"First" field trip

Today was farrier day. Lyric was able to get her hind wedgies taken off. She still isn't quite right in the right hind but we're making progress. And Sara was super pleased with her front feet. She's getting a nice digital cushion back and looking good! Lyric is slowly getting better about standing still too! Although she did slam her right front foot down too hard after we glued it so she jammed it a bit far onto her foot. 

Anyways, after Sara left it was about 4 pm and I hadn't eaten lunch. I messaged Jen about trailering over there and she said that 5ish worked for them. So... I ate real quick and then I went back out and got Lyric. I kept everything the same so I put the bridle back on and attached the lead rope to the bit and put her halter on over. Then we walked to trailer and I asked her to load. She got half way on, stopped.... and then came off. Okay, no big deal. We tried again and she hesitated but when I lifted the whip up and tapped her once, she went on. Good girl! I patted her bum and she came off, so I immediately grabbed her tail and asked her to get off. Then she stopped halfway on the ramp, so I thought... okay, good, we'll go from here then. And we did. She walked right on and then stood. I patted her bum and then (probably a bit too quickly, but I did wait a moment) put the butt bar up. She was fine and stood. I went up front and praised her and put the lead back on the halter and tied her up. Then I went back to the back and closed up the doors, then back to the front to close the stud door and praise her again. And then we drove to Jen and Kelly's! 

 

We got there and I unloaded her and she got to see the chickens and ducks and some other horses in the pasture. She heard goats but couldn't see them! She was slightly jumpy but honestly did better than I expected. Jen and Kelly and Laura were all there and they all grabbed a pony and we went into the yard and let them eat the good grass. Lyric got to meet the other two RRP horses and Skillet the mustang! She was happy as a clam munching on grass and settled really quickly. Then she got to meet Early, the appy mule! So after we hung out for about 30 minutes I took her back to the trailer to tack up. She was a lot more worried about the goats as she could hear them but not see them, but just got nervous. She pooped and danced a little but wasn't losing her mind. And Jen brought Skillet back to keep her company. I walked her to the arena and got on. And she was perfect. She was honestly more relaxed than she has been at home many times. Ha ha! We walked around for about 10 minutes and then we did two figure 8's at the trot and called it a day. I walked her back to the trailer and untacked her. I thought she took a few mincy steps but she felt good in the arena, so.. I figured maybe she was just a hair tender from having her feet done. 

   

Then Jen took her while I moved the trailer around. That meant I had to turn around in their pasture which meant that the pastured horses got a little animated and started galloping around. Which did NOT help Lyrics stress level. So of course when I went to load her she said no. She was distracted and kept "cheating" by doing things like moving her head around, sniffing the ramp, etc. I managed to get her mostly on a few times but she kept backing out. Kelly was giving me advice but then asked to take over. She said that I was doing well but that Lyric was cheating just enough that she was afraid she would realize that she was able to cheat and it would undo things. Kelly wanted to make sure that didn't happen so... she was a bit more insistent that Lyric not sniff the ramp as a distraction. And she got a little tougher about backing up being allowed. Still no spankings, but... she started asking for the go forward and load again when Lyric started backing, whereas before, we allowed it but them immediately asked again. And it worked. It took probably 15 minutes to get her loaded and Lyric had a few little kick out tantrums first. But we got her on. It was a hair demoralizing, but Jen was sweet and pointed out that the galloping horses and screaming goats were probably not helping. And later Kelly messaged me and told me I was doing a good job and we would get it next time for sure. 

But... we went somewhere!! And we came home! And I didn't cry! And it didn't take 30 or way more minutes to get her loaded and especially to get her loaded to come home. And she was so calm there. And she met chickens and goats and ducks and survived. Yay! I'm calling it a huge win!