This post is Part 2 of Our Long Way Home.
You can find the prologue, and Part 1, here: http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/category/our-long-way-home/
Our Long Way Home – Part 2
The horse mover was to show up Friday around dinner, after the house movers should be gone. In my hopes of preventing any issues with our five horses loading, I had booked a trailer to come at least a week beforehand so we could ‘practice’ with the horses. The guy who delivered our hay each month was very experienced with loading horses and was going to give us lessons with his trailer, and our horses. One of our horses had never been in a trailer before, since she was born on our hobby farm after we had rescued her mother. Two had only been on a trailer a couple of times, when we rescued them. My mare didn’t like trailers a whole lot, so this left us with only one ‘easy’ loader.
Some how the training session for loading the horses never happened. My calls to book the definite time were never returned, until called the day the horses were to be picked up.
By then, it was little too late.
We had also been having issues with the horse mover herself. I had booked her months ahead, tentatively, because once my husband had headed for permanent work to the prairies, we knew we were all going to be following along at some point, hopefully soon. Immediately when I had a definite moving date, I made a solid booking for the move with the horse mover. Since we were moving five horses, it was a full trailer and there would be no need for her to find other horses to fill the trailer to make the trip worth while. I thought we were good to go!
However, about a week before we were to leave, I received a phone call from the horse mover saying she had another job to do, moving 15 horses from the US. Was there any way we could move our horses earlier, so she’d have time to get to the US before it was too late.
Hmmm… no. Seeing as we were heading to a rental property, that had the land for the horses, but not the fences, we’d need that bit of time we had already booked ahead to get the horse fencing up before the horses arrived. It had all been planned, for weeks! We even had the post pounder booked, and the fencing and posts dropped off at the rental property awaiting our arrival. It seemed one thing after another that we had tried to be diligent about, kept unraveling, out of our hands.
She promised to figure some thing out, but pretty much told us we had no choice, she would be moving those 15 horses, and our horses would be sent somewhere in between and we’d just have to trust they would be fine. I wasn’t too happy about this, since I had NO idea where our horses were being sent, but seeing as we had no other way to get our horses half way across the country, we didn’t really have any choice in the matter.
Friday at about dinner time, 30 minutes before she was to show up, right as I was heading to the barn to give the horses their herbal ‘meds’ used to calm them down before loading, she called to say she wouldn’t be there for several hours yet. I know things happen, but this meant she may not arrive until after dark. We hoped, and prayed, that she would some how get there before the sun went down. Our property didn’t have a whole lot of light after dark. Country roads don’t have street lights. Loading inexperienced horses in the dark was not something I was looking forward to, not to mention I felt it was dangerous. I shared my concerns, but again, my hands were tied and there was nothing I could say or do to move things along any quicker. We just had to wait.
Finally she arrived, thankfully before it was dark.
We put Bandit, Joshua’s horse in first. We knew he was an easy loader, and hoped his calm manner would make it easier for the next four horses. Raiah, my mare, loaded up fairly well with a little prodding, into the stall next to Bandit. Then came Nikki, Julia’s pony. She loaded up into the trailer alright, but then wouldn’t’ back up into her stall. Finally, after about 20 minutes of prodding and trying everything from bribery with food, to pushing, she was in.
Next came Mina, Alesia’s mare. The mama of our baby. She would NOT back up for NOTHING into her stall. Finally, we completely opened up the back of the trailer and walked her through another way and after about another 20 minutes she was finally in. Then, came the baby, Lacey. The only one who had never been loaded in her life. She had spent her 4 years of living on our small hobby farm without any knowledge there was more to this world then her little corner of it.
Lacey would NOT, for ANYTHING, put a hoof up onto that metal ramp to get into the trailer. We had saved the largest open ‘box’ stall for her, to make it easy. All she had to do was get into that big box stall, through the great big door in the middle of the trailer, and she’d be in, and they’d all be good to go.
She wasn’t having NONE of it! To her, that clinky, clangy, metal ramp that she had to set her hooves onto to get into that trailer was some sort of a death trap. Even though her mama was up inside the trailer already, and you could just SEE she wanted to be in there with her, she could NOT figure out how to get into that trailer without setting food onto that death trap of a ramp, to get to her mama!
She was SO upset! We tried everything! Bribing with feed, showing her hay, putting a second rope around her rump and pulling, tapping her rump with a whip (gently of course), nothing would convince her to set even one hoof onto that ramp. We were limited as to what we, her owners, could do to help because the horse mover would not allow us to get into, or too near, the trailer. For liability reasons I’m sure, but it made us feel awfully helpless through the whole process.
Finally, Lacey, in wisdom that only Lacey could ever come up with, gave a little buck, and a kick, and LEPT right up over that ramp, and into the trailer! It was like nothing else I had ever seen before.
She made it! She was finally with her mama, and she did it on her own terms without ever touching the ‘death trap’ ramp that she was so afraid of! They were all loaded up and ready to go just as the sky became completely dark. They had been loaded just in time.
Then we loaded up our tack, well… some of it, because although the horse mover had assured me several times beforehand that she could move ALL the horses AND their tack too, suddenly she had no room because of this extra trip she was making to the US. It was becoming more and more frustrating. What could we do with our tack now?! We had no extra room! By this time the house movers were already gone, our own two trailers were already completely full, and we had NO where else to fit saddles, hay and feed. She had even said she could move our hay since we’d need some for the trip, and as soon as the horses arrived, and now we had JUST bought extra hay specifically for THIS trip, that would now have to be left behind. It was very frustrating! On top of everything else we had to do, now we had to figure out how to move the rest of our tack etc. and we’d have to give our hay away. With all the extra expenses we were already incurring with the house, we did NOT have ANY extra to be spending/wasting!