about 50 horses.  I am a looking forward to the challenges that Sunday will bring me.  My trainer is ready, and capable, of handling what ever this mare throws her way.  Am I?  :)

 

I read your post and was reminded of the time I trailered my horse for the first time in my two-horse straightload. All was fine loading up. But when we started moving at a clip pace out on the road, all of a sudden the trailer swayed from side to side and all I could see in the rearview mirror was a whole lot of shimmying and shaking ..and no sight of my horse through the trailer windows. I suspected my horse was in an all-out panic. Actually, I was kind of in a panic myself, because it was also MY first time trailering. Anyway, I remembered what someone told me: whatever you do, don't open the trailer when your horse is panicking. So, I didn't. I drove, white-knuckled, to the trailhead and once there, stepped inside the adjoining slot to check on my horse. His eyes were as big as dinner plates and there was hay everwhere. I fed him a treat and waited for him to calm down (me, too), and then slowly backed him out of the trailer. We went for a nice ride with my friends and he loaded back up and home we went. 

So, if your horse has a horse fit, try to stay calm and follow that sage advice: don't open the trailer when your horse is panicking.

 Good luck, and most of all, remember why you're doing this. To have fun.

   

I have a mare similar to yours in the buddy sour department. She loads and unloads well, but doesn't want to stay in the trailer b/c she knows it will take her away from her buddy, one of my other mares. When I first got her I needed to get her to a natural horsemanship trainer to see if he could cool her down some. He brought his 4-horse trailer to my place to get her and take her to his place 50 miles away. He is great on loading horses that have difficulty, and once we got her in the trailer--it was completely open inside, no dividers in place--we closed the doors on her and he said, "I gotta get going." Off he went 20 secs later. He explained to me later that he had to get moving to keep her quiet. He said that once the trailer is moving the horse is more concerned about staying on her feet than freaking out b/c she left her buddy. Of course, he had his hands full once he arrived at his place, but that's another story. Going on practice runs is a great idea.

PLEASE make sure to wrap your horse's legs like you would for a regular trip when you do your practice rides.

This August i decided to take CB on a prictice trailer ride since it had been about a year since he had been in that specific trailer. i didnt bother wrapping hims legs and after only about a block trip he came out of the trailer with about a dozen cuts on his legs and head because he has panicked while trailering alone (stepping on his own cornets and wacking his head on the divider of a stock trailer)

The only time CB ever tailered alone was when i bought him (4 years ago), and the incident above, he's fine trailering if there is another horse who gets in the trailer before him but he will NOT be the only horse in the trailer and not the first one on if he can help it.

 

Speaking of wrapping legs for trailering, I read an article about that just a few days ago. The author recommended wrapping all the way down over the coronet band b/c that is where most injuries occur: one hoof hitting the other and slicing the coronet band. Shipping boots are the quickest way to cover the whole leg, but they're also a bit warm and some horses get freaked out by them. THEY would require a trial run, too, if you decide to use them. Since you're unsure of your mare's reaction to solo trailering, I'd say some kind of wrapping would be a good idea, especially during the trial runs, as suggested above.

Very good i forgot to mention wrapping all the way down. i have always done this when trailering i wrap from just below the knee all the way down to the first inch or so of the hoof, so the WHOLE lower leg is covered. (Just wish i would have done this for my last trial run, CB would have been much better looking and less scrapped up for our show)

Oh boy.  Our first trial run with this mare didn't go well.  Actually the ride went well enough, but after she unloaded she really let me know how badly she was stressed by the whole thing.  She was, and I kid you not, traumatized.  She was a blank slate, not there, checked out.  What ever you want to call it.  I put her back in with her pasture mates, she just laid down.  After I walked her around for a bit and a little time passed, she seemed okay.  I called the vet, she recommended a very mild sedative for the longer ride out to the trainers on Sunday.  Just enough to "take the edge off".

 We had two more practice runs today that went very well.  Still had a very nervous horse, but at the very least, she was 'herself' when she unloaded from the rides.  I'm pretty worried about tomorrow - not for me, but for her.  I'm going to give her the sedative and give it time to kick in, then she's going in the trailer and we're moving out - not stopping for love or money until I get to the trainers.  The one thing I do know about my mare is that she really concentrates on her feet once that trailer gets moving.  That might be the one little saving grace I have in the morning.  Pray.  Load. GO!

Good luck tomorrow!!!

NWBuckskinLvr:

Good luck tomorrow!!!

  Thanks! 

Pack list for horse:

Sedative, check.  Tack, check. Vet box, check.

Pack list for dear old dad who volunteered for this:

Cooler, lunch, sodas, chair - check.

Pack list for me:

Change of drawers, Tums - check.

Here we go.......

Lol @ the list. 

I think we have the same mare: buddy sour, checks out completely when things get tough for her. My mare learned that at her former home, where her "training"--I use the term VERY loosely--was SO tactless. A 10-year old was trying to make her a Western Pleasure horse: she is Holsteiner/TB! You can imagine what the girl did to my mare's warmblood gaits. Ack.

So how'd it go, DND?  Best thing you can do for horses like this is to haul them often, lots and lots of short trips; and to drive right when you do.  Not necessarily super slow, but respectful; no fast stops and starts and no steep turns.  Don't wait til she has to be somewhere to train her to trailer calmly, take her on lots of trips (to the grocery store, to the bank, etc.) and give her a chance to see she'll live through it.

And if you do happen to feel the trailer moving around more than it should, find a safe place to stop and check on her; I once had a horse turn completely upside down in his stall in a trailer and hurt himself badly the more he fought.  It's worth it to stop and check then if she's standing alright, continue the trip.

Sorry it has taken me so long to post a follow-up. It's along one - but here it is.  Thanks so much to everyone that posted tips, advice & well wishes.  I have so much to say about Sunday - I'm not sure where to start :)  I gave the mare 1cc of sedative about 45 minutes prior to loading her up.  I couldn't really tell a difference in her behavior after the sedative.  She was very alert, not dopey at all.  I loaded her up and hit the road immediately.  I never heard a peep out of her.  Nothing. When I arrived at the trainers, still nothing.  My trainer was there waiting for me & this screwball mare I'd been telling her about.  I unloaded my mare - calm & quiet.  I walked her past 10-15 pastured horses to the arena.  No meltdowns.  No blow-ups.  That was the sedative working   I walked her around the arena & let her smell, look, walk around.  She was still very well behaved.  At this point the sedative had mostly worn off - or so I was told (I'll explain that later) I did some ground work with her.  Some basic stuff that the trainer wanted to see - sizing up me & the mare I'd guess.  We progressed through the ground work and moved into desensitizing.  Not a single thing we did to her brought about her usual overly dramatic spooks.  She would shy away from things, maybe flinch, that's it.  We moved on from there and covered some corrective techniques for aggressive behavior towards other horses.  Things like keeping her under control when she starts skittering around, one reigned stops, keeping her attention on me, making her 'work' or 'move her feet' near an object that she's distracted by (kind of hard to word some of this) and letting her rest when she's 'away' from said object. We brought in another mare and worked my mare around her.  She did get a little bent out of shape over the 'new' mare, but still not the monumental blow-ups that I've from her in the past.  The trainer & I took a very short ride together and worked on a few things while 'on the trail'.  True to form, my mare became hard to handle when we came into view of some other horses.  It was a very mild episode compared to her usual antics, but the trainer was able to give me some good pointers on dealing with that type of behavior.   I was really disappointed when my session was up.  Mainly because my time was up , but also due to the fact that my mare behaved better than she ever has since I've owned her.  My trainer suggested that the horse has had some 'arena experience' at some point in her life.  Anything is possible - we don't have any info about the mares early years.  I had taken her out there to work on her spooking & aggression problems, but she exhibited such mild behavior while there, the trainer was never able to see just how bad she gets.  The trainer did get on her and ride her some - and when asked to canter the mare did  test the trainer with some bucking/crow hopping.  The mare was handed a swift & severe "correction" and she didn't so much as snort in the wrong direction after that.  As we were wrapping up my session, I asked the trainer to give me an "assessment" of me, as a fairly green rider, and my mare.  It basically boiled down to this:  The horse has had some training in her past.  She's "well broke" for riding - by an experienced confident rider.  I am neither of those :) and the horse knows it.  She 'has my number' as the trainer says.  Her advice to me: Ride, ride, ride the heck out of her.  Sit through her tantrums and correct her as harshly as needed.  Stop being afraid of hurting the horse while correcting her.  That has been a problem for me - if a person were to come up to me and give me the human equivalent of what this horse does to me during one of her fits, we'd be toe-to-toe very quickly.  But I have a hard time becoming "assertive" with my horse.  Go figure....

 I loaded her up, trailered her home - and she seemed so unconcerned about the whole thing.  So - I didn't need the drawers, I could have used up a whole roll of tums on the trip out there, and I wish I could go back there right now and work my mare some more! 

 Also ponited out to me is the probability that my mare has some arabian in her.  She isn't full blooded anything, and that's fine with me, but having a direction to look toward as far as behavior traits is helpful.  This isn't the best picture - but it will have to do.    

 

DocsNewDay:

Also ponited out to me is the probability that my mare has some arabian in her.  She isn't full blooded anything, and that's fine with me, but having a direction to look toward as far as behavior traits is helpful. 

She's a pretty little girl, and what a pretty, green backdrop for her picture against her dark color! 

As far as a direction to look toward for her behavior traits, I personally have not found much in the way of being able to blame or credit a horse's breed for them, they are what they are; individuals.

But it sounds like you had a very successful day, both with your trainer and the fact that you discovered the main thing you need to work on, your assertiveness.  I would caution you however that I think some of your mare's calmer behaviour can be attributed to the sedative, which shouldn't be used as a crutch instead of good training.  I also think a lot of it can be attributed to the fact that you knew she was on the sedative which subconsciously (sp?) made you a more confident leader, which she picked up on.

Critters are always so eager to prove their owner a lier...I can't tell you how many times one of my many critters will do something all the time!!! Until someone is there and I say something about it. Does that behavior happen then? Of course not!

I am glad the trip went pretty good though, even if she wasn't her normal terror self!  She is a cutie! How tall is she? In the pic she looks a little petite, and quite arabian, even though you can't really see her head very well.

Good luck with your riding!