What an Ordeal

We went for a trail ride yesterday which was AWESOME. I finally made it to WM park which was closed last time I tried. This time I scrutinized the website and didn't see anything about closures so off we went. The ride was great. We went around 8 miles, didn't see a single person, did a little swimming. Super fun.

The drive home was not super fun. About halfway home on the interstate the trailer started wobbling and I looked in the rear view mirror to see pieces of tire flying. A couple people frantically waved at me from their vehicles (which I appreciated! I'm always nervous I won't notice if I blow a tire - but it was super obvious). I made it almost another mile to an off ramp and parked on the side and got to work changing out the tire.

Giant wheat field

I was set for this - I am an independent horse woman and I can change a tire! Except, it was super hot. Like not in the 90s anymore, but it was at least 86 degrees with no shade. And I couldn't get the last dang lug nut undone and all these guys in jacked up trucks were driving past me without stopping while I was kicking and throwing all my body weight on the stupid tire iron to get it to turn.

My dork blowing bubbles

I was about to give up and throw the stupid tire iron away but finally got it off. Of course at that moment a guy in a little Ford Focus pulled over (car twins!) and asked if I was ok or needed help. At that point I was covered in dirt from getting on the ground and absolutely dripping sweat - it was basically a river of sweat at that point - and I desperately needed a water break so I said sure and he helpfully put my spare tire on for me. He said that I'd already done the hard part, which I agreed, he'd shown up just a couple minutes too late! I was so thankful for him stopping, I really, really appreciated it!

I thought these plants looked kinda prehistoric lol

I cheerfully got back on the interstate only to look in the rear view at a giant cloud of smoke coming from the spare tire. I am equipped to change a tire, I am not equipped to deal with a fire on the horse trailer! I quickly pulled to the side of the highway and was at a loss for what to do. I called Les Schwab since they have a roadside tire repair thing, but they charge a $48 service charge, then $105 an hour, plus the amount that the tire costs. And I had 30 minutes to decide if I needed them because they don't take calls after 5pm (of course, right when they are needed) and they were worried I had something wrong with my trailer axle since the spare wasn't working.

Pickin' blackberries

I ended up calling my barn owner because I couldn't think of anyone who would be available and have access to a horse trailer and truck. By some miracle she wasn't working and agreed to come get Jetta so I could figure out what to do. By that point I was starting to have a panic attack - I didn't know how to get my trailer home on 3 tires, AAA wouldn't help me because I didn't have RV coverage and refused to upgrade me because I had a current roadside claim, it was after 5pm, and I needed to unload my horse on the side of a very busy I-5. And my phone was dying. I frantically called the BF who magically was also just getting off work and he drove out.

I am so, so lucky to have great friends and support network!

Jetta is A SAINT. She earned herself so many cookies yesterday - as much as I complain about her I am so lucky to have her. She was the most perfect angel possible and I am so glad I instilled a good trailering ability with her. If your horses don't load well I really, really urge you to teach them (or find someone else to do so!) to self load regardless of the situation and practice on trailers that aren't yours. It is an invaluable skill. Jetta stood perfectly still in the trailer for the 2ish hours that we changed tires and then waited for help. When my BO got there to help, I was so worried. Especially because Jetta had never used a ramp for a trailer. I marched Jetta up to the ramp, she snorted at it, I circled her back and marched her right onto the trailer. Easy peasy (minus the fact that I was literally shaking I was so nervous).

That taken care of, we assessed the situation and decided to try a new tire and see what happened. Of course it was now after 6pm by that point so the only place we could find with my tire in stock was Wal-Mart tire center. My wonderful BF drove over and got the tire only to find that there was a 3 hour waiting time just to take 5 minutes to put the tire on the wheel... he called around and found another tire shop that was still open for another 30 minutes and hightailed it over there across town and they whipped the tire on in under 4 minutes! What an awesome place.

New tire on, it worked perfectly and I was able to get the trailer home safe and sound. What. A. Day. I really hope I never have to do that again.

I am now upgrading my trailering supplies to include a fire extinguisher because who knows when that might come in handy. I'm getting a new spare tire that will actually work. And I will never trailer without my phone charger (and/or possibly a plug-in battery charger) again because if I get stranded without a phone I am screwed. I sat on the side of I-5 for almost 3 hours with not a single person stopping. I get that it's a busy highway, but I was a tiny bit surprised that no one stopped.

If you don't have a TrailerAid I highly, HIGHLY recommend you get one. I can't think of a better $40 spent. Seriously.

Such a lifesaver!

Does anyone else have any trailering supplies they consider a requirement for when they haul horses? And I'm considering getting US Rider coverage since AAA is absolutely worthless. Has anyone used them and what was your experience?

Fixed It

I think I mentioned that one of the things I wanted to fix with Trask is his trailer loading. He is normally fairly good about following you into the trailer, but oftentimes (especially at shows) he likes to put his front feet in and then refuse to budge. Super fun when you just want to go home.

I think self-loading is a really important skill for all horses so I wanted Trask to learn too. It's a lot safer and just a generally good life skill. I've been putting off teaching him this for no reason, though it's more difficult now that the days are so short and I can't exactly practice it in the dark.

Since he goes home soon, I sucked it up and finally put in the work on getting him to self load. I'm really proud of him for figuring it out, especially since half way through working with him I thought it was going to be a bust and I had failed.

Trask is a funny horse. He's very smart and not generally a spooky or reactive horse. But, when he doesn't understand or doesn't like something, he tends to freak out and his brain just stops working and he panics for no reason. He understands pressure, both from the halter and from tapping with a whip. He just can't process it when he's freaking out.

After trying to send him into the trailer multiple times, we kept getting hung up on putting the front feet in the trailer, but he wouldn't put his back feet in. Tapping his butt resulted in him kicking out at the whip, then rearing and rocketing out of the trailer backwards. Obviously not the smartest thing to do, and it resulted in him scraping a good amount of hair off his face when he reared and backed out at the same time (he's very talented).

I was sure we were done at that point. His poor head hurt (luckily didn't need stitches), he wasn't listening to me, just trying to run me over and rear. I was pretty sure I wasn't making any positive progress, so we changed tactics.

Trask is very food motivated. I use this to my advantage since he's a panicky horse, the treats help him refocus and have a positive association. I don't use treats with all horses and I don't use them all the time with Trask.

Now, I led him into the trailer. He stopped again with his front feet in and I tapped him on the shoulder with the whip. Eventually he stepped in the trailer and I gave him a handful of treats, lots of praise, and we just hung out for a while and got lots of pets.

Then I led him in again and repeated the treats and praise. One more time and he seemed to start to understand. The next time I went to lead him in and as he got his front feet in, I stopped and let himself get all the way in. Treats and repeat.

This was the end result:


We did it a few more times, sometimes with treats, sometimes without. He also learned to wait until I asked him to turn around. We will do this again to make sure it's cemented in his little pea brain, but he's a self loading horse now!