You’re going to see a theme in my partnership with Talon–mistake, after mistake, after mistake…
There will always be a part of me that wishes I didn’t subject Talon to my lack of experience, but ultimately it was through all the mistakes I made with him that I gained the experience I have today. Mistakes are part of the learning process–I have accepted this truth, forgiven myself, and Talon has forgiven me too which is why I am able to share all of these not so great memories from my past with you…
I couldn’t wait to start taking Talon to competitions. Just a few short months after adopting him I entered him in our first schooling show. I focused on preparing him for all the movements we would have to do in our dressage test and worked on jumping small courses with him, and by the time the show came around I felt like we would be prepared for a successful first show together. I was so excited to take him!
However, there was one thing I failed to practice…trailer loading.
I was so caught up in my excitement and training for what we would have to do at the show it never crossed my mind to prepare him for actually getting to the show (really letting my inexperience at that stage of my horsemanship journey shine here!). I assumed since I had gotten him on the trailer once I would be able to do it again. I’m sure you can see where this is going…
It was finally time to leave for the show. I had Dart and Talon all shined up and ready to go and couldn’t wait to get on the road with them. I loaded up Dart and then went back for Talon. As soon as Talon caught a glimpse of the trailer he froze up and then turned around and tried to pull me back into the barn. I redirected him and got him moving towards the trailer, but again he froze and tried to pull me back in the barn. I repeated this several more times as it began sinking in that I should have prepared him for trailering.
Still hopeful for a great first show together…I went back into the barn to gather some more help to get him loaded. We tried just about everything to get him in the trailer, but at the end of the day nothing worked.
Talon didn’t make it to our first show together.
At the time, I was upset about Talon missing the show. I wasn’t thinking about how quickly trying to get him to submit to something he wasn’t prepared to do would affect him and the trust in our partnership.
I went to the show with Dart and left Talon at home, but my excitement about the show was gone.
When I got home I was determined to address this trailer loading issue. Working with Talon on trailer loading became part of my daily routine…for months….
I read about different methods for training trailer loading and tried just about all of them, but never made much progress. Sometimes I could get Talon to put a front hoof on the trailer, but then he would explode and often break free from me and run many laps around the neighbor’s corn field before I could catch him.
My next idea was to get a trailer that would be more inviting and easier to load. This wasn’t necessarily a bad idea, but it really didn’t address the root cause of this problem…Talon had anxiety around trailer loading (much of it caused by me in my hurry and desperation to try to get him loaded for that show), I wasn’t being consistent and clear as I fumbled my way through trying many different trailer loading methods, and most of all he didn’t trust me (for good reason!)
So…I sold my little horse trailer and took out a loan for a 2 + 1 Gooseneck with many escape doors, box stall options, rear loading ramp, and a side loading ramp (no regrets on this purchase, I still have this trailer and it’s AWESOME!). I thought for sure this would solve Talon’s trailer loading issue.
But, it didn’t…
I was able to get Talon on the new trailer occasionally, but each time I tried to load him after successfully getting him loaded it was like we had hit the reset button–time to start all over again. I am really determined (...stubborn…), so I continued this pattern for many more months before I finally asked for help.
My Eventing coach made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. He said he would help me with Talon on loading and if he couldn't help he wouldn’t charge me anything. Asking for help has never been a strength of mine, so I swallowed my pride and agreed to let him help me.
He showed up with a small, 2-horse trailer, and I thought to myself, “There is no way he’ll get Talon on that trailer.” I handed Talon’s lead to him and sat down to watch.
This coach was FUNNY, so the first thing I noticed was how light-hearted he was about the whole thing–his energy about it was so different than mine had been. I was taking it all very seriously and pressured myself to succeed. He cracked jokes while doing some basic groundwork with Talon. His jokes were often full of wisdom…one that stuck out to me that day was when he said, “You have to be old to be good at this stuff.” He was jokingly calling himself old, but there is truth in what he said. Not necessarily that you have to be old, but you do have to be mature in many ways to be a good horseman…patient, self-aware, clear, and consistent.
I was surprised how much groundwork he did before he ever asked Talon to actually face the trailer. He asked Talon to move forward, circle around him in both directions, stop, back, and later asked him to position himself and stand on each side of the trailer. I didn’t understand what he was doing at the time, but I now see he was making sure Talon understood the cues from his body-language prior to asking Talon to do the thing he had anxiety about. He was also very clear, consistent, and praised Talon for each effort. In doing so, he quickly began building Talon’s confidence and trust.
When he finally asked Talon to face the trailer, Talon immediately started to walk on…I couldn’t believe it! Even more to my surprise my coach asked Talon to stop! I thought to myself, “Why on earth are you asking him to stop when you almost had him on!!!” You can see from my thoughts how much I prioritized the end goal.
After he asked Talon to stop, he asked him to come back away from the trailer and re-approach. This time Talon again offered to go on the trailer and my coach asked him to stop again. I watched as he repeated this a few more times. It looked like Talon was pretty proud of himself at this point.
Then he finally let Talon go all the way into the trailer (notice the word “let”...he never pressured him to go inside…amazing!). As soon as Talon was in the trailer, I thought to myself, “OMG, you got him in…hurry up and get the butt bar up!!!” To my surprise, he didn’t put the butt bar up. He just stood there and gently stroked Talon while standing on the side of the ramp. Then he asked Talon to come out of the trailer again.
Then he asked Talon to face the trailer and again Talon walked right in. He stood on the side of the ramp gently stroking Talon as he did before, but this time he started to make some noise with butt bar…you could see Talon get a bit nervous, but he just kept gently stroking Talon and letting the butt bar make some noise–soon Talon returned to being relaxed.
He repeated this several more times and started incorporating swinging the butt bar behind Talon. Again, you could see Talon get a bit nervous with each new thing, but my coach would just keep gently stroking him until he returned to relaxation. Alway noticing when Talon would get nervous and taking the time it took for him to return to relaxation with each new thing he introduced.
I was starting to understand his goal wasn’t really about shutting Talon in the trailer…it was about getting him comfortable and confident with the whole process one step at time–including all the sounds and movements associated with trailer loading.
Then he finally latched the butt bar. I couldn’t believe he successfully loaded Talon into that small trailer. The plan was for my coach to take Talon for a few days to his farm to continue working with Talon, so I really couldn’t believe it when he undid the butt bar and unloaded Talon. I thought to myself, “Well, now you went and hit the ‘reset button’ and you’re going to have to start all over again,” because that had been my experience up until that point. To my surprise when my coach asked Talon to face the trailer, Talon willingly loaded again with no hesitation. He did this several more times before he was ready to haul Talon to his farm.
I thanked him and told him I was amazed. I was also internally swallowing my pride some more as he had just accomplished in less than 2 hours what I was not able to accomplish in many many months.
When he returned Talon, he demonstrated Talon easily and confidently loading and unloading. He had also practiced loading him in several different types of trailers he had at his farm. He wanted to make sure I could load him, so asked me to load him a few times while he was there to help me.
As I took Talon’s lead, I could feel myself getting worried as I again put pressure on myself to succeed; this trailer loading issue had been a big deal to me for a long time at this point and something I had been taking way too seriously. Talon sensed my worried energy and immediately regressed when I asked him to face the trailer–my heart sank. My coach asked me to try to relax and be confident Talon would do it. I took a deep breath and imagined Talon loading for me just as my coach cracked another joke which lightened me up…Talon walked onto the trailer…
In all my efforts to load Talon, I had only been focusing on the end goal rather than the process, and I was not aware of how my own internal state was affecting Talon.
Talon's Story Blog Series Navigation
Part I: Trailer Loading
Part VII: The Transformation
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