Doing what it takes

 Once Rally made the decision to load her front feet in the trailer, with me in there, it was time to work on sending her in. She did, but gave me her worried/puzzled look. 

I worked on getting her to move further in, but that was all she would give me on the send. 

So I reverted to going in with her; sometimes it is 1 step forward and a step or 2  back. She loaded three quarters of her body again  no back feet. I noticed that she got really worried if I tapped her butt for a go forward cue, so back to the drawing board it was. I worked her on the line, making sure the rope sailed onto her butt until she stopped being anxious about it. Then asked for the send into the trailer again, but only got half her body, and her worried look. So I stepped in again, got her three quarters in again, let her rest a bit then went to swinging the rope at her butt to encourage forward with her back feet. We had to go out and back in several times, but she didn't have big evasions, just not wanting to give that last little bit. Eventually, she raised a back hoof and let her toe rest in the trailer. 

Lots of praise and lovin' up on her, and a couple handfuls of oats, et voila!

By George, I think we got it!

She got free choice on the pan of oats then. 

Since I was up in the angled corner at the front of the trailer, I had to think about how she was going to get out. Would she try to turn around and mash me with her big ole but? Would she get panicky if she couldn't feel the ground with a back foot? 

What I did was take her halter off, stay with her being at liberty in the trailer, then step around in front of her and leave, whereupon she backed quietly out. Good girl, Rally! 

I let her stay in the round pen for a bit and graze and relax, as I want her to know it's a good place to be and that she doesn't get to go back to her herd right away after working. 

 Once I can send her all the way in, I will only do this a couple times a week, and get back to working her on giving me her feet and a bunch of other fun things like walking over a tarp, wearing a tarp, and whatever other things I can come up with. Let the fun begin! I may even introduce her to a saddle at some point.