Horses teach us many lessons. As a young amateur rider, grandpa had given me a three-year-old filly named Linda Kristin who hadn’t worked out on the track. I had her at college with me and had decided she needed to go back for more training. I had an enclosed two-horse side-by-side trailer with a lot of room.
The woman who ran the boarding facility where I had her was pregnant and due in a few days. Linda didn’t want to go in the trailer, and we were trying many methods of encouraging her to get in. We worked to get her to go into the trailer by herself for a long time. Then in frustration, I walked on in front of her. Amazingly she then jumped right in. Close the door I told the people who were helping me.
Now I was in front of her in the trailer. They came around and opened the door in the front so I could get out, not very gracefully.
The trainer who worked with her for me told grandpa that it was like she woke up in a different world every morning. I learned that if she didn’t understand something I should take her back to something she knew and come back to the new concept another day.
While I had her I got a gelding who was highly seasoned in the show ring. The first time I tried to load him in the trailer on my own he wouldn’t go in. I tried encouraging him and going in first for hours. Very frustrated I then told him sternly to go into the trailer. He looked at me as if to say “Oh, you want me to go in”. From that day on I could throw the rope over his neck several feet before the trailer, and he’d load himself. He was quite different than the mare.
People come in all kinds too. Sometimes it’s as easy as letting them know what you want. While others may need to be taken back a step and start again on another day.
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Onward!
