Readers may remember that Nox does not load easily into a trailer. Nox was moved around plenty of times in his racehorse life, and Penny has a very large and bright horse trailer, so I would have thought this wouldn't be a problem. However, he refused to get into the trailer when I wanted to move him to Penny's farm a few years ago. After an hour of fighting with him when he was supposed to be on strict stall rest, we finally just walked him down the side of the road the mile and half to the new place. And then, when he had the terrible nosebleed and we had to rush him to the equine hospital, the vet had to sedate him so we could push him onto the trailer while he was too spaced out to refuse. Nox did get on the trailer without any drama to come home from the hospital, but I think that was more about escaping the discomfort of being poked and prodded than a willingness to load nicely.
I want him to trailer well, so I decided that we have a few weeks to do some training and by June, he should be good to go. Penny and I wanted to avoid a fight if possible, so last weekend we just put a bucket of grain in the trailer and just let Nox get as close as he wanted. No pressure, no fight, just yummy grain in a harmless trailer. He refused to get all the way in, but I was happy that he at least put his head inside. I thought, sure, this might take a few weeks, but we'll get there.
Today, Penny's son Brooks, who is a bona fide horse whisperer, just grabbed Nox's lead rope and told him to "knock it off" when Nox balked at the trailer entrance and did this:
What?! He stepped onto that trailer like he's done it every day of his life! I am happy to delegate that part of his training out and so Brooks will be loading Nox onto the trailer a few times a week for the next few weeks.
I'll be documenting the construction happening here at our place when the work gets started, so stay tuned!
