Hooray for the troops!

We brought out reinforcements for loading day, second try. Randy and Sally, Art and Aaron, Bob and me.

Plan A: Art had suggested making a bank up to the trailer so Red wouldn't have to step into the trailer, so Bob put the trailer on a slope and used the skidsteer to make a nice dirt bank. This made for a smooth walk in. Sally tried first - you'd think you could just walk him in nicely while someone with grain in the trailer teases him with food. Wrong. So I coaxed. Next, Art coaxed. Then we got serious. We took the lead rope through the window in
front and pulled. From behind we made noises, smacked him and finally used a rope around his rear. We got nowhere real fast.

Plan B: We backed the trailer into the loafing shed along the wall and opened the enclosure gate. This gave us an opening to the trailer where we could surround him. Pulling from the front with the rope through the window, Randy and Art took a cattle panel and made a squeeze play with it against his rear. He had nowhere else to go. But they had to push with all their might. In the end it worked!

Only a little over an hour and
we were ready to take Red and Sparkler to Spooner

A short wait until Zeke returned from a demonstration and we had the horses out in a pasture with several other horses. First thing Red did was let loose with both hind legs full into the belly of a friendly palomino. Then Red and Sparkler ran in circles, manes and tails flying as if to announce their arrival.

Warning: I've told Zeke how much of a problem Red has been. The bite, the kick, the broken toes. He's pretty confident he'll come around.

Off to Spooner???

We were so impressed with Zeke Zacharias after checking out a horse he had for sale last year, that we put some money down for training. After a long winter wait, we are ready to send both Red and Sparkler off. We were scheduled to do this in April but that didn't work for Zeke. Last Sunday was Mother's Day and Monday is golf day, so this afternoon was our first opportunity to get them to Spooner.

But things didn't go so well... First we loaded Sparkler. That was a walk in the park. Having Sparkler in did not entice Red at all. We tried everything with him but he would not load. Sparkler got really tired of standing in the trailer. After an hour we let her out. Another hour later we gave up. Its more than an hour drive to Spooner, so this will have to wait until Saturday.