natural horsemanship

Belle is now proudly trotting with a saddle on. Okay, proudly may be the wrong word. More like, confusedly. (not a word, but works here). Everytime I work her I've been putting on the saddle, so she gets the idea that it's part of work. Then I walk her around with it, and let her know that she still has to obey me. Then we work on the longe. She was pretty good-- a little confused as to how to trot--she kept turning around and looking at her back, and was a little grumpy and irritated by it, but then she settled in and worked a couple of circles well.
The riding approaches...

Since we're having this discussion on trailer loading, I thought I'd give it a try with Belle, who is just three.

As a foal, I trailed Belle over to a friend's house, to a horse show, back to my house, to another friend's house. She had absolutely no issues with the trailer. But today, after a year's hiatus from the trailer (i just haven't gotten around to it), we tried again.

It wasn't easy.

She didn't seem afraid, just more confused about how to get her feet up inside (it's a step up). She's put one foot in, and then stand there. The first few times she managed to get both feet in, she backed up very quickly, as if the noise had startled her. After a few more tries, she got both front feet on the trailer, and stayed there. I rewarded her with a treat and lots of praise. I tried to repeat it (just to make sure) and again we struggled with the one foot in, three feet out thing.