Sugar and the Trailer

Several years ago, I was lucky enough (or unlucky, depending on your outlook on life) to have known a beautiful buckskin QH named Sugar. She was raised by a friend of mine and was 10 years old at the time I was in her care and tutelage.

Sugar had a few little idiosyncrasies. In her 10 years with my friend, Sugar had trained the friend quite well. Sugar wouldn't canter; Sugar wouldn't go more that a mile away from home without a major protest and Sugar wouldn't get in a trailer for anything.

Now this hadn't been much of a problem until Sugar became my horse and I decided that I wanted to take her out and do some trail riding. I had watched the John Lyons tapes, read numerous training books and I had access to one of those Internet email groups for natural horsemanship. I was ready to tackle this minor flaw in her capabilities. I was quite sure that I would prevail because after all I had all this knowledge and I was smarter than a horse. I could figure it out!

My friend had tried loading her into a borrowed 2-horse trailer several months earlier so she could move her the 10 miles to my place. Sugar refused to load and after an hour and a half my friend rode her the 10 miles. She said that it would be the easier and by far the fastest way to get Sugar to my place.

I thought that a larger trailer would do the trick so I hooked up my neighbor's nice big, wide-open 4-horse stock trailer and parked in the yard. I put some beautiful alfalfa hay in the manger. Sugar was a food-aholic horse so I was sure the hay would be sufficient to help with the loading. After about 10 minutes of gentle urging and ruffling of the hay, Sugar stepped in very carefully one foot at a time. She was hungry and the hay was working. Once she got the last foot up she walked right up to the manger and started eating.

I was feeling pretty smug and my head was getting so big that I forgot what all that advice had said about small steps at a time. You know, step them up and then step them right back down several times before asking them to come clear in. And then back them out and bring them back in several times before ever trying to tie them.

Picture this: I'm grinning from ear to ear and praising her as I turn around with the rope and start tying the lead rope. Just as I start pulling the rope through, the sound of the rope against the metal sets off that flight instinct. In about 3 seconds flat the horse is gone and I'm not grinning anymore.

Okay, I just figured we would start over. It would probably take a little longer to entice her in again but it would happen. I was smarter than a horse. I could figure it out!

I went and procured a coffee can of grain. That would definitely speed the process up because she would almost kill for grain. Consequently I was doing the over-confident thing again.

I never realized how long those necks and tongues could stretch! Okay, here we go - one front foot came up followed by the other front foot. I gave her a taste and then backed her out. We repeated the process a couple of times and then I was going to wait for the back feet to come up. I waited. I shook the can, wafted it in front of her nose and then lowered myself to pleading with her. That was as far as it went!

Neither of those two back feet ever left the ground. That first session went on for 2 hours before I gave up. The next sessions got more elaborate but those two back feet never left the ground and several times I spent about 4 hours trying every trick in the books and tapes and every bit of advice from the email archives that I could find!

All the advice always says to be patient and take the time it takes but that didn't apply with this horse. Sugar was definitely a well-trained horse. She had learned that all she had to do was out-wait the human and her patience was unending.

When it came time for me to move about a year later I had to sell her. Traveling half way across the country was not going to work with her so I advertised her for sale. I received a call from a lady interested in Sugar and I explained that we would have a problem loading her. She wasn't bothered by that as she said she had dealt with problem loaders a lot in her life. She and her dad were horse traders and had a lot of experience.

We set the time for her and her dad to come and get Sugar. Everything was taken care of and it was time to load. They had a huge gooseneck stock trailer and I was thinking that might help. After about 15 minutes the butt strap came out. That didn't work. Sugar pulled back and fought so hard she broke her halter. They backed the trailer into the door of the barn and we closed everything off and built a shute so she only had the trailer to go into. Still, nothing was working. The lady's dad finally said this was a tough one and got out his cattle prod. I was so upset but I realized that they had to get her into the trailer. She took 2 zaps and then on the 3rd one tried to evade the trailer by going up and over the shute. I was standing on the shute screaming in her face and waving my arms to keep her from going over it and hurting herself. She did back off finally and on the 4th zap she jumped into the trailer. The lady jumped right in behind her and her dad shut the door. She tied Sugar in and came out the escape door. Sugar and I were both wrecks. I stood at the side petting her face trying to console her while they gathered up their gear.

This took about an hour and a half and they said that they had never had one that hard to load. After crying for about a half an hour after they left, I swore that I would never buy a horse that wouldn't load in a trailer.

That was 5 years ago and I have gained a lot more experience because I got to work with a good local trainer. Thinking back, I still cannot think of another method or technique that would have worked with her. I feel like Sugar did me a very big favor in the fact that she taught me much humility and that I am not smarter than a horse! Thank you Sugar!

Happy trails,
Trail Riding Sweetheart