Getting loaded

No, not with beverages!
It is high time miss Josie learned to load in the trailer.
Shayla gave me a hand, (so I could take photos!)
We wanted this to be a good experience, considering that the only time she has ever been in a trailer was when we weaned her and hauled her 5 hours to her new home here. So we took our time. The first day, we were happy with just consistently loading her head and neck.

Of course, she did test her limits.....

Overall, the first lesson went very well. 

The next day, we picked up where we left off, but added a little more pressure with me clucking to her from behind; every time she even thought about lifting a foot she was rewarded with release of pressure. Within minutes, she hopped right in; I had thought she would just load one foot at a time, but she went in all the way.  Please ignore the frozen poo in the trailer! Need warmer weather to clean it out.

And looked quite proud of herself too.

She unloaded like a pro too, no hesitation.

She will get loaded a few more times this week, and once spring hits I'll take her for a few little rides. I think it's a good idea to teach colts to load before you need to; in our case since we live on a potential flood plain you never know when you have to load up in a hurry.