Second Training Weekend, Part 2 (6/3/18)

When I got back to the arena the second day, I was relieved to see that she'd eaten most of her hay and drank a good deal of water because I worried about her pacing herself into an ulcer or colic. She was much calmer, too. Not frantic that her neighbors were being pulled from her pen, and happy to see me.

It appeared that she'd managed to find her brain overnight, but I still chose not to ride, knowing that the training plan was more intense than the day before. With her blow up over being saddled the day before, I wasn't sure what to expect, but she was back to being a "broke" horse.

Day one, I kept her with me, separate from the horses because of her anxiety. Day two, though, with her regained brain meant that she could be ponied from another horse. While everyone else was warming up, I took her into the arena with the other horses and did some circle work with her before handing her off to another posse member to work in formation.

She did incredibly well in formation, so got to go with the rest of the team across the bridge (she did awesome - but better than first weekend training) into the venue.

Right in the middle, surrounded by other horses.

For a horse who didn't want to be around other horses the day before, she did really well with horses close to her on either side. She got ponied all around the park, and got to see all sorts of sights: a huge rodeo arena (she worked in that for patrol car desensitizing in the first week of training), buildings on both sides, livestock barns, and vehicles. She had to stop and stand in formation, and work with the other horses. It was a great learning experience for her.

Despite me being an avid shooter, Skeeter *hates* guns. She's okay with the occasional shotgun or rifle blast from the neighboring hunters, but does not at all appreciate handguns. I know, I know, it breaks my heart, too. Gun training was planned after the tour of the vanue and I was cautiously optimistic based on her morning behavior.

I worked her from the ground during gun training, but it did not go well. The Posse member who had ponied her throughout the morning offered to trade horses with me, and since I was tired of fighting with Skeets, I jumped at the offer. I struggle with walking the fine line between being supportive in her fear, and disciplining bad behavior, so it was a relief to have someone else take it on. In watching the other person disciplining her, I realized I needed to reinforce boundaries, stimulus be damned. Because I was so concerned about trying to be comforting and supportive during something that I knew scared Skeeter, I was letting her walk all over me. My fear was that if I disciplined her for her fear, I would make her fear worse. She did much better with the other handler, which isn't surprising, since the other handler wasn't concerned with how Skeeter felt, she was concerned with keeping her ownself safe.

Skeeter hated the gunfire, but eventually quit trying to jump on the human holding her. I'll call it a win (for now). Once gun training was over, she relaxed again and started to show interest in other things, so we went over to watch the obstacle course.

She was very interested and wanted to go play, but because the other members were testing on the course, we didn't get to. There were still a few hours left of training, but I wanted to leave on a good note. The first weekend training, I didn't do that, and I think it negatively impacted her ability to relax for the second weekend training. She was in such an agreeable mood, I figured she'd load up easily.

I've spent a lot of time and money on trailer training, but she's a stubborn mare. While I was trying to load her, the next group of horses began their gun training. So in addition to having a horse that didn't want to get on the trainer, I also had a horse who was stressed by the gunshots.

I may or may not have threatened to walk her the half a mile down the street to the rendering plant - that's when I knew it was time to take a break. After an hour, I tied her to the trailer in order to avoid killing her.

I'm pretty sure we were trading hateful thoughts at this point.

 I sat on the back of the truck and tried to think happy, calm thoughts. I knew that continuing to try to load her with both of us being so frustrated wasn't going anywhere. There are very, very few things that drive me to tears, and this was super close.

Eventually, the rest of the Posse took a break and another member asked if he could try. Without much hope, I agreed. I told him the only thing he could not do was pull on her head - that's what got us in trouble in the first place. He tried every trick he knew - and he has a deep toolbox of tricks - but she wouldn't get in. She'd load her front two legs, scoot up right until her back legs were touching the trailer and stop. (It's the same thing she was doing for me.)

I, too, have tried every trick in the book. We even started out, when she was brand new to us, by feeding her in the trailer. She thanked me by eating all of the wiring and padding on the divider. She also learned that she can eat from the manger without getting all the way in the trailer, and that lesson comes back to bite me in the ass on the regular.

Eventually, we were down to the last tool in his toolbox - a manure fork. We bribed her as far in as we could get her, with me holding the grain outside of the window to force her to stretch as far as she could, then he poked her in the ass with the manure fork until she stepped up into the trailer to get away from it.

I had hoped to leave on a good note, but two plus hours after I wanted to leave, I was just happy to get in the damn truck and go.

To say our 40-hour training was disappointing would be an understatement. I was seriously questioning our ability to work with the mounted unit, and was beginning to think about switching from mounted to the volunteer (ground) unit. Surprise would be an understatement when I received our certificate of completion for the training.

We are nowhere near being ready to patrol, and I'm still not 100% sure that we'll ever make it as a mounted team, but I'm not ready to give up quite yet.

Second Training Weekend, Part 1 (6/2/18)

The Posse's 40-hour training is broken up into two very long weekends. Well, they're typical weekends, but they feel very long. There is a lot of training and desensitizing that has to go on in order to be patrol-ready. I had high hopes of being able to ride in the second weekend training. I knew we wouldn't get certified, but Skeeter had been doing so well, I thought I'd at least get to ride in warm-up and maybe in formation.

I was so, so very wrong in thinking that.

Skeeter loaded into the trailer pretty nicely (for her), but when we got to the training arena, she lost her mind. She stepped off the trailer, looked around, and said "oh, fuck no. I'm not doing this again!".

Suddenly, things that we've been doing for years were impossible for her to do. Her stress and anxiety were off the charts and the only think I can think of is that her last trip to the training arena had been so stressful that she just couldn't function.

I tied her to the trailer and she could do nothing but pace. I groomed her and attempted to saddle her any way. It was like she'd never seen a saddle before. I got the saddle on the first time, but couldn't get it cinched up because she was moving so much. I tried untying her from the trailer, so she wouldn't feel too confined, and she had to move her feet. And, boy, did she move her feet! She hasn't bucked with a saddle since she was first learning to wear one. Lucky for me, my saddle is light, so I was able to hold onto her lead with one hand and pull the saddle with the other.

I moved her feet a lot, doing lots of turns and transitions, in an attempt to get her to focus on me. After a few minutes, she calmed down enough for me to saddle her a second time, but she was not happy about it. Though I was able to saddle her, I decided it was not in my best interest to attempt to ride her, so we settled in to watch the goings-on.

This was her "happy" face for the weekend.

I'd like to say that the weekend got better, but that would be a lie. She had moments of not-so-bad, but mostly she was anxious and upset all weekend. Part of me wanted to pack it in and go home, but I wasn't about to give up. I don't know if that was the right decision, but I made it and stuck to it, so we both got to suffer through the weekend.

We found out that she hates it when trucks fart at her (air brakes releasing). The water truck wasn't scary, but the farting was and she about turned herself inside out every time.

Then the med-evac helicopter came for a visit. Helicopters fly over our place occasionally, but they never seem to bother the horses, so I thought she'd do okay. She didn't mind at all while it was flying over, until it was time for it to land. She did pretty well, actually, just had to move her feet and circle around me once or twice as it was landing, but no big explosions from her. I wanted to hear the presentation from the helicopter team, so I put her in the round pen and let her be.

When the helicopter left, I went to fetch Skeets out of the round pen only to find that she had rolled in it and slipped it off to the side. I took it as a good sign that she relaxed enough to roll, even if it meant she scuffed the hell out of my cheapo saddle.

It had been a big day, and we still had hours to go, so I stripped her of the saddle and put her in her pen, where she could watch what was going on in the arena, but not be forced to join in the festivities. With her safely tucked into her pen, I could join in on the activities on the ground, where I learned a lot about escorting and controlling people from horseback.

We finished the night with fireworks. The posse horses did great, and Skeeter watched from the safety of her pen, though she refused to eat or drink until I went and sat with her for a while. Once I saw her finally calm down enough to eat, I felt comfortable leaving her overnight while I went home.

Training Weekend, Part 2 (4/15/18)

When I got back to the training grounds on Sunday, the horses on either side of Skeeter were being pulled from their pens and she was getting anxious. For a horse who normally doesn't give a hoot about other horses, she was pretty certain she was going to die if she was left while her neighbors went away. But that's okay, because I "rescued" her and she was more than happy to go to the trailer and get tacked up.

There was a lot on the schedule, and I had a brief thought of riding, but dismissed it. We started the weekend on the ground and the training was just going to get more intense, so I decided to stay on the ground. Skeeter got lots of practice standing tied in different locations, which was so good for her. She stands tied now like an old broke horse. Well, most of the time.

Part of the desensitizing planned for Sunday was 'exotic animals', which maybe weren't so exotic, but more 'what they'll see while patrolling the fair grounds'. The night before, Skeeter had already met the mini horse who freaked her the eff out. Skeets jumped like a spider had touched her when she saw the mini the first time. It blew her ever-loving mind (which I found hilarious).

I helped set up the pens in the arena for the animals and got to handle an alpaca for the first time. I guess I expected that they'd have hooves like horses, but their feet are the things nightmares are made of. Holy crap, they could disembowel a person if they wanted to.

Those are big ole nope toes for me.  *from Google images

Luckily, the alpacas weren't set on disemboweling me or the other posse member trying to move them and they went pretty well. We then moved a goat, sheep, and the mini into the other temporary pen, with enough room for people to ride (or lead) their horses around. Despite sleeping just a few stalls down from the mini, Skeets still had to snort and blow at it, while the mini completely ignored her.

She finally quit snorting and blowing, but was still perplexed.

She was so focused on the mini, that she completely ignored the sheep and goat. They did not exist in her world, so I'm fairly certain there was no desensitizing acquired with the other two animals, though I tried to point them out to her.

Having shared space with alpacas at the lodge last year, she wasn't too terribly interested in them, but politely introduced herself at my request.

After seeing the 'exotics' we headed to the other end of the arena to play with other things: the tarp, raincoats, noise makers, etc. We've done a good job of torturing desensitizing the horses at home, so there wasn't much that was hard for her, until we got to the tambourine. I know it's completely my fault we haven't done much with noise makers, because I don't like noise. If I don't like noise, then why on earth would I buy my horses noisy toys? That was a big old fail on my part. The tambourine was not her favorite thing, so I spent a lot of time shaking it around her head, on each side of her neck, rubbing her body with it, until she stopped moving.

When she could stand still, I tried again, but this time over her head. She did not like that a whole lot, but quickly calmed down and stood in one spot. I figured that was plenty of work and moved on to the smoke bombs and flares.

She did okay with them - hated the smell of each - but the smoke in the air and fizzy sound of the flare didn't seem to bother her. She did move away from the smell every time the breeze (yes, just a gentle breeze, not gale force winds!) shifted, but there was nothing panicky about her moving away - it was just obvious that she'd rather not be breathing that stuff thankyouverymuch.

We have an amazing obstacle course at the training center: teeter-totters, bridges, shower curtains, a tire hill, and a bunch of other cool things to play on. When it was our turn to go over, the trainer who had ponied Skeeter yesterday offered to pony her through the water crossing and I jumped at the chance. I wanted to make Skeets cross it, because it's much deeper than the creek at Mom's place and figured I could drive her through it, but getting ponied was much better.

Day two of being ponied went much smoother

With the successful crossing of the water, I took her back and we went to work on other things. I drove her across the bridges without any problem and started her on the teeter-totter. She's not afraid of it, but is also smart enough to know that all she has to do is step to the side to get off. We have two teeter-totters, so she got to go over them again and again and again until she quit trying to step off, then I turned her around and made her to them from the high side a couple of times.

Besides the water crossing, the obstacle I was most looking forward to was the tarp-covered mattress. I watched horses struggle with it last year, when I was working ground support, and wanted to see how Skeets would do. I wish I'd had a free hand to video it, but she did pretty well. It took a couple of attempts to get her to cross it each direction. When I first asked her to step up on it, she thought it was just a tarp, which is no big deal, but the squishiness of the mattress was a surprise and she wasn't entirely pleased. We crossed it in both directions multiple times until she stepped up without hesitation.

The 'shower curtain' and the other obstacles were simple in comparison. She wasn't thrilled with being driven through the long strips of material she couldn't see  through, but she went anyway. We still had a bit of time in our training rotation, so we practiced dragging a tiger.

Not afraid at all.

 After a quick working lunch, it was back to the arena for gun desensitizing. We have hunters nea.rby, so the sound of rifles and shotguns doesn't bother the horses, but they're not fond of pistols. I've shot into the manure pile on occasion, but the horses have been free to run around their pen, I've never had any of the "confined" in a halter.

Skeets did really well for the most part. There was some jumping initially, but she never tried to bolt or pull away. Eventually, the jumping slowed to flinching. I allowed her to keep moving her feet, but she slowed to a stop on her own. She stood nicely, without even flinching, while the trainers finished up. Well, we thought they'd finished up. They'd gone through 30-40 rounds and most of the horses were doing great. Skeets and I thought they were done, but it turns out they were just reloading for round two.

Round two was just too much for Skeeter. We'd reached a great stopping point, but then the stimulus started up again and that was it. She was d-o-n-e. I made her stay in the arena until round two was done, then we went back to the trailer. It was easy to decide that it was time to go home. I'd asked a ton of her, and she'd done an amazing job, but she was done and we needed to head home.

Knowing she was ready to just shut down, I wasn't sure how well she'd load, so I asked a couple of the trainers to help me load her. She loaded surprisingly well, in under ten minutes, without a fight (but with some granola bars and a final treat of black oil sunflower seeds), and we headed home.

The rest of the posse still had a couple of hours' worth of training, and I felt bad about leaving, but I got over it pretty quickly.

While, we won't be certified to ride this year, I'm unbelievably proud of Skeeter.

Training Weekend, Part 1 (4/14/18)

A few weekends ago, Skeeter and I had Posse training. I've been working many long hours, and haven't had any time to work with her, so Mom and Bill have been helping me out. I had hoped to get her loaded on the trailer on Friday, just as a dry run, but Wyoming moved down here to Colorado and brought its wind. The wind just wouldn't let up, and we decided not to try to load her. The wind had all of the horses riled up and we decided it just wasn't worth the fight.

Unfortunately, the wind didn't let up, so on Saturday morning, I figured I'd try to load her, but didn't have any real hope that she'd get in the trailer. Jay came out and helped - it took about half an hour and half a box of oat 'n honey granola bar bribes, but she got in the trailer without a fight. There was hesitation, and there was a lot of getting halfway in, but we didn't fight or get frustrated with each other. Under normal circumstances, I'd call it a win, but considering the way the wind was blowing, I felt like we won a gold medal.

We pulled into training five minutes before it was to start and were met by one of the trainers, who advised us of a change of plans because of the wind. It wasn't a big change of plans, but I had the option to leave Skeets in the trailer, leave her tied to the trailer, or move her to her pen while we had our meeting at a different location. I opted to leave her in the trailer. I knew she wouldn't like it, but at least she'd be safe. I put her hay net in the trailer with her and went to the meeting.

Leaving her in the trailer was the safest option, but her least favorite. By the time we were done with our meeting, she had worked herself into a tizzy and I decided that between the howling wind and her crankiness, we'd do our training on the ground. We've got time - I'm not planning on this volunteer job being a short-time gig - so I'm not in a rush to get us certified as a team. When we do get certified, I want us to be rock freaking solid.

We joined the rest of the posse in the arena for warm-up and then everyone headed over to a different arena, which has three tall walls (really the stadium seating) to block the wind. One of the trainers offered to pony Skeeter over to the arena, and I jumped at the opportunity. The other arena is maybe a half a mile away from our training arena, and there's a concrete bridge that the horses have to cross. I could have walked her across, but partnering her up with a steady eddy horse just made sense.

Skeets was unimpressed with having to learn to be ponied, but the horse ponying her was even less unimpressed with her antics and just ignored her. Eventually, my black mare got with the program enough to be ponied through drill practice.

I'm so thankful that the trainer offered and was willing to work with Skeeter, who was ... distracted ... by everything going on. If the only training we got in on Saturday was the first two hours, it was so worth it. Luckily, there was still a day and a half of training to go.

At lunch time, I tied her to the trailer with her hay bag and went to the meeting room for our working lunch. Skeets was okay when I left her at the trailer, but apparently a box blew by and she lost her mind. That was pretty much my worst nightmare, but since I was already in the meeting room a quarter mile away, she had to deal with two "strangers" calming her down. She didn't get away from the trailer, thankfully, and did calm down pretty quickly.

After lunch, it was back to the other arena. There was some set-up that needed to be done, so Skeeter got left with a new "uncle" until her pony horse was ready.

This is one tired pony, but we still had hours to go.

Training after lunch got way more intense by adding in toys and a cop car. We've done a LOT of desensitizing with the Mustangeers. A LOT. One of my favorite things is to think of ways to torture the horses, so after a rough morning, Skeeter shone when it was time for the desensitizing portion of training. Umbrellas, tarps, giant soccer ball ... she just looked at all of those and said, "bring it".

But the sirens - those gave her pause. We just don't have many sirens out where we live, so she jumped a bit when they first started, but within minutes was fine. She circled the car both directions, touched it all over (I'm glad I didn't have to wash all of the horse prints off of the car at the end of the day), followed it as it drove around the arena and led it. (Of course, it wasn't just her doing this, it was the entire mounted unit, about 40 horse/rider combinations.)

We'd had a big day by the time we called it quits and I settled Skeeter into her room for the night.

Most of the posse members stayed at the arena in their LQ trailers or travel trailers, but since I don't have either, I went home. After her blow up at lunch, it was hard for me to leave her in a stall with other people to look after her, but I knew she was as tired as I was. Maybe more so.

Throughout the day, the wind never let up.

Never.

Stopped.

Blowing.

That much wind is exhausting even when you're not trying to learn new things; the combination of the two wore us plum out, and we still had another day of training to go.

First Ride 2018 (4/8/18)

The Allenspark Cousins are here for a month or so

Mom and Bill have been coming down and working the horses for us. It helps that their horses are here as well and they'd like to get them legged up for the mountain, so it's been a good thing. Work for me is crazy right now, I work 6-7 days per week between my three jobs. It'll slow down in May, but until then, it's multiple twelve-hour days.

Skeeter and I have Posse training next weekend, and I hadn't even climbed up on her this year until yesterday. Mom and Bill have both been up on her, and have been working her through her sticky points (mounting block - she hates it). I didn't feel it was fair to haul her to a weekend-long training without her having any ride time in the last four months, so I'm extremely grateful that Mom and Bill can come down and help.

I had intended to get up on Skeets a couple of weeks ago, but ruptured the fascia in my right calf, so was out on injured reserve, which pushed us back even further. However, yesterday was the day. With Mom and Bill down here, we pulled most of the horses and at least gave them a good grooming, but Skeeter got saddled and I eventually climbed aboard. She had to stand tied nicely to the rail for a bit first - it's good for her to learn patience.

A horse photographer, I'm not.

Copper wasn't really crabby, he's just listening to Mom talk to Washoe.

Skeets stood at the rail for a fair bit of time before I climbed up on her. We've quit doing the longe business before riding, because she needs to be ready to go when we are. Some horses need the longing to get their mind in the game - Pearl is one of them - but Skeets and Copper don't.

We had a discussion about the mounting block, but it wasn't a big one, then I climbed up.

Not exactly the prettiest background, but it *is* a between the ears picture.

We rode some figure eights each direction, then I dismounted and Mom climbed up. Mom is not above "bribing" Skeeter to stand nicely at the mounting block, which Skeeter loves, but I find that she gets pushy and mouthy. For Mom, though, it works.

Listening to Grandma on her back and being pretty darn good.

I was feeling pretty good when I climbed back aboard, so I suggested Mom grab Copper and we go for a walk down the farm road. Skeets was doing okay until we got even with Mom and Bill's trailer. Don't know if it was the wind rustling the saddles, or Alloy and Pearl running like fools in the pen, but we had an "issue" - a little rearing and fast backing. I worked her through that and started forward again. I figured that she would follow Copper nicely as soon as we got past whatever was bothering her.

Yeah, that was a big nope. I she would take a couple of steps and hunch up, take a couple of more and hunch up. I could feel the buck coming, so I stopped her, waited for her feet to be calm - which was really hard for her, she was just a live wire of nervous energy - then dismounted to lead her. Two steps into our walk, with me leading her, she finally released the buck. Just a couple of little "oh my God, finally!" bucks and then she walked with me. She did not walk nicely - she was still too wound - but she walked.

I'm thrilled that she was able to control her emotions enough (I know I'm anthropomorphizing) for me to safely dismount. She is doing really, really well, especially after her time up on the mountain last summer, but she's still got a ways to go. I had really high hopes for us getting our Posse certification next weekend, but I think it'll be June before we're certified. We'll attend Posse training, but I'm not sure how it's going to go. If I can get her there and get through most of the training, we'll be on track to graduate in June.

Sheriff's Posse Training

I posted the other day about my pre-posse worries and it dawned on me later that night, just as I was falling asleep, that I had never mentioned a posse other than the HellHat Posse and maybe know one knew what the hell I was talking about.

Back in Feb/March, I put in an application to join our local Sheriff's department's Mounted Posse. I had just about given up on my application, when I received an email that I'd been accidentally accepted, but my acceptance was a mistake because I had failed to disclose an arrest in my application. (Seriously, take time to go read why I was arrested. I'll wait.)

In my defense, I was told that once I completed my probation that the arrest would be off of my record. Well, I had the easiest probation on the planet - don't let Gizmo beat up any other dogs in that particular town for one year - since Jay and I had since moved to a different town, that was something I could easily do. Since I'd been told that my arrest wouldn't show up on my record, I didn't disclose it on my application.

Turns out, law enforcement can *always* see arrests, even those that have supposedly been removed. Who knew?

Anyway, I was pretty disappointed and apologized to the Under sheriff for leaving it off, explained what the arrest was for, and asked if I could re-apply at a later date. I got an email back the next day telling me that after looking into my criminal history (just typing that cracks me up), the Sheriff decided I could join the Posse. Turns out I'm not a hardened criminal. Whew.

Stepping out of my comfort zone is very difficult for me, but I put on my big girl panties and attended my first meeting last week, and planned to attend my first training. In my earlier post, I think I mentioned that my concern was more about trailering Skeeter to the arena, not any of the riding.

Saturday morning was beautiful and I bounded out of bed determined to conquer the day. I made lunch, loaded the truck with everything I needed, and then got Skeeter. Jay helped me load her and it took maybe ten minutes. I had allotted way more time than ten minutes to get her loaded, but I wasn't going to complain one bit.

I'm in. Can I come out now?

Me. Trailering my own horse. I'm like a real cowgirl or something.

Jay and Skeets went on a short walkabout.

A round pen! We don't have one of those at home.

All dressed and ready for warm-up.

Jay didn't have to be at work until 12:30, so he followed us over and hung out for a while. He has not turned in his Posse application yet, but plans to do so.

I had accomplished by biggest goals before we even started warming up. My first goal was to get Skeeter loaded. Check. The second was to safely trailer her to the practice arena. Check.  Everything else we accomplished was going to be icing on the cake.

After having my tack checked, I went to mount up, but couldn't find a mounting block. Uh-oh. I haven't mounted Skeeter from the ground in ever. The ground helper told me to give it a try before I went looking for something to climb up on. So I did. And I managed to do it. I haven't been mounting from the ground because A) I'm very short and those stirrups are way up there and B) as much as I weighed, I didn't want to torque her back. However, I've lost just over 20#, and found it was much easier than I anticipated it would be. Skeeter stood like a champ while I climbed up.

We then rode a couple of laps around the arena, which I desperately needed, because everywhere I looked I saw potential spook hazards. The arena is right next to a road where cars, bikes, trucks (big 'uns), ambulances, etc. go whizzing by. There are bleachers for people to sit on. There are empty horse pens on one side. I mean, the place is surrounded by things that could set a horse off.

Did Skeeter care?

Not one bit. In fact, she marched right on by the big plastic wrapper that comes around a case of water bottles without batting an eye. A couple of the other Posse horses had to stop and snort at it. Skeets being rock solid in the arena helped my confidence level immensely. By the time we were done with our "freestyle warm up" and ready to get into our guided warm up, I was feeling much less anxious.

I told our team leader that I wasn't comfortable trotting her yet, so we planned on me just pulling into the center of the arena during the trot periods.

I wasn't sure how Skeets was going to do with so many strange horses, but she did great. The other riders kept their distance until we were both more comfortable. After guided warmup, we started into drills. I was given a copy of most of the drills we do, so I have a vague idea of what was expected of us. We hung to the outside or back for the most part, and completed most of the drills. Again, when the drill called for trotting, I just peeled off to the middle and picked back up at the walk.

That's Skeets on the right, keeping her distance in formation.

She was much more comfortable once we moved up two paces.

You can barely see us, we're so far in the back.

The riding portion was pretty difficult for me mentally. I felt like I was holding everyone up and I wouldn't do the trot portions and Skeeter started acting up. I definitely began feeling like we were in over our heads, especially the more times I had to peel out of formation to move her feet. She was shaking her head, stomping her feet, and swatting with her tail. I thought maybe a deer fly was bothering her or something. If I kept her moving, she would calm down a little bit, but if we stopped, she'd get all worked up again.

My stress level was rising, because I felt an imminent blow-up and I felt like we were being a huge distraction. One of the Posse members looked at me and said, "it's okay if you want to get down and take a break." Those words were music to my ears. We peeled out of formation - again - and went to the rail where Jay was. I had him hold her while I dismounted, because I didn't want her blowing up in the middle of me getting off.

As soon as I was off, she calmed right down. Wasn't a fly, after all. Princess Skeeter was sweating like a whore in church and was done with riding, thankyouverymuch. While she's been getting ridden, it's fairly inconsistently, and never for more than an hour at a time. By the time I dismounted, she'd been getting ridden going on two hours (on top of being round penned) and fat girl don't like to sweat. I can't blame her, because this fat girl don't like to sweat either.

Drill practice only ran for a few more minutes, so we didn't miss out on a lot.

After a short break, we moved on to desensitizing. I felt like such a failure in the riding portion, but once we got to desensitizing, I felt much better. That is something we've worked on and it showed. I think the trainers expected her to be more reactive than she was, but she was an absolute rock star.

She had one little flinch when the umbrella flapped and she wasn't expecting it, but it was truly just a flinch. After she realized what it was, she tried to eat it. I finally felt like I'd done something right in her training. When we broke for lunch, I was feeling pretty good.

I sat with the Posse members for a little bit, until Skeeter started hollering from the trailer where she was tied. I was going to let her "cry it out", but then decided to just go sit with her. If I was feeling insecure and out of place, not knowing what was going on, she had to be too. (Yes, I'm anthropomorphizing.) As soon as I sat down on the tongue of the trailer she quit her hollering and settled down enough to eat.

After lunch, we had trailer training on the schedule. I was super excited, because I know that's her biggest weakness. Actually, that's incorrect. Loading into our trailer is her biggest weakness - she loads like she's been doing it her whole live in other trailers. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the trailer we used for training was a beautiful 3 horse-slant with all of the dividers folded back and one large gate that swung open, so it looked like a stock trailer.

When it was our turn, Skeeter self-loaded her front half, but then thought she was done. I backed her out and lead her in. She stepped up so nicely and quietly backed out when I asked her to. She made me look good. I should have worked with her more on driving her into the trailer, because that's how she *has* to load in our trailer; there just isn't enough room to lead her in and safely get out now that I've removed the center divider. But, I was feeling confident and didn't take the time to drive her completely in - a decision that bit me in the ass a short time later.

After trailer training, the horses got to stand tied at the rail while the trainers came around and checked our knots to make sure they were quick-release. I've used a "Bank Robber's Knot" forever, because the horse can't get loose if they pull back, yet one quick tug by a human will release the knot. It's a knot that is different from the quick-release knots that the others use but the trainers gave me the thumbs up on using it. Thank goodness, because I'm all thumbs at learning knots.

They decided to call it a day after tie training because about half of the members had to go get ready to work the Cattle Baron's Ball.

I was soooo proud of Skeeter. She did an amazing job and held it together even when she was feeling stressed. I couldn't wait to take her home.

Unfortunately, she had other plans. You see, asking her to load into our trailer was One Thing Too Many. My girl was fried. She was tired and had done everything I asked. She surpassed my expectations, but she was D-O-N-E.

After an hour of trying to get her into the trailer using every trick we collectively knew (making the trailer a nice place to rest, bribes, leading her in, driving her in, and even picking up her feet and placing them in the trailer), I decided to take a break and call in reinforcements. It's not that she's afraid of the trailer - that we can work through - it's that she was just over everything. You could see her mule ears grow by the minute. That girl had her stubborn pants firmly in place. The harder we tried to get her in the trailer, the more stubborn she got.

I sent the others off to get ready for the Ball and I called L.E. I assured the others that we'd be okay, that we just needed a break, and that I thought Skeeter would do better with people she was familiar with.

I turned her loose in the round pen and sat to collect myself while waiting on L.E.

The break was exactly what we needed. Well, a break and the magic granola bar L.E. showed up with. I have never been so relieved to see someone in my whole life. I needed some of her special Zen.

She walked over to the round pen with me and you could see Skeeter say, "Thank God it's someone I know!". I put her lead line on, walked her to the trailer, L.E. positioned herself with the magic granola bar in the escape door and that stubborn mare self-loaded like it was her idea. It took less than ten seconds to load Skeeter.

In half an hour we were home and she was back in the pen with the others.

We were both absolutely exhausted. It was a long day full of learning for both of us, and despite her mulishness about getting in the trailer to come home, the day was a great success. I can't wait to do it again next month!

Pre-Posse Worries

Lizzy might not be the purdiest truck, but she'll get the job done.

Skeeter and I start Posse training tomorrow morning. I'm not at all stressed out by riding her in the arena with other horses, but I have been worried about the whole trailering thing. I've pulled a trailer with a horse in it exactly *two* times in my life. Once was with this truck/trailer to take Estes to the Lodge, and the other time was with my friends' big truck/trailer to take Skeeter to Jessica's for training.

There are two parts to my stress about trailering tomorrow:

#1, will Skeeter get in the effing trailer? Remember when we went to Colorado Mustang Days, we had to call in reinforcements to get her and Copper to Denver.

#2, can I get us there safely? Hwy 85 is one pot-holed mess and I am not 100% comfortable driving Jay's truck.

Because I'm a bit stressed, we had a game plan. Jay went with me while I towed the empty trailer to the gas station and got gas. This required me to drive on parts of the same road I'll be driving in the morning. We also had to go to a second gas station to get to an air pump (which didn't work, btw). I got a feel for how the trailer tracks on a dirt road and on pavement. I was feeling pretty good by the time we got home. Since the air pump that we paid for didn't actually put air in the tire we needed, we borrowed L.E.'s air compressor. When I asked to borrow it, she said, "Sure, just back the trailer in here.". I laughed, but attempted it. Luckily, I managed to NOT hit either of the 500 gallon propane tanks in my eighty thousand attempts. Eventually, Jay just took over, backed the trailer in on one try, and we filled our low tire.

I guess that means I'll be practicing trailer backing in the near future (but not today).

The next hurdle we had to get over was putting Skeeter in the trailer. She's been in it before, back when it lived in the pen with them. Heck, she's self-loaded lots and lots of time, but that was on her terms. Jay was willing to help me work with her on loading before he had to leave for work, but then looked in the trailer. Stupid wasps had started building nests in the trailer, which derailed our plan for a bit. I sprayed the nests, then Jay knocked them down for me to stomp the ever-loving-shit out of. I stomped those nests - and the dying wasps within - to dust, then stomped them some more.

I'm lucky that Jay looked up in the trailer, because if I'd tried to load Skeeter and she'd gotten stung, there's no way I'd ever get her back in our trailer again. 

I knew that there was no way Skeeter would load while the trailer stank of wasp spray, so we decided we'd just get up really early tomorrow to work on getting her loaded. Jay went off to work and I went back to stalking watching the EMM in Fort Worth (I love FB live right now).

It's so nice out and I really didn't want to fight with Skeeter in the morning, so I thought I'd give the trailer loading a go. She was doing so very well with her front feet, but wouldn't load her back. I was kind of cussing and thinking the EMM horses get to cheat on their trailer loading, because they get to load into a stock trailer, not a two-horse straight load like we've got.

That grumbling got my little brain a thinkin' and I realized I too could have a stock-type trailer if I just took out the middle divider. I tied Skeets to the outside of the trailer, and started removing the pins holding the divider in. There were a couple that I needed some leverage to get out, so L.E. was kind enough to help me lift the divider enough to take the pressure off the pins. We got the divider out and now the trailer looks HUGE inside.

We fiddled around some more. I introduced Skeeter to the trailer again with both back doors open, because I know it looked different with the divider out and I didn't want her to freak out. She climbed partway in and then backed out. Good enough for me, so I closed one door and tried driving her in while L.E. bribed her from the front with her very favoritest treat on the planet.

Boy, I wish I'd had my camera for that. Skeets would walk her front legs in and then go up on tippy-toes with her back legs to try to reach the granola bars. After we figured out that she was smarter than we are, we changed the doors. I closed the one I was trying to drive her in, and opened the other one. L.E. went to the other window at the front of the trailer and in went Skeeter to get her reward. She stood quietly in the trailer for a minute or two before calmly backing herself out.

I don't think loading her tomorrow is going to be any trouble at all and my stress level has plummeted. As long as I don't have to back the trailer into any tight spaces (or back the trailer at all), and as long as she goes in as calmly as she did today, we're set for tomorrow!