Indy takes a crack at the trailer

I stalled this weekend. I have had several opportunities to go do stuff with the horses, but kept making excuses or telling myself I needed to do something else first to avoid going out there and accomplishing anything. And I can't even say why. I just could not get motivated to do anything with them. I need someone here to give me a kick in the pants. I seem to have hit a wall. Maybe it's thinking that I have SO MUCH left to do with them all. Like I said before, I think I've bitten off more than I can chew and I may be kidding myself if I think I'll be riding Indy or Skittles this summer.

Anyway, today I finally kicked my own butt and started working with Indy and the trailer. I still have lots of work left with the other three and the trailer as well. The other 3 have all stepped into the trailer all the way, but it's still not with any kind of grace or willingness, and I haven't even attempted to close the divider or the door yet!

Indy is still a rookie at all the 7 Parelli games too, so I had to start with some of those, most specifically the driving game and the squeeze game to prepare her for the trailer. I did TONS of approach and retreat with her without making any new progress with the approach. Finally I used the lead line to wrap around her foot and picked it up and rested it in the trailer. After that, when we approached, she picked her front foot up and started pawing the trailer. I initially took that as progress (maybe it was? Maybe it was displaced emotion??), but she wouldn't move past that. I think she was thinking "she leaves me alone when I put my foot up here like this!" So I stopped and we did more driving and squeeze game for a bit and I led her up and down the driveway a bit as well to work on her leading. Then we went back to the trailer and tried again, but this time I tapped her on her butt once she started pawing and lo and behold, she stepped up. Wow! We backed up and I gave her a few moments to think about that, take a few mouthfuls of grass and tried again. She got up a bit further the next time and even lifted a hind foot, but didn't put it in the trailer. The next 5 or 6 attempts were worse and I was wondering what I was doing wrong. I was starting to get frustrated (we'd been at this for over 2 hours) and so I thought we'd better quit while we're ahead. But I wanted to leave on a good note and so kept at it until she stepped up into the trailer again and then asked her to back out and we called it a day. I think this session was too much about the trailer and not enough about making sure Indy was OK and learning from it. This was evident in my lack of progress after I was trying to get her to step her hind end in. All I cared about was getting her in there. Not about the success of her tries. I really have to work on my patience. Indy did great. Wish I could say the same for me!