From White-Eyed to Willing

Pearl loading easily by the fourth day

It’s so good for me to have an older Fell Pony here to work with because it reminds me to not take for granted all the work I do with my youngstock.  Recently I’ve been working with three-year-old Pearl on trailer loading.  It was gratifying to see her progress from white-eyed to willing.

Pearl of course has loaded into trailers before; she had to to get here!  And she didn’t offer any resistance to being loaded when I met her breeder half-way after I bought her.  Nonetheless, when I knew I needed to take Pearl on a ride in the trailer, I decided to be sure she was willing and able since it had been six months since I’d last asked her to take a ride and we’d only had that one experience together.

On our first day, when we approached the trailer, she started getting concerned.  Her head came up, she started moving away from the trailer as far as the lead rope would allow, and she started showing the whites of her eyes.  I let her stand about six feet away while I went ahead of her into the trailer.  I put a little pressure on the lead rope, asking her to come towards me, and when she shifted her weight the slightest bit, I released the lead rope.  Having established that communication pattern, I got her to approach the trailer a footstep at a time and then sniff it warily.  After several minutes, she stepped up and in.  Clearly she was able to load, but she was not confident about it.

We took a short ride, during which she pawed a lot and spread lots of manure all over the trailer floor.  When it came time to unload, she again was very unconfident, hesitating at the edge of the trailer floor, lowering her head and sniffing and looking at the ground before jumping out of the trailer rather than stepping out and down.  All in all, though, that she loaded and unloaded with as little effort as she did was great news.  The next goal was to get her more confident about it so when we’re in an unfamiliar place, she will hopefully not have second thoughts about trailering.

Pearl unloading more confidently than she did the first day though still with a jump.

The next day we repeated everything just as the day before, and she loaded more quickly with less white showing in her eyes.  The next day the same, except there was less manure in the trailer and no white showing in her eyes.  I took both as a sign that she was a little less concerned about the ride.  The next day she stepped right in after me.  She was still a little hesitant about unloading but much less so.

Since she’d loaded so well, the next day I asked for something a little different.  Instead of me going first, which has some safety disadvantages, I led her to the trailer opening and then asked her to go ahead of me.  I was pleased when she did so without concern.  Then she unloaded the calmest she had yet. And there was a single pile of manure in the trailer, undisturbed. Great feedback!

We’ve now taken a few days off, so I will repeat our little exercise again to see if and how much she regresses so I know how much more work we have to do.  My goal is for her to be not just able to load but to load and unload calmly and without hesitation so that in different circumstances we can trust each other.  So far, so good!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

There are more stories like this one in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.