Chrome's First Trailer Freak Out - Video

First I'll mention that everyone is okay! And second . . . I got it on video haha.

I decided to work on Chrome's trailer loading since it's such a nice day and I get off work in the afternoon on the weekends. I wanted to get a video so I could show you all what his comfort level is on the trailer since I was asking earlier in the week about this.

So here is a video of us working on loading . . .

Edited to add: I forgot to mention in the beginning of this first video I was spraying iodine on his incisions from his gelding/castration. I included it just to show how awesome he is with being medicated. Everyone I talked to about him (including the vet) was like no don't use the hose, don't medicate, don't pick hay out of the incisions because you'll most likely get kicked . . . I was like, uh, okay. In the video you'll see why I was skeptical LOL. He was totally unconcerned. As I stand back up something by the road startled him. That's like the biggest spook I've seen in a year from him lol. ;D


We worked on more than this video shows, but my batteries died. After I changed the batteries I set the camera back up and got this . . .


Sorry there is no sound. I messed up something in the video editor and didn't feel like going back to fix it after going through all of the effort of uploading it. Here is what happened. This is an older trailer and I had noticed before that one of the old tie rings was broken, but I didn't think much of it because he couldn't cut himself on it where it was placed. Now I'm wishing I'd gotten it cut off lol.

Somehow when I gathered the rope in my hand I must have made a knot in it. Once he was in I dropped the rope because I always just let it feed back out when I ask him to back out of the trailer. I've never had a problem with it before. In the video the knot managed to get hung in the old tie ring when he started to back out (how does this bizarre crap happen??). When he felt the tension in the rope he panicked (we haven't worked on tying in the trailer yet - and no I won't be tying him in a rope halter). I couldn't get the rope loose with his weight on it because I had to pull it toward me to get the knot out of the ring. We finally managed to get him to step forward enough to get the halter off and I eventually managed to get the rope loose while he grazed nearby.

I'll be getting that ring removed ASAP! I didn't want to end the session on a bad note so I worked with him some more. Unfortunately I totally forgot to turn the camera back on. At first I had to click him for every step into the trailer, but within five minutes he was walking on again. I practiced putting very light pressure on his halter until he stepped forward then I would release the pressure and click/treat. I quickly got him stepping forward off the pressure. I've always let him walk on by himself so that was the first time he'd ever felt resistance on the trailer. :( Oh well, no harm done and hopefully since he wasn't hurt this just reinforces his trust in me although I'm sure it didn't help his comfort level on the trailer. Everyone please use this as a reminder to check your trailer carefully for anything your horse can hurt himself on.

I'm hoping this was just us getting all of the bad out of the way right off the bat lol. It shook me up pretty bad, but I'm going to keep working on trailer loading with him (once I have the ring removed), but I'll be more careful with the rope from now on. So, what do you think? He did pretty good considering the circumstances right? And notice at the end how he turned around? He does that in the trailer while it's moving! That's why I have to start tying him, although I'm definitely not looking forward to it now haha!!

Edited to add a video I took a few hours after the above incident . . .


Such a good boy! How many horses totally panic like than and then walk right back on a couple of hours later? I'm so proud of him.