Of Horses and Trailers

Henk writes:

Being the most magnificent horses on the farm, we Friesians of course get the best paddock - the one with the nicest grass and a commanding view of the barn, the house, the driveway - all the areas that matter. So we were the first to spot the horse trailer arriving the other day. Now, a horse trailer can mean several things: 1) someone's leaving, 2) someone new is arriving, 3) someone's going on a road-trip to a show, the vet, a trail ride.... You get the idea. My favourite is someone new arriving. I'm a very social horse, and new company is always fun. Thinking this might be the case, my paddock buddies and I started doing our "look at me, I am magnificent" trot up and down the fence-line. In case you're not familiar with this move, it goes like this:
- hold your head really, really high, with your ears pricked sharp forward and your nostrils distended
- breathe fire through said distended nostrils; the more noise you can make when you exhale, the better
- lift your tail slightly if you're a Friesian (we're not allowed to stick our tails up in the air like Arabs, and besides our massive tails are too heavy for such nonsense) or WAY up if you're not
- do the kind of extended trot your owner would give her right arm to experience when she has you under saddle
- repeat up and down the fence-line until you get tired or no one is watching any longer
Wilby, Charlee and I do this really, really well. Even baby Mila (almost six months old now) is getting the hang of it, although it must be said her fire-breathing needs some work.

Then the truck and trailer stopped, Lil hopped out, opened the gate to our paddock, and Robert drove the truck and trailer inside. OK, we realized, there was no one new inside. We dropped our "magnificent" act and gathered in the centre of the paddock to snort warnings at the intruder. When Lil opened up the back of the trailer, threw in a pile of hay and left, I jogged over, hopped inside, and started filling my face. I knew this routine. It was time to teach Charlee and Mila about trailers. That they're good and safe and a great source of food. You see Charlee had only been on a trailer once - when she came to live at our farm - and apparently it was a horrible experience. Mila, of course, didn't even know that trailers existed until this very day. Clearly Wilby and I were to teach the girls that trailers were ok. As long as there was hay involved, I was cool with it.

Over the next few days, the truck and trailer shared our paddock and became a great source of food and entertainment. Wilby and I got LOTS of extra munchies, and all we had to do was go inside the trailer to get them. Eventually this convinced the girls that the trailer was not a horse-eating monster, and that it was in fact possible to go inside and then come out again, no worse for wear. Lil actually got Charlee to walk into the trailer. Once. But even that was a big step, as the poor mare had clearly been terrified before. Mila hopped in and out a few times, and began to relax around the rig. But if the aim had been to get Charlee and Mila onto the trailer TOGETHER, then that failed. I gather the plan had been to take the girls to the Keuring (inspection), but Lil decided that a mare that's scared to death of trailering and an unweaned baby would be a bad combination in a trailer going more than 3 hours away from home, and decided to wait until Mila is a year old and trailer-trained. And since Charlee isn't pregnant this year, she can have some serious training put into her as well. She needs it. Her behaviour is so rude and pushy sometimes that it's downright un-Friesian. So I expect we'll be seeing that trailer in our paddock again soon, for some more de-sensitizing as the humans like to call. I just call it a moveable feast!

Of course I've never been afraid of trailers myself. The only time I refused to get on one was after a trail ride at the local public forest, and that had less to do with the trailer than with the very rude mare I had to share it with. She lived at our farm, but we were never turned out together, so I had no idea how unpleasant this horse could be. I walked onto the trailer unsuspecting, only to be snarled and snapped at the entire way to our destination. And when we got there, the beige-coloured beast insisted on speed-walking like there was a prize for finishing in the shortest possible time, while I of course prefer graceful sauntering over speed, and I like to enjoy the scenery. So it really ticked me off when I had to keep jogging to catch up, her tail swishing impertinently as if she were trying to hurry me along. By the time we were finished I'd developed a strong dislike for that mare, and had no intention of getting back on the trailer with her. I tried to make this very obvious to Lil and her fellow human, but they thought I was just being stubborn for no reason. Only after they took the mare off the trailer an hour or so into the exercise and tied her to a tree did I walk back onto the rig. Because of course the trailer was never the thing I had a objected to, and now that they were prepared to leave the darned mare tied to that tree where she belonged and take me home, I was quite happy to co-operate. But can you believe it? Once I was trapped inside that trailer they went and got that mare and put her right back on the trailer beside me again. Lil's lucky I don't hold a grudge, or she'd never get me on another trailer again!