Moving horses and donkeys

First I want to thank my very good friend Cindy for letting me borrow her horse trailer. Without her the move would still be ongoing!
The first to be loaded up were Houdini and Pewter. Thankfully they just walked right on in to the trailer, unloaded great and as you can see settled in to their new pasture just fine.



The next two to come over were AJ and Doughnut. Much to my surprise Doughnut ( donkey) jumped right into the trailer. AJ took a few minutes but she got in. Yup, they settled in to the pasture as if nothing happened.




The next to come over were Arnold and Cookie. Now Arnold ( red blanket) has always been difficult to load. Before walking to the trailer I asked him to please load up easily as it would make it less stressful for both of us. After a few minutes of coaxing, in he went.

Now Cookie, who I thought would load up quickly, turned out to be a struggle. Finally after 20 or so minutes we got her loaded. They also settled in within minutes.




The distance between the old house and the new house is almost an hour so we were only able to make three trips in one day. The following day it was back to the old house to load up the remaining three. Mike ( pic above) was not having anything to do with loading. It was a flat refusal. Nothing would entice him to walk into the trailer. I tried every trick in the book but alas, nothing was working. My main objective was to make it as less stressful for the animals as possible, but between the driving time from one house to the other, the daylight shorter, well, it came down to pretty much brute force getting him loaded. It actually took four people to basically pick his big donkey butt up and get him in. Talk about exhausted after that.
By the time we arrived here at the new house, poor Mike was sweating and shaking. He was one upset guy! After a few days he finally settled in and was 'talking' to me again.




Cookie ( spotted donkey) happy to be out of the trailer and with her friend Doughnut.




Pearl here was a bit of a challenge, but loaded up fairly nicely.




The last trip of the second day was for Mr. M. Mallow.  Not really knowing how he was at loading, I geared myself up for a good struggle. He was going to have to travel by himself. After putting his halter on, clipping on the lead rope, walking to the trailer and talking with him, there we stood in back of the trailer looking in. I gave him a hug, whispered in his ear, and I walked into the trailer. Him on the outside, me in the inside. Then, he took a step in! Before I knew it both front feet were in! But he backed out quickly. Okay, that's fine. We did it again and again and again. Not wanting to use force, I stepped behind him, cracked the lunge whip behind on the ground towards his back feet and he jumped in! 
Yay, the last of the big animals was loaded! Two days of loading, diving and unloading but it was done. 

Thankfully not one of them got sick or colicked (tummy trouble). Each and every one settled in beautifully.

Tomorrow I will post another chapter of moving animals.

Until next time..................