Well we did it. I got pinecone out to his spring break location. It was probably a lot tougher on me than it was on him. Since I was so nervous about him trailering I went and picked up a sedative for him. It contained lots of Tryptophan, the same stuff that is in turkey and makes you real drowsy. I dosed him up and then waited the two hours for it to start working, then we put him in the trailer. He wasn’t a big fan of the trailer at first. He refused to hop in, until I bribed him with grain. We got the center divider gate closed on his butt, then tied him up and we were loaded. I HATE how noisy trailers are. He was just shifting his weight around and it sounded like he was thrashing about in there. I should have taken a shot of the tryptophan before we left!
The trip was uneventful. I checked back about 1,000 times to see if he was doing okay. He was just gently swaying back and forth in the trailer, seemingly enjoying the ride.
I’m happy that hubby was there and did all the scary parts of loading. I honestly don’t know how I’m ever gonna load by myself. I’ve done it before, lots of times. But my accident just sent me back to square one again. All my confidence in loading is gone. But I’m sure with time it will come back.
When we got to hubby’s grandma’s place all the horses knew what was going on. They all rushed over to the gate to catch a glimpse of what was coming off the trailer. I’m sure to them Piney looked like an alien. He had a thin nylon sheet, his shipping boots, and his halter with fleece noseband. Those horses have had a completely different life than Piney and I’m sure none of them have ever had a sheet on, let alone shipping boots. They were all interested in meeting him, and showing him who the boss was. Piney stayed in a different pen for the night just to let all the horses meet over the fence first.
He was really calm and even my hubby’s uncle commented on how calm he was. it doesn’t really surprise me that he was calm because a) he’s always pretty calm b) he’d had a lot of tryptophan. We feed him some hay and he was happy as could be. Right as we were pulling out of the driveway I looked over and he was trotting through the deep snow, then stopped in a big puddle and started splashing around. I can’ only imagine how dirty he’s going to be in a few months when I pick him up!
Glad he made the trip OK. I hate loading, and trailering, even though I've done a lot of both. Drifter and I need to work on that in April, and maybe that'll help me out too.
ReplyDelete