Poor Ruby should not have balked when asked to load yesterday. Before unloading after our ride yesterday, I knew that we were going to do some training today. Gotta nip this in the bud before it turns into a huge problem.
We practiced sending again before approaching the trailer. When I attempted to send her into the trailer, she tried some minor evading but nothing too bad - definitely not crazy or dangerous. I started tapping her left hip when she was lined up with the trailer, and she popped her front feet up there. She paused so I started tapping again and she loaded right up. I didn't need the crop again. I unloaded her, loaded her, unloaded her, loaded her - you get the picture. After a few repetitions, I tied her in the trailer with her hay net and went to clean her stall. She took turns tied to the barn with no hay or tied in the trailer with hay while I did chores. By the time we were done, there was no hesitation at all when asked to load. I think we'll do this once a week for a while to make sure that we have no more issues.
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