Avandarre in Dressage

After our astounding success with Ava loading in the trailer like a pro one time, and backing out of it with no issues, Ava utterly REFUSED to step foot in it again. She would however, jauntily walk into J's trailer (with center divider up and front doors shut, without a second thought. In fact she WANTED in J's trailer. The ignominy of it!! J's husband offered to sell us his wife's trailer ('though I don't think she knew about it) for pennies on the dollar. I don't think he enjoys his wife's passion. ;) My fantastic hubby, brilliant man, built a ramp out of aluminum and matting that fits on the end of our trailer. So last night we pop it on the trailer and ask Ava to load up. She balked at first when the ramp made noises, and after several minutes of giving it the hair eye-ball she walked on in. I was ecstatic!! I was also convinced it was a one time deal. Heck, she'd already gone in once without it and then balked. Why not this time too? Anyway, ...

I've been feeding Ava a bit of grain in the trailer at night to get her comfy with the trailer. Sunday she wouldn't put both feet in for more than 2 seconds. Monday morning I f'ed her breakfast in the trailer and she put both front feet in and stood there the entire time. Tuesday she tried a back foot but couldn't quite get it in. Wednesday she waltzed right in like it was old hat! Back feet included. Then she stood in the trailer til I asked her to back out. Now I have to buy a green bucket. She follows that bucket wherever I put it. Haha. She's such a chow hound! It's raining today, so I think I'll skip the lesson tonight and pick up again tomorrow night. It's one of those cold rains. Yuck!

Ava and I are moving to a new barn October 1st. We had only planned on staying at this barn for 3 months anyway. Boy has the time flown! My husband and I don't have much money, but my wonderful husband is very handy. He bought a 2 horse bumper pull trailer (no ramp) and fixed it up for us. Where I live a rusted out, nasty, tiny horse trailer normally goes for $1,500. We got ours significantly cheaper than that (if that tells you the shape it was in). Our maiden voyage with the newly fixed up trailer was to the barn to test whether Ava approved of our efforts. An hour and a half later, Ava's verdict was a definite No. We slunk home in a disappointed fog of defeat. This morning I got up blurry eye'd and fed Ava her breakfast in the trailer. Mmmm... Yummy! She put both front feet in and even attempted a back foot, but wasn't quite comfortable enough to set it in the trailer yet. All in all, a very good session. I'll keep feeding her in it, progressively mov...