Super Star!

 Mostly. :) 

I got up early and got stalls done and ponies fed but sadly didn't have time to walk Dan or braid Funny. Oh well! Our "ride time" was 10:14, so my plan was to grab Funny and start loading at 7 am. Success. We ended up hitting the road at 7:12, so... it only took 12 minutes to get her loaded. She wasn't too bad considering she was hauling by herself for the first time in a long while and it was sunrise. She didn't panic when we left either and hauled great! I pulled over at the Aiken exit off 20 at a gas station because I had to pee so bad (and also nervous poo). I wasn't sure how she would do in the trailer, but... I had to go! Sadly there was only one working bathroom and someone was holed up in it and was not willing or able to leave. So I finally gave up and just got back in the truck. She seemed to be fine and wasn't doing anything stupid so.. yay! 

I got to the Vista and ran and peed (and poo-ed) and made it! yay! I got checked in and got her number. Then I went to unload her. She had managed to wrap the lead rope around her throat again! Seriously girl... HOW are you doing that?! She unloaded and was a little bit jumpy but not too bad. I managed to get her groomed and her tail brushed out. I decided that perhaps since we only had 30 minutes, walking her around to help her settle would be best. I decided not to braid due to lack of time and I saw one or two others not braided. I put her bridle on and we went for a walk. She was super! There was no screaming or calling and she was respectful and polite. We went to the warm up area and practiced trotting a few times while we waited our turn. She was snuggly too! 

Then it was her turn and they let us do a practice walk through. She sniffed at the cones with the flowers but wasn't spooky. Well, that's not true. She got a little jumpy and bouncy when the horse in the arena next to our area cantered, but she was still handleable easily. Then it was our turn. She stood nicely for the judge and we walked our triangle politely. Then we did our trot. She was great but on the far side, we sprinted! Which they told us to. And then when we came back to the judge, she got a little sassy and was wiggly. So we did our trot back to the jduge again at the judges request and she was much calmer and straighter. GOOD GIRL! 

I was so proud of her. We then went and untacked and I gave her some cookies and some hay. We decided to walk around a bit and graze and say hi to friends. She was great! No antics and she was polite and curious. 

I had told Danielle that I would come adjust Rusty since I was in Aiken so I decided I should probably load her up so I could grab food before we went to work on Rusty. And... she said NOPE! I managed to get her front feet on the trailer and even up over the ramp and into the trailer, but I could not get her hind feet more than 1/4 the way up the ramp. I was good. I stayed calm.. I didn't get frustrated. I tried clicker training forward steps. She didn't pull back or get loose, but... she just said No. She wasn't scared. So, after about 45 minutes I was starting to get frustrated. I was hungry and so thirsty and hot and sweaty. And she wasn't scared... she just said Nope. So I texted Jacel for back up. A few others had walked by and offered to help, but I had turned them down. Typically it doesn't help. She just gets distracted. But at this point, I thought maybe a tap on the butt wouldn't hurt. Before Jacel answered another friend showed up and offered. So I said sure...  Oh, bad idea!! I wish I hadn't. It started out fine with her tapping Funny on the rump, but that just made Funny back up. And then before I knew what happened... my friend was really getting onto Funny and then ended up physically trying to push Funny onto the trailer. Um... she's a big girl.. it's not gonna happen. Then she took the lead rope and proceeded to try to pull Funny on. Which.. again, you can't pick a fight with her. You're not gonna win! So of course Funny was pulling back... and throwing her head around. All I saw was a big braced brachiocephalic muscle and poll trauma! Ugh. I was desperately trying to figure out how to politely say that this wasn't going to work and while I appreciated the help.. please quit! And then next thing I know they are playing tug of war and then she wrapped the lead rope around the chest bar! Luckily Funny pulled hard enough to unrap it and it didn't break my trailer OR my horse! And Funny got loose. She trotted off a bit and Mackenzie caught her. I went and got her and came back saying loudly "It's okay... I know you're all worked up... let's just calm down and catch our breaths and stop fighting".... hinting... And I guess my friend got the hint and left. Jacel had shown up by this point and offered to try. She and I were on the same page. So she got a bucket of grain and her yearling and we loaded her yearling up first. Funny didn't care. She sniffed his butt but wouldn't get on. So we started the positive reinforcement again and went back to my method. The "You have two options" method. You can walk forward and be rewarded... or you can stay put and have gentle pressure. You cannot go backwards and you can't be rude. We made progress and she at least relaxed but she was still not going on the trailer. Then Jacel had to leave to go coach Courtney but Margaret stayed in the trailer with me and the yearling. I decided after a bit to just start over. So I backed her off and turned her around and we tried again. She still said no, but got half way in. So I threw the lead rope at Margaret and went and stood right behind her. I started lightly kicking her hind feet because those were what wasn't moving. She was stretching as far as she could but she wouldn't move them. So I gently tapped them. And she picked one up and moved it. And I stopped and rewarded her. Then I did the other and she finally took a step. And then I knew she was going... so I started "clapping' my hands on her butt cheeks. Not beating her. Not scaring her. Just... encouraging her. And she went on happily. Yay! And she didn't even try to run back. I got the butt bar up and then we took the yearling off. She fussed a little but not too bad. So then I ran and peed and went to the office to get her ribbon and score sheet.

She got 5th out of 9 horses. A pretty pink ribbon to match her fancy browband. BUT... she scored a 79.4! A qualifying score was a 72. The top 5 horses were so closely scored that there was only about 1.5 pts between her and first. She scored an 8 on everything but her walk which was a 7.7. I think had I marched her a bit more, her walk would have scored better, but oh well. I'm still such a proud momma! She held her own! And she was so good. Aside from loading. ;) 

We hauled to Danielles barn and I told Danielle that while I appreciated her being offered a stall there was NO WAY I was getting her off the trailer before we got home. Ha ha. She had her fan and it was a little overcast. To be honest, it was probably as hot and sweaty in the barn. I was dripping! And bless her, she didn't fuss or fret at all. I don't know if she was tired or mortified or terrified or just realized she had been naughty enough, but she sat in the trailer for 1.5 hrs without making a peep. I kind of wondered if I had killed her! hee hee. She was fine and gave me a look like "thanks Momma.. I'm sorry, let's go home now". So we did. She unloaded fine and kind of posed for her ribbon photo. Then she got a good long drink (thank goodness) and went and ate some grass! I let her and the others out for a good 30 minutes while I grazed Dan and then she stayed out while I cleaned their 3 stalls and was grazing. Then they came in for dinner. I was so tempted to leave her out since she had been hauling all day. But Dan needed company and I thought she might appreciate the stall and a snooze, so I left her in for the night. She's been munching on hay, so yay!

She will get pulsed tomorrow by Peri hopefully and then we may practice some trailer loading. We may not. We'll see. She may get tomorrow off after her big day. But we'll definitely be working on our trailer loading skills.