I'm beginning to understand

      I had a trailer loading session with Marsan the other night in preparation to go to the gymkhanas.  At first I was almost ready to just forget about loading her, but I stayed at it for awhile and things changed.  I guess the scariest thing to me was that I had to ask her quite firmly to at least try.  Now I see that asking firmly is not making as long let the horse be in charge of the response, it took awhile for this to sink in though. 

       I started the session trying to do some preparation for trailer loading, but it was more like procrastination.  What I mean is that I was doing things that really wouldn't change how Marsan loaded(or didn't load) because I hadn't been consistently preparing over a longer period of time.  I decided to just go to the trailer instead of messing around, but I didn't open it.  I had Marsan do some squeezes between the closed trailer doors and myself.  I also had her stop a few times with z3 beside the trailer doors, she was fine with this too.  After I opened the doors she was a little less keen on doing any squeezes and she kept trying to go around the trailer.  This is when I wanted to drop the session, but at the same time I wanted to keep trying.  My persistant side won out and we kept working on it.  I finally came to the conclusion that I was ready so she could trust in my leadership. 

        As we worked a pattern came about.  I would ask her until she tried, then we'd go away from the trailer and do circles, figure eights, etc.  The closer we got to the trailer the less she would have to do and when were finally arrived before it I would bring her in.  After bringing her in, I'd ask her to try a little more.  So by and by she gave a little more each time and she also got a little calmer.  At this point we had to go to bible study, so I only had ten minutes.  Instead of rushing her so we could meet my timeline I decided to to accept however much she gave me the next time I asked her to try.  Guess she got in stood there on the next try!

        I think I would have been happy even if she hadn't gotten in all the way because I knew I had done the right thing.  I knew that I had helped her to calmly load even though we both started out a little nervous, and that made me feel good.