Lucy is my go everywhere, do everything horse. She's the one I pick when we try something new or when we're going in polite company. I call her "my sane horse". She is generally pretty solid.
But.
We almost never trailer out alone. This has not been on purpose. I ride Lucy alone at home all the time, both in the ring and on the trails. We've done 15 mile jaunts around the valley completely by ourselves. I have been really lucky to have lots of pals to ride with since we got the trailer. Lucy's last time trailering out alone was in January of 2021. That was our very first trip off the property. (And if you want to see some pretty epic foreshadowing, go back and read that post.) Everything since then has involved a buddy horse (usually Lilly, sometimes Booger, even Julie's mare, Amira.)
This hasn't really been a problem. After all, we've had plenty of adventures.
However, I have noticed that Lucy seems a little overly attached to Lilly. If we trailer out and Lilly gets out of sight, Lucy will start calling and getting upset. I get it. It's scary to be a prey animal alone in the great big world.
It got a little annoying when we got the new trailer. I had a Hi Tie installed on each side of the rig, but I haven't gotten to utilize them much with Lucy since she gets Very Upset if Lilly is on the other side of the box, out of view. (The sentiment is very one-sided. Lilly doesn't care as long as there's food.) We have practiced this a little bit this year when it was appropriate, but at a clinic or event is not the time to work on my mare's separation anxiety.
When we took Booger and Lilly out to Horseshoe Bend, I got reports that Lucy spent about an hour running around the paddock and whinnying into the abyss, even though Gunner and Felix were home to keep her company.
By comparison, Booger couldn't care less about going places alone. She has trailered several hours from home all by herself. She camps without a buddy. We've trailered out to meet friends all over the place without a second horse in the trailer. In fact, Booger is on the other end of the spectrum. Sometimes I wish she would care just a little bit about having a buddy to ride with. (Nope. She'll just leave them in the dust and never look back. It's beneath her to worry about friends.) I have made her too independent, it seems.
I am very guilty of comparing my two horses to each other. I often joke that my perfect horse would fall somewhere in between Lucy and Booger. Lucy's canter and Booger's trot. Booger's athleticism and Lucy's laid back nature. Booger's bold nature and Lucy's sweet personality. I love both girls in their own way and I honestly cannot pick a favorite (whichever one I'm on that day). However, I do use one mare's strengths to set goals for filling in the other one's training gaps.
One of my goals for 2024 (yes, it's that time of year and I'm already making lists) is to trailer Lucy out alone more often.
As I keep mentioning, I have some time off that I have to use by the end of the year. The week after Thanksgiving, I took Friday off. Mike was down south, traveling for work, and nobody I asked was available to ride. I originally thought about riding Lucy and ponying Booger, but that seemed ambitious and I was feeling lazy.
Instead, I took the opportunity to trailer Lucy up to Horseshoe Bend by herself.
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| This is the field where ride camp was set up in August. We had the whole place to ourselves. |
