The move, part 2

Because of the fact that I trailered every time I rode my horse for years, I've been though some terrifying things, but never because of anything the horses did. There was the time we were in an accident on I-5 and we had to tie the horses up on the side of the highway until another towing vehicle arrived, but unbelievably, the horses got right back into that trailer. How wonderful, the trust they have in us.

Then there was the ferry accident, which all three horses dealt with fine, but was one of the scariest things I'd been though. That was Bremerton.

One time I had to be towed, my truck on the flatbed of a tow truck, and the horses being pulled by it. Another trip to a service station *with* the horses, this time in Moses Lake.

In the 90s one of the horses in the 4-horse slant load went down and rode under the other horses all the way to the show. She was fine.

Once I arrived at a CMO to see a vet bandaging all 4 legs of a horse, and the inside of the trailer was covered in blood, the floor, the walls - that horse had fallen and gotten its legs under the tack room divider wall. That should not be possible, it almost sawed off its legs.

Aarene should do a post about her trailering adventures and mishaps. She's also had a rough time. One of her stories gave me nightmares I still have to this day.

So to be honest what Mag presented us with on arrival could have been worse - it could have been blood.

Again on arrival (as when he arrived at our home) the entire trailer was shaking, because he was shaking. That just rips up your heart to see, especially on such a laid back horse.

The first thing I saw was the floor. I said, "He peed!" and Gabi said, "No, that's sweat."

Mag was soaking wet, nose to tail, with streams running down his legs, and a huge puddle under him, with rivulets traversing the floor. I'd never seen anything like that.

Poor poor thing, what on earth happened to him?

He unloaded very well, considering, after trying to see if he could turn around but that's not possible in a sardine can. I appreciate that he is not dangerous about unloading, because that is something I do not know how to fix (only prevent).

All four feet on the ground he neighed a greeting and my first instinct was to reload him, to work on it a bit, because when else can I? But Gabi told me to put a cooler on him and walk him.

I said, "I have everything I need here but no cooler, because I never dreamed he'd sweat on his first day here." So she let me use one of hers.

He was fine, we said hi to all the horses living in all the various paddocks everywhere. In fact, he acted as if he'd been there before, that's how calm he was. He ate a bit, didn't get too excited about the other horses, and I felt OK about leaving when the nice lady who lives next door said she'll be checking her horses at 11 PM and would let me know if anything was amiss. She said she sleeps with her window open so she can hear if a horse gets cast at night.

I told Gabi I never want to go through that again and I need to borrow a trailer to practice with. She said I would not be able to use hers because she's not willing to hook it up for me. But there is supposedly a trailer that has built-in support legs that doesn't have to be hitched for a horse to enter. I have no idea who owns it or if they'll let me work on loading, but I will do my best to find out.

I know the secret to teaching loading - do it when you don't need to go anywhere, when you have all day. Days I have, it's the trailer part that is tricky.