Our first report, and one very lucky horse...

Evil_Cookie

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Hi... I think I mentioned that I was taking my youngster to her very first show at the weekend, well it was certainly eventful.

The plan was to hire a 3.5 ton and head to Hartley wood for a non stressful clear round jumping session if she was calm enough when we got there. It was to be her first ridden outing. Anyway, stressful mom was happy with the box by the time we arrived at the yard and parked up, she's quite nervous of driving new vehicles and as I'm under 25 I can't hire one myself, but she really got the hang of it, by the end of the day she was wondering why we ever bothered with a trailer when we had the ponies, lol.
Parked up and went to see the silly one, she was calm and after getting everything ready we started to load up, after a few hesitant attempts she went in and as she seemed quite happy, we closed everything up, giving her a few minutes or so until we started the engine. I stayed with her while the engine was started, just in case she was worried by it. Well she wasn't at first, but out of no where she leapt up and put her legs over the partition. Que me screaming for help, thinking she was going to break a leg, trying to pull her down. She was really panicking by this point and she had managed to push the middle partition out and over away from her (in hindsight I think it hadn't been put in properly as later we couldn't figure how it had given way so easily and you have to pick it up to get it in the slot, luckily for us we didn't know this at the time, I don't know what would have happened if it had stayed put) People on the yard had managed by this time to pull the ramp down and luckily horse managed to get her back end out of the box pulling her legs clear. There was a lot of panicking and checking the horse over, she had been very very lucky, only a little scratch to her muzzle and a tiny bit of hair missing between her front legs and by her left stifle. Big sigh of relief from me and mom, I had been very worried about the horse she had been very worried about me being squished, anyway, we both survived.

After trotting the silly beast up and checking again that she wasn't sore, we set about loading her again, just aiming to get her in and salvage the day in some way, it took a long time, going in and out one step at a time, but after an hour she was happily munching away in the box, with the ramps closed, and the engine going. We made sure that this time the last doors to close were the ones over the ramp so if she looked to escape thats the way she would go and not forward towards the rear door. I also had a short whip with me, I know that she would back of if I growled and pointed at her. I had to growl a couple of times when she was starting tothrow her head and panic, but it was almost like she was looking for reasurance, because she backed of and calmed down straight away and didn't try again. I was so proud of how she trusted me to go back in the box after all that had happened, she's the first horse I've owned that I seem to have a relationship with. We decided that we would try to do a short journey to a local yard that was doing some show jumping, just to give her an outing. I stayed with her while we travelled, reasuring her, she did stress and was very sweaty by the time we arrived, but suprisingly she unloaded really calmly and behaved just like she did at home, not bothered by the other horses, and it is a very busy venue. Trotted her up again to ensure she was still sound and happy, she wasn't even looking stiff. Like I said before, one very very lucky horse. She was so chilled and calm, we tacked up and rode round the collecting ring, had a canter on each rein and a tiny jump, before deciding to call it a day. She felt a tiny bit stiff in canter, but was offering to canter, so wasn't too worried. Got her back to the box and let her chill for a while, she wasn't bothered by anything except the sounds of the horse boxes and trailers arriving and dropping ramps. She loaded first time and we set off, the journey home was uneventful and she even started eating some of her haylage. We left her on the box for a little while when we got back as she was so calm, I even left the grooms area for a little while (didn't dare go further than the door) and she didn't budge. Unloaded really calmly, and seemed a lot more chilled.

It wasn't the day we planned, but I'm really happy how it turned out in the end, she was really trusting me and was so well behaved at the venue. I'm glad we didn't have to jump a round as we could just chill and get used to it. We're going to the same venue in a few weeks time to dressage, so it's good we've been. And hopefully we've conquered the fear of the box. Though funnily enough I read the BHS mag on the way home, there's an article about a horse jumping out of a horse van in the same way she tried to, unnfortunately due to the amount of time he was stuck he suffered fatal injuries, made me cry reading it, I just realised just how lucky we were and I'm not going to travel her in the back of one of those vans alone, as I can't ever trust that she wouldn't do it again. If I'm there at least I can make her back of and calm down. It's definitely changed my view of those boxes as I was planning on purchasing one so we can go to shows without my mom, but now I wouldn't risk it, especially if I was on my own when something like that happened. So aiming to do my c1 test in a few months time, complete change of plan, and means we are going to have to continue hiring the vans for some time, but at least we know now what the dangers are.

Cookies and hot choccie for reading all the way through, just to add, horse is still sound and happy so no adverse affects, but having a massage/back check next week to check for any trauma. Just want all those people with rear facing vans to be aware of what can happen, even with normally calm horses, we were very lucky, but it was very scary, and I keep finding bruises from where she caught me. You certainly forget how dangerous owning and travelling horses can be, luckily I was wearing a hat and gloves the whole time loading.
 

MegaBeast

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Bloomin' 'eck you had a lucky escape. Thank goodness that partition was loose! At least it was uneventful once you arrived... good luck for next time
 
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