A few weeks ago, this was not what I thought I would be writing. I had hoped that I would be saying that Dom and I had made it to Kentucky and were excited to be competing at the Thoroughbred Makeover and achieving my dream of showing at the Kentucky Horse Park. But, unfortunately, that is not the case and Dom and I did not make the trip down to Kentucky.

As I had talked about in my last post, Dom had a trailering incident that left him pretty fearful of going into the trailer, and after returning from the Minnesota State Fair, he still had not overcome that fear. If we had any shot at making the 14-hour trip to Kentucky safely, I knew we were going to need to get Dom comfortable being in the trailer.

So, we worked on trailering every single day, rain or shine, and I took as much time as he needed. Some days we accomplished the goal in 20 minutes, some days it took us two hours. But we started slow again and made our goals for each day really small because to Dom each small step was a really big deal.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Hanneman

The first day did not go as planned. The method I had been using was no longer working, and both he and I were just getting worked up. It had taken us three hours that day and I was feeling absolutely defeated. I was questioning myself as a trainer, but Dom is the first horse that I have had issues with trailering, so working through all of this has been entirely new to me.

After shedding some tears, I finally found another similar method that focused a lot on positive reinforcement, and I thought it could be a good fit for Dom. Dom can be very sensitive and there is a very fine line between when he is just being stubborn or thinks he can’t do something, and when he is scared and gets upset. Although he is 99% of the time calm and level headed, when he does get upset, things can escalate very quickly.

So the next day we worked on pressure and release and eventually, we were able to get one foot in the trailer. Every day we continued practicing until I could tell him to “load up” and he would hop in and I could shut the door without him trying to back out. I was so proud of him, but we still had to trailer somewhere else and see if he would load up again.

I decided to take him to a schooling show at Wrisky Ranch about 30 minutes away and show him in Training Level Test 2, Training Level Test 3, and a trail class in preparation for the Makeover. It took a few tries for us to load into the trailer successfully, but then we were on the road. Dom did amazing at the show! It was both of our first times showing in dressage and we scored just under a 65% in Training Level Test 2 and over 60% in Training Level Test 3 (it was only our third time ever running through that test). He also did great at the trail class and mainly just didn’t want to step up onto a wooden box.

I was so proud of Dom and how far he had come and everyone there supporting us felt we were definitely ready for the competition at the Makeover. However, my concern was still the trailering because when we went to leave, it took us about 30 minutes to an hour to load into the trailer and to get Dom to stay in, but we did it and he remained calm the entire time.

The next few days we practiced going for trailer rides, and the following Saturday it was our big test to see if Dom would be ready to go to travel to Kentucky. Our plan was to split the trip to Kentucky into two days with a stop in Illinois. So we decided to do a trial run the week before we intended to leave by loading Dom up, driving him around on the freeway for six hours, have him spend the night away from home, and then see how he did loading up the next morning.

The long drive went really well! Dom was calm in the trailer even when we encountered a brief thunderstorm and when we stopped at the gas station to refuel. He unloaded great and settled into his new home for the night really well. But one thing I noticed was that when he went to roll, he had an extremely hard time laying down and his hind legs were trembling, which I had never seen before. I hoped that he was just tired from the journey, but also wondered if maybe the stress might have been a bit much for his shivers and/or EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis).

I hoped the next morning would go just as smoothly, but Dom refused to stay in the trailer. I tried everything we had practiced, but he would immediately back out. I gave him a break and tried some mild sedatives, but that didn’t work either. Eventually, with a coordinated effort between me, my husband, and my mom, we were able to get Dom to stay in the trailer after five hours of trying. I was heartbroken, but I knew that even though Dom and I were ready for the competition, he wasn’t ready to make the long journey in the trailer.

Dom and I have developed such an incredible bond over the past year and we trust one another so much, that I know he will try anything for me, even if he is somewhat unsure. I know that I could have forced him to go into the trailer and we would have eventually made it to Kentucky, but as a trainer and a horsewoman that isn’t the type of relationship that I want to have with my horses. Dom has done so much for me over the past year and he has come so far in his training that I would rather continue to build our partnership and trust than selfishly make him do something he isn’t ready for yet.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Hanneman

I don’t think Dom is as fearful of the trailer as he once was, and I think now our next chapter with trailering will be to work on overcoming his stubbornness and to get him to stand in the trailer without backing out. I am also planning to get him tested for EPM again to see if it has gotten any worse and if we might want to start him on some medicine, in case that is part of the problem with trailering. If the problem is one of his neurological conditions, perhaps we can only trailer shorter distances and just need to make more stops in the future if we are ever going to travel somewhere far away.

So instead of focusing on the Makeover, we continued practicing trailering. I spoke with a friend, Tiffany Stauffer, who specializes in liberty training, and she gave me the tip of trying to get Dom to move forward off of parallel pressure from a dressage whip and to teach him to move his hip towards me while on the ground. Also, she encouraged me to teach him at this point that if he goes into the trailer, then all four feet need to stay in until I tell him to back out. We still have more work to do, but I am very happy to say that adding these techniques have been very helpful! Instead of trailering to Kentucky, we trailered to our first off-property trail ride and Dom absolutely thrived!

He navigated tree roots, went over bridges, up and down hills, and went into a river. But the absolute best moment was when it took only five minutes get him loaded into the trailer. In that moment, I knew for certain that I had made the right call for Dom.

As I look back on our journey to the Makeover, it brings tears of joy to my eyes just thinking how far we have come together. When I look at videos of me riding Dom for the first time, I couldn’t even sit his canter without bouncing around. Now, I can sit it and stay glued to the seat. When we first cantered, he couldn’t pick up the correct lead half of the time and he didn’t think he could make a 20-meter circle. Now we are working towards a 15-meter circle and have started practicing simple lead changes. I had never ridden dressage before I bought Dom, but now I have shown in Training Level on a horse that I trained and have aspirations to get a bronze medal someday. Dom didn’t have much for lateral movement when we started, but now he can leg yield, side pass, and pivot on the hindquarters/forehand. He can also back in a straight line, back in an L-shape, weave forwards and backwards, walk/trot over a tarp, walk in rivers, walk/trot/canter through water, open doors, open gates, be mounted from a mounting block, bench, trailer, truck bed, or car bumper, be ridden through doorways, and he will even let me stand on his back. He has made friends with cows, goats, dogs, cats, and sheep, and has been to large events like the Minnesota Horse Expo and the Minnesota State Fair where he represented the Thoroughbred breed.

He has become the all-around rockstar of horse that I knew he could be and I swear everyday my love for this horse just grows even more. My goal when starting the Thoroughbred Makeover was to show how smart and talented Thoroughbreds can be and to educate the people in my area about the breed to show people that Thoroughbreds can make great partners for people even in the Upper Midwest. With everything we have done over the past year, I think we have accomplished that goal with flying colors. The Thoroughbred is an amazing breed with the biggest heart. They are intelligent and versatile athletes that will give their all at everything they do.  But for me, the best part of this entire experience has been the relationship I have developed with Dom. I have gained a riding partner for life and I am so excited for all that we will accomplish in the many years to come.

Dom and I hope all of the competitors at the Thoroughbred Makeover had the best time this past week and thank you all for following along on this journey with us! This is only the beginning and I know the best is yet to come!

The Jockey Club supports many aftercare initiatives including the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, the only accrediting body in aftercare, and Thoroughbred Incentive Program (T.I.P.), which encourages the retraining of Thoroughbreds into other disciplines upon completion of careers. View all of the initiatives supported by The Jockey Club.