Trailer training Maddie

Again, as I have already stated, we don't know what Maddie has been trained to do. We know what she wasn't as it was evident when Kirstin started training her. Maddie was ponied to our house so we weren't sure how she would react to a trailer. The first time Kirstin tried trailering her was a couple of weeks after Maddie arrived at our house. She would not go anywhere near the back of the trailer. So, Kirstin figured that trailering was something that Maddie has not done a lot of. Fast forward a month later, trust has been built between Maddie and Kirstin and look what Maddie did without hesitation...


Maddie followed Kirstin right onto the trailer. That was the easy part. Maddie is getting really good at backing on the ground, but in the trailer was a completely new concept to her. I thought there for a while that she wasn't going to get off the trailer.


Kirstin was really having to cue her to get her to back. Maddie would take a couple of steps and then stop and think about what she was doing.

Looks like Maddie is thinking to herself, "You want me to do what???"

Like this????

Maddie finally made it off the trailer. I was afraid when she got her hind hooves on the ground that she might explode out of the trailer, but she didn't . She finished backing out very quietly. Kirstin loaded her up again, Maddie didn't go on right away, but she decided that Kirstin got her through the first time, so why not.

On another note, we are down to 5 horses of our own. My other daugther was able to find a good home for Summer. Summer never really quite fit in with all of our horses. She was the low man on the totem pole so to speak. We didn't use her much and really needed to decrease our herd size. Summer is going to a fantastic home, where she will be spoiled rotten. We fortunately know the person taking Summer as she graduated with one of our older daugthers. She was looking for a horse that an inexperienced rider could ride and that is Summer.

Maddie

Maddie is really coming along quite nicely. She has her off days as do we, but Kirstin has no problem working her through those days.

At a trot. Maddie goes into a trot quite easily now. She didn't always though. She would be the happiest horse in the world if she could walk everywhere she went.

At a canter. Kirstin has been working up to this. She doesn't stay in a canter for long, but Kirstin has been able to increase the time-we made half a round pen, know let's go a full round pen, etc... Maddie is definitely one of those horses that can not be pushed, she doesn't do anything dangerous, she just gets confused easily. The canter has been slow to come, but Kirstin wants to make sure that Maddie is confident in what she is doing because one of these days Maddie is going to be carrying 2 young girls.

The back. Maddie had no clue how to back in the beginning. Now she backs softly on cue.

Another thing Maddie didn't do real well before Kirstin got a hold of her-picking up her hooves. Maddie now lets Kirstin pick up her hooves. She hasn't perfected it yet, but she is standing more quietly with each day. Maddie is a very sweet horse, who loves to be with people. She will make a wonderful horse for the 2 little girls who are waiting for Kirstin to finish her out.