One of my main points of this story is how you can use your head to come up with miniature goals that your foal can handle and deliver to you without failure.

Yesterday Kadence had a vet appointment.  Faced with the choice of leaving Kasino home alone, bringing in an outside horse to be company for Kasino, or load him up and take him with me...guess what I picked?

Kasino had ridden on the trailer about four times already with his dam.  Each time he jumped on right behind her, anxious to never be left.  As Parlay is a good mare and a great loader, I did all of this alone without any help whatsoever.

I really didn't know what to expect when I led him out to the trailer.  I actually only had about 20 minutes, so I decided to devise a plan that would allow me to be a winner no matter what.  (What I did not want was to ask him repeatedly to get on the trailer, him refuse, and me have to quit and leave so that I made my appointment time.)

I began by leading Kasino out of his stall and working with him in the general area of the rear of the trailer's open door.  I was doing normal things with him, such as leading, backing, asking him to lower his head, and putting the rope between his legs.  I asked him to walk to the trailer, drop his head, and then asked him to back away.  I did this several times, inserting large circles in between the requests, and sometimes getting into the trailer myself and sometimes standing outside of it.  I could tell he was interested and not too fearful at all.  But on the other hand, he never offered to jump right in either (I must stress that I NEVER asked him to get in at this point.  I did not want to start any requests that I could not ensure he fulfilled!)  He was interested.  He was unafraid.  That was the extent of it.  I had about 5 minutes left to finish my training and bring in another horse, or put him on the trailer.

I never did ask him to get onto the trailer at home.  Instead I went inside and got Kadence (also a fantastic loader and unloader) and put her onto the trailer while I was holding Kasino (she self loads).  THEN I asked him to get on the trailer.  He obliged in one try.  I backed Kadence off the trailer, tied Kasino in the front slot, closed the divider and petted him, and reloaded Kadence in the second slot.  Mission accomplished, appointment time made!

**I must note here though that this specific set of circumstances only came about because of the vet appointment, his current weaned but not quite weaned status, and Kadence's outstanding controlability and tolerance for Kasino.  Please do not get hurt trying to duplicate this scenario if your criteria are different.

One of my main points of this story is how you can use your head to come up with miniature goals that your foal can handle and deliver to you without failure.  Putting a 500lb foal on a trailer for the first time all alone in 20 minutes or less is not a realistic, safe, or smart goal.  Instead, my goal was to get him to look at the trailer, stand at its door, and lower his head.  THIS was a completely reasonable goal for a foal who has been handled as much as he has.  Based on the results I got, I elected to go forward in the manner I did.  Had the subgoal been achieved differently or with a different attitude, the complete loading did not even have to happen today.

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Foal weaning and foal handling tips for Kasino Kasanova.

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