When we got to Susan’s to pick up my three newly adopted wild mustangs, we decided to back my trailer into their pen and start feeding in it in hopes that they would learn to “self-load” before I had to head home. Susan had done this successfully with a wild stallion she once had to transport, but while she had weeks in which to acclimate him to the idea, we had only four days.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long before the pinto was going in and out of the trailer, completely unfazed by the high step up that reached nearly to his chest. The other two, however, simply stared longingly at the hay and wouldn’t go in. We gave them only a little hay outside the trailer, hoping that hunger would finally help them to (literally) make the leap, but they weren’t budging. My nerves started to fray as I envisioned the rodeo we could be facing if we couldn’t get the horses to load up on their own.
Picture from the game camera: the brave young Pinto enjoying all the hay to himself.
With only a couple of days to go, we set up a game camera in the trailer, praying that we would see all three venturing in, but footage the next day showed only the pinto enjoying having all that hay to himself. What to do? Thank goodness Susan’s husband Mike came to the rescue by building a ramp out of compacted sand to decrease the tall step into the trailer. Once the ramp was in place, all three mustang horses immediately started going in and out of the trailer with ease – yeah!