Mustang Saga

Wow, that health clinic was fun. Cisco wouldn't load. My bad. I haven't worked with him on loading for probably 3 months, and I knew he had a problem. I think it took a half hour. He finally went in when I put treats in for him. I don't think I could have gotten him in otherwise, short of force. I thought he'd be fine with Tonka in there, but apparently it's not a herd-bound problem, but a trailer fear. Tonka and Bella both loaded right up. I had Scout all ready to go too, but after the fiasco with Cisco, I just didn't want to deal with him. He would have been a handful at the clinic, and it turned out even well-behaved horses were a lot to handle there, due to me being only one person... This is the only picture I took:
You can't really see them in there... I wish I had taken more, this was Bella's first big girl trip, not hauling loose. Really kicking myself now. She rode in the back on the way there, and in the middle on the way back.

I am so impressed with Bella, she was the most well behaved of the three of them at the clinic. And no shutting down today. Cisco and Tonka weren't bad, but Tonka was fidgety (he'd been in the trailer for at least an hour by the time it was his turn) and Cisco is pushy as heck.

I assumed I'd be able to tie them at the trailer but there was no room to do that, so I was one adult with 3 horses to manage. I am so glad my daughter was there to help me. She held horses while others were being worked on. There was another guy there who held Cisco for me for a long time. Very nice of him. Finally I was able to load up Tonka and Bella (Bella again loaded like a pro) and had only Cisco to manage for his brand inspection.

When I got home I gave Scout his strangles vaccine. I wasn't quick enough to get it on the first try when he didn't know what was up, so it became a little bit of a struggle, but finally I just grabbed onto his lip real well and got it done. They sure don't like that tube in the nose. I wouldn't either. Will have to do boosters for the 4 of them in a few weeks. Fun. Seems to me I shouldn't have to boost Tonka, since he did get the strangles vaccine 2 years in a row, but since he didn't have it last year they said I need a booster.

So now my 3 adult mustangs are legal to travel. Yay! I have lifetime brand inspections on the three of them now. Nice to have that out of the way. I just wish you could get a health certificate that lasted longer than 6 months.