Cinder's Intro to Trail

I'm going to try and catch up a little bit with what's been going on for the past month.  The weekend after  Cinder's first show, she got to go on another adventure. Her breeder bought a boarding barn a little over an hour north of us, that has multiple rings, a nice big round pen, and a little trail course. They had decorated the trail course for Halloween and posted on Facebook.  I messaged KP and asked about hauling in to practice on the course, and she let me know that anytime I want to bring Cin up I'm more than welcome to.

She's also 15.2 now and officially taller than Peebs

Loading up to go, she hesitated for a minute and didn't jump right in like she normally does. I had stopped giving her cookies when loading and I think I need to go back to bribery to help encourage her. When we got to KP's she unloaded well and walked around pretty calmly.  She had lived at the barn for a month or so before I brought her home, so it wasn't totally unfamiliar. I let her play in the indoor arena for a few minutes while KP and I talked and KP and her husband oohed and awwed over her. KP had tried to breed her mom back for a full sibling before gelding her dad, but she didn't take and unfortunately KP had to put her down not too long ago. I had had hoped of getting a family photo, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Zero shits given about the bridge

KP did a little ground work with Cinder, giving me some tips on how to get her to move over and out of my space.  Cin doesn't understand personal space, and loves to get all up and personal on you.  Especially if she's spooked or excited. She's not trying to be bad, she's just super friendly but I need to put the kibosh on it now before she gets too much bigger.

Many shits given about this

 I then took Cin out to the trail course and started by walking her around everything. She didn't like the car wash thing with bones tied to it.  She went right over the poles and cavalletis, even the ones with fake spider webs on them. She went right over the bridge the first time, and was actually fine to stop and stand on it so I could take some pics. They have some large filled tires for the horses to walk over and she didn't understand what to, but tried jumping over them.  We then spent about five minutes working her through the car wash with many, many carrots for rewards.  She did go through it twice, but wasn't happy about it and would only do it for treats. I don't anticipate there ever being something like that on course at a hunter show, but I would like her to get more used to it.

Mare glare on point

 Loading up to go home is when Cinder's red headed maretude made an appearance. She was absolutely not going on the trailer, no way no how. KP had gone into the house to take a nap before work (she works nights) but her husband was around and he came to help.  I had him stand behind Cin with a whip but that almost backfired and she got even more stubborn about getting in. We tried carrots and cookies, but she was so upset she didn't want to eat. I think her brain was fried and she just shut down. We tried for maybe 15 minutes before KP's husband went to grab a boarder for help.  She has a hard to load horse so he was hoping she'd have a couple tricks up her sleeve.  And did she! She clipped a lunge line on Cinder and ran it up in the trailer, and out through the drop down bars in the window. She stood at Cin's hip, had a dressage whip in her hand and basically reeled her in. It still took a few minutes, but it worked. I'll definitely be practicing that at home, and taking a lunge line with us when we haul.