When the appointment Tom and I had arranged for the transport of my mare „Sun in Motion“ came closer I organised everything and prepared my horse to my best ability.
Due to my restricted time in Germany it was always like a long-distance relationship which was probably equally unfulfilling for both of us.
I put on travel boots every day and walked her around the yard in them in order to get used to them.
She was not used to travelling and only ever travelled in a trailer once in her life before. She never received any training to load or unload as this was only required of her once before… When Tom arrived to pick us up he had already driven 460 kilometres and was on the road since 4am so I was hoping for a smooth departure!!
After having a little chat it was time to get going again and life was going to turn serious for Sun!
Tom took Sun to the trailer and I placed myself inside it with some food in order to take over. After 3 minutes Sun was standing inside the trailer. This was exactly what happened the first time I had loaded her – I was SO proud of her! Our future was going to start right NOW!!!!
Tom closed the doors and we were ready to set off.
During the trip we were able to watch her as Tom has installed a camera in his trailer. It is connected to the car via Bluetooth and allows supervision the whole time. As I was unsure of her doing in the back I found this detail rather relaxing!! She was totally relaxed the whole time and it was fun to watch her fight the haynet. At one point she dozed off and got annoyed with the trailer wall whilst we drove over some uneven ground. She promptly put her ears back whilst facing the wall and then carried on ripping hay out of the net. The final turn before our destination she was dozing in a deep deep sleep it seemed and when the corner surprised her she almost didn’t manage to stand straight.
We were crying with laughter in the car!!
After 5 hours we arrived back at Tom and Heike’s Ranch in the northern part of Germany.
She unloaded like she’d be doing it every week and was relaxed around the yard even though she was amongst unknown surroundings and horses.
Tom chose Schneewittchen (German for Snow White) to be her companion for the next days and got her out of the field. Together we walked down to their pasture, which measures a whopping 20 000m². The pasture is fenced off with a new fence system, called ElectroBraid®, so I was assured that she couldn’t escape into the wild. These two horses have never met each other before but we both knew our horses and knew there wouldn’t be an issue so we released them onto the pasture together. Sun was relieved to be able to stretch her legs and started cantering around, soon to be followed by Schneewittchen.
After a little while she seemed pleasantly surprised by the grass and started munching away. Schneewittchen joined in.
There was no aggression, not even ears back at each other. No kicks, bites or fights. They just grazed next to each other as if they’d known each other for years! The same night we went down to check on them and they were still the same. Happily tucked to bed in their pasture.
read more / weiterlesen: 2013-12-30 – trail with Steffi – Ausritt mit Steffi