Shipping Whoas

Today I went to pick up the little monster mustang! I was so excited, getting up at 6:30 has never been easier. Getting a truck and trailer was such a hassle, luckily my bro had a suburban with a brake controller and my boyfriend has a coworker who loves mustangs and lent us his trailer! Phew, now I decided on him for a number of reasons. I got him through what's called the TIP program. This means that this mustang is halter broke, can pick up all four feet, and trailer. I decided to go the TIP route because I couldn't find any boarding where I live that had 6' panels and 20x20 stall that the BLM requires. Having him halter and trailer trained made things easier on me as a student. Anyway, here's what I did today:

Haltering, such a curious boy.

He walked right in, new trailer no problem! Until he ran back out and broke out of the halter. Oops! So the next hour was spent with April patiently re-training him for a new trailer. You can't always predict horses' behavior, she said that he loads no problem in their stock trailer. But this one is a slant load and smaller, so clearly a horse-eating monster.

You guys...this is really small

So at this time, the BLM brought April her new TIP horses to train so we had to pause trailer training and put him in time-out. Just kidding, but he did have to wait for the other horses. He clearly did not want to be standing there.

I killed the time by taking pictures of his baby face

Second time is a charm! Well, second half-hour of attempting. He still took some convincing, i.e. rearing and trying to run backwards. April was very kind to him and very black and white: you stopped getting pressured into the trailer if you start going into the trailer. Something he really understood and finally, he made it! 

We made it home! Once on the road, he was very calm. He unloaded beautifully and gently stepped out. I then let him walk it out in the turn-out, so he could stretch his legs after the long haul. But he was so calm, mainly just trying to eat leaves. Here he is looking at the dog in the creek bed (not pictured). I'm excited for what's to come!