I have wanted to ride in Miller Canyon of the Huachucha Mountains in southern Arizona for a couple of years. I don’t own a truck and trailer so we are limited in our opportunities to ride in different areas. We missed our previous opportunity a few years ago when someone was trailering out from the barn and meeting another group there. Because we were meeting others and couldn’t be late, I could not get Minnie to load quickly enough, so we were left behind. There is something to the wisdom about not loading a horse when you are late or in a hurry.

Minnie has been trailered quite a bit. Last year when we were competing she was loading into a 2 horse straight load trailer with a ramp. She got used to the trailer and was loading reasonably well with 10 minutes of hesitation. However, she had not been asked to hop up into a trailer with no ramp in a few of years. When my friend picked us up, it took us about 10 minutes and some trailer positioning to an area where the jump up onto the trailer wasn’t so high to get loaded.

It was a windy but beautiful day, partly cloudy and cool. The haul was short, we were there within a half an hour or so. Minnie was a little nervous and when she came off the trailer and was a bit fidgety to tack up, but not too bad. She stood still when I pulled her up to a rock to use as a mounting block and off we went. We took second position behind my friends 22 year old Arab endurance gelding. He was totally relaxed and sauntering down the trail and that put Minnie at ease. It is so helpful to have an older and wiser horse take the lead in a situation where everything is new.

It is late autumn in Arizona and the canyon is full of trees with leaves gold, red and rust against the brilliant blue Arizona sky. As we followed the trail along the creek bed there were areas of brilliant green grass. Minnie and I had a couple of discussions about when it is appropriate for her to snatch a mouthful of grass (and not trip). As the trail became steeper she got the point that she had to pay close attention to her footing and not be thinking about grass. She stopped asking about grass as the trail became one that she really had to pay attention to. The first mile or so is a pretty easy climb in Miller Canyon, and I had walked it on foot last year. We came across some hikers with their dogs, then a group of men panning for gold. Both were good food for thought for my “learning to be a trail horse” mare.

On the upper section of trail it gets steeper, there is a section with a lot of short steep ups and downs that weave through trees that are tight to the trail, we had to work as a team and use some of our shoulder in, shoulder out dressage training to avoid scraping my knees. Then there was the upper section, it was a longer uphill with a steep drop off on one side that turned into a steep rocky stair steps section. What a work out for my girl who has been on the flat for most of her life! We were now up above what is known as the Orchard, and just to spice things up for her a bit a pack of red hounds suddenly appeared barking at us on our left. Once past them there was a fairly easy flat section, but still with a lot of bigger rocks and a couple bigger stair steps to navigate.

We came to a steep down hill with a switchback on pretty loose rocks. My friend asked how I was feeling about going further and I took a look over the edge. With evaluating Minnie’s condition and success so far I said, “I think this is enough for her today” and we turned around to head back down. It is a wonderful thing to ride with someone that has awareness of the age, experience and conditioning of their companions horse and takes that all into consideration. Wayne is great to ride with. He is very considerate.

We put Minnie in the front on the way back. Everything we had gone past she was now looking at and having to evaluate with her brain - not relying on the brain of her trusty friend. She was side stepping a bit where the dogs had lunged and barked, but with a little leg direction and reassurance she straightened out and focused on her footing as we entered the most difficult part of the trail, which was the rock peppered stair steps down the steepest part. On the section with the long decline with the drop off she was confident, balanced and walking out.

Crossing the creek was not an issue, she stopped in the middle and eagerly plunged her nose in for a long drink. As we headed down through the close trees her walk was ground covering and relaxed, she knew how to approach all of the close tree areas to keep her gait and we were moving along. Then I saw that she heard something, I felt a tension in her and her ears were pricked ahead on the trail. I mentioned to Wayne that she thought that there is something up ahead. About a minute later three people on horses appeared. Minnie whinnied to them, but stood well while we all gathered for a couple minuted and chatted.

I could hear the wind roaring over the top of the canyon when we headed off again, she resumed her confidant, relaxed, long striding walk. She proved to be so sure footed all the way down the rest of the trail that she didn’t miss a step and I felt completely relaxed. I couldn’t have been more pleased with my girl.

Then we got back to the trailer. We untacked and Wayne’s horse self loaded on. Then a hole in Minnie’s education appeared. She made up her mind that she was not going to jump up into that trailer. We tried basically everything we knew with a over 100 combined years of horse experience between the two of us. An hour of trying went by and the ideas were starting to get a little out there… tie her to the trailer and trot her home… what about the cattle guard… ride her home across county… and then Wayne’s idea was the winner. He backed the trailer up into a berm and she walked right on without having to jump up. Thankfully they had just graded the parking lot so there was a berm to work with.

So Minnie and I have our homework. If I owned a trailer I would go the easy route. I would hook a round pen up to it and feed her in it for a week or two. But, I don’t own a trailer, and I know my horse well enough that I don’t want to fight with her, or bully her about this. She has to change her mind about step up trailers. This is a safety issue, if there was ever a fire here and she had to get on a trailer, it is not optional. It has to be something she agrees to do. We will not be trailering out again until this is fixed.

I have a plan.

To be continued…