Nutmeg - trailer loading-unloading 4 June 2024

Training horses always involves some risk of injury (or even death) to the horse, the trainer, any spectators, equipment used, etc. - this risk is totally your own as you will be making your own judgements on what to do. As with any suggestions on any subject you must weigh them out for yourself and proceed accordingly - at your own risk.

This is the very end of two sessions teaching Nutmeg to willingly back out of the trailer. I tried quite a few ways to try to get Nutmeg to back and met with frustration. I did manage to get her to back out using a surcingle and driving lines attached to a Four Knot Halter during session one but she did not do it willingly and she did not make any notable progress towards doing it willingly. At the start of Session Two I had my mare Avi show Nutmeg how to properly load and unload - because sometimes seeing another horse do something is all it takes to get a horse in training to figure it out - that was not the case with Nutmeg. I did get Nutmeg to back out several times by literally backing Avi into Nutmeg's head/chest - but Nutmeg still did not make the connection of backing out willingly and calmly - she remained VERY resistive. So I put Avi away and put the surcingle and driving lines back on. I got Nutmeg to load front feet only and calmly back out a number of times. But when I had her fully load she again got resistive about backing. Eventually something clicked a bit in Nutmeg's brain and I could get her to walk all the way to the front of the trailer then back her with the lines until her hind hooves were close to the edge, stop, walk back to the front and repeat calmly several times. Then when she was, at long long long last, finally backing calmly and willingly while in the trailer I asked her to "down, down" and she calmly stepped down off the trailer. We repeated this and she got better and better. The video picks up at that point.

Remember to intentionally, on purpose, learn of God each day by prayerfully reading, studying, and pondering upon God's word each day. Talk to God in prayer as your Heavenly Father who would like for you to be His friend. Find out what He would like you to do for Him as His friend and go and do it for Him as His friend. Yes very intentionally, very much on purpose, become the friend of God. And have a blessed day!!

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