Introductions

J grabbed a can with grain and a halter and lead rope.

"He's not too bad to catch with grain. The only problem is, he still doesn't really know what grain is, so..."

The bay horse caught easily enough. She led him in to her barn aisle, when he stared anxiously. "I'll put him in a stall and catch Sheba to have in here with him." Sheba had already wandered to the doorway, and she was happy to head in to her own stall, where hay awaited.

J brought the gelding back out and attached him to crossties. "He came with the name Bailey, but that seems silly. I call him Cappy." Cappy looked concerned by the two humans near him in the close confines of the aisle. I looked at him with critical eyes, noting that his hindquarters were rather higher than his withers, his neck rather short, his hind legs slightly cow-y.

As J went to brush him, he set back against the crossties, bent open the eye hooks that fastened the ropes to the wall, and ran out of the barn, trailing the ties alongside.

"He does that sometimes." She grabbed the grain can and hunted him down.

Somehow, the rest of brushing and tacking proceeded uneventfully. She lunged him, where he demonstrated some knowledge of the idea, and behaved rather well except for a few bucks at the canter. J hopped aboard, and rode him around the very small arena area, not much larger than a large round pen. He performed all three gaits fairly quietly, although a bit unbalanced because he was so green.

It was soon my turn to ride. He seemed honest, he understood the basic turn and start and stop cues. He felt very downhill. He bucked a moment when he had the wrong lead, but came down to trot easily and picked it up correctly the next time I urged him to canter. He seemed unhappy to be in the small ring. I was somewhat intrigued, not having had the chance to work with such a greenie entirely by myself, but not overly impressed.

We untacked, and J asked me to help him with loading. He loaded fine with Sheba in the trailer, but J wanted to show him at the fairgrounds to a prospective buyer, and the last time she had had to take Sheba along to get him loaded. He needed to learn to load by himself.

I lead him out to the trailer, chain shank over his nose and a second line attached to the ring under his halter. J put grain in the manger front of the trailer. I worked with him on responding to going forward as soon as I asked. When he seemed to do this well, I lined him up with the trailer and started to walk in.

He pulled back, felt the chain, and threw an unhappy fit that involved mostly walking on his hind legs. I got his focus back, worked on stepping forward when asked again, and lined him up with the trailer.

Repeat.

The third time, he stepped up into the trailer. He shook as hard as I've seen a horse, but he stood, and started eating as I told him what a smart and brave and good good boy he was. J did up the butt bar and I stepped out the side escape door. Cappy shook as he ate. The whole trailer trembled a bit.

I stepped back in, J put down the butt bar, and I asked him to step back, which he did well. I lined him up to go back in, and he climbed right in, still shaking. We let him finish up the grain, and he got turned back out for the evening.

"Let me know how it goes this weekend," I said to J as I was leaving. "If the people are interested in him, that would be great. If not, maybe I'll come look at him again."

Three days later, J called. "He loaded great going to and fro. The people wanted something a little more broke than he is. Did you really want to come try him again?"