Restarting Monte, Last Day and Postscript

On the last day that Monte's new owner was here, I showed her how I went about loading Monte in the trailer. He had only been in a trailer once since he was brought home seven plus years ago. When I started to get him ready to load the week before, he was hesitant to load, initially putting his front feet in the trailer then stepping back.

So I just waited on him. Asking him to step up again on a soft lead, put both front feet there and keeping them in the trailer, for several times, was a good start.

When he was good about just keeping his front feet in the trailer, then I would softly touch him on his barrel (I got Monte used to my hand, the poppers on the lead gently swinging up sand touching him, and the flag as well), where the rear cinch would go, in order to get him to bring a rear foot up preparing for a step into the trailer. If you have done your work sacking him out with the flag, this works the best or even use just a stick to extend your reach. This step is often skipped by some and results in a horse's having to jump into the trailer creating nose and anxiety, and we all want a nice calm horse stepping into the trailer without any drama.

Once I had a rear foot step forward, the opposite rear would follow by itself or with another touch on his barrel. Then I could ask for a step into the trailer using a bit of feel on the loose lead rope. Many horse's have issues with backing up in a trailer and having that step down. While this is not a trailer loading article, if Monte wanted to backout on his own without me asking, I let him, and I waited on him to figure out the stepping down business. Soon he was stepping right into the trailer and waiting on me to ask him to back. What we did not video was sending Monte into the trailer, that is standing outside the trailer and using a loose lead, asking him to go forward into the trailer, which he was a champ at. I had worked on trailer loading, prio to Arlene getting here, so by the time we shot the below video, Monte was good and calm at loading. I trailered him to the Mobile Vet clinic, a few days before, for a Coggins blood draw, so the time we got to his new owners last day here, he was just as good as could be loading and unloading.

When the transport rig showed up, Monte stepped right into the slant load and was a gentleman about it. I am going to miss him. He had the kindest eye of any horse and all the visitors to the ranch always gravitated to Monte. He is now at his new home, running around a 10 acre turnout with his new barn mate, a 16 year old mare.