Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Trailer Incident


I had a "trailer incident" with Divna the other day. Really surprising because both of our horses have always loaded and unloaded with no problem. Perhaps this was because of the cows...


A friend of ours decided to get a couple of cows to raise for food (I could never do that -- I would end up naming the cows and not wanting to butcher them. Our chickens are getting older and the egg production is not what it used to be -- people tell us to make soup out of them, but I just can't do it. I would be a vegetarian if I had to kill my own meat). They were young animals, about 500 pounds each, so he borrowed our horse trailer to transport them to his house.


On Sunday we decided to take The Girls down to Bluhm County Park to ride the trails, and we have to trailer them there now because someone bought the last section of abandoned railroad line and blocked it off so we can no longer ride there (sob!!). We got them both in the trailer, John went in the house to set the alarm and I was in the barn grabbing some last minute item I forgot to pack. I heard a lot of ruckus outside and ran out there, and The Girls were bouncing around in the back of the trailer. They have never done that before....I went up and started talking to them and got them calmed down, but it was really strange. I couldn't really tell what was going on, but it was almost like Divna was crowding Zora, and Zora was trying to keep her away.


We went to the park and just had a really nice ride. There were these beautiful flowers in bloom all over the place -- they were big white flowers growing off of this broad leafed 3-leaved plant that grows very close to the ground. (My friend Dee told me what they were called, but I can't remember what she said -- "Tremblis" or something like that ???) I usually take my camera on trail rides, but did not have it that day -- I was kicking myself for that. The pictures would have been beautiful (the picture above of me and Divna by the trailer is one from a couple of summers ago at Potato Creek State Park -- I just wanted a picture for the post, so I cheated!).


When we would ride the abandoned railroad line all the way to Bluhm County Park we would not go on all of the trails. The ride down there is about 5 miles, so we would always just ride the periphery trails and then head back. We have only ridden the main trails all thru the park a couple of times, and that has been years ago. It is not a park for winter riding -- the trails are just mainly switchbacks. In the winter when the leaves are all gone you can see the trail snaking around and it just doesn't seem to make much sense (it could make you "horse sick" like someone I know from the blogs -- Desert Rose, perhaps???). But when it is leafy, it is a neat ride partly because of the switchbacks and partly because it is pretty hilly for Northwest Indiana. But it was just a really challenging and enjoyable ride. We all loved it.


Then when we went to load The Girls to go home, I made the classic mistake of being too casual about everything. I am so used to Divna loading with no problem, that I walked in, tied the lead rope and turned around to leave the trailer. When I did, I saw that she only had her front feet in the trailer -- her back legs and back end were still outside. So I pushed on her rear end to get her to step in. She was having none of it. She started to pull back. I realized I needed to release that rope, but she had pulled it so tight that I could not get it undone, even though it was a quick release knot. So John jumped in and pulled it loose.


Divna was nerved up, so I walked her a bit around the parking lot to calm her down. It took some coaxing to get her to load. It sort of scared me -- I was afraid she would break her own neck struggling against that lead rope.


John is wondering if they could smell the cows and that is what was causing them to act up this time. I hope I don't have a problem with loading her in the future.

7 comments:

Jeni said...

wow! Sounds like an adventure, but at least you had a great ride.

I'd do trailer work at home -- feed the girls in the trailer if possible.

Pony Girl said...

Scary! My horse loads and trailers really well, but I get really nervous sometimes when I lead him in and tie him, I don't like that feeling of being in that metal box with an 1,100 pound horse! I hope Divna loads okay next time for you, it sounds like a random event.
I can't wait to go on the first trail ride of the season!

Paint Girl said...

Sorry to hear that Divna had a scary trailer moment.
I've had many of those. A couple years ago, after I bought my horse trailer, Fritzy started having issues loading. We would eventually get her loaded, but she would start rearing and freaking out once locked in the front stall. She cut her face up pretty good. My trainer did a test drive with her to see what it could be, she pulled over somewhere and opened up the divider so she could get away from the wall. Come to find out, Fritzy can't be next to the wall of the trailer. She has to be loaded in the 2nd or 3rd stall of my slant load. I think she can't spread her legs out enough to balance when she is in the 1st stall up on the wall. Once we moved her to the 2nd stall and she can spread her legs, she quit freaking out and started loading again with no issues.
Hopefully it was just the cow smell, and all will be well again next time!! Glad she is okay and didn't get hurt!

Unknown said...

I bet it was the cow smell. I'd head over to the car wash.

After you rule that out, then it may just be a temporary unwinding of trailer loading. Been there, done that, had both horses conk their heads/noses as they re-figured it out.

Sounds like a lovely ride!

Laura said...

Scary! At least you guys had a good ride. Hopefully Divna will be ok next time...

I think the flowers might be called trilliums - we have them here too...!

Desert Rose said...

ya..the cow smell was probably the reason...need to clean out the trailer. lady also need to be 2nd or 3rd horse cause she can "scramble" at times. A lot of horses have that issue...Jesse is fine anywhere!

sanjeet said...

it sounds like a random event.
Adsense Alternative