It took an hour and a half to load Bliss and Misty on the Horse box this evening. They just didn’t want to get on. I thought that they may not be going to France today. We tried to entice them with herbal treats, their feed but nothing was working. With one person on the lead rope and two behind holding hands and pushing still got us nowhere. A number of times we managed to get Bliss up the ramp with her two front legs in the box, but she wouldn’t go any further, and would just push back making it impossible to stop her getting herself off of the box. Misty wouldn’t even put one foot on the ramp. I had gone to the Veterinaries this morning to get them a mild sedative in case they played up on the journey. I gave them that hoping that it would sedate them, so that they would not realise what was happening to them. I just as well had not bothered, for it hardly touched them. We led Arnie on to the Horse box hoping that the Fillies might follow him up, even with Arnie calling out to them, they wouldn’t follow. Three more people from the Horse box yard came to help and by brute force pushing and pulling from behind we got Bliss into the Box. We thought Misty would follow Bliss straight on, but no way was she having any of it, so we needed to push and pull as with Bliss. It was well gone the Badger feeding time by the time they were on the lorry. Now they are on their way to a complete change of life.
We really did believe that Bliss and Misty being so laid back would go on the Horse box without any problem. You can practice boxing with them, but that can back fire on you as the Horses know what is going to happen to them, and know what the open back of a Horse Box is, and wont even go near it. Or you can try what we did this evening, hoping that not knowing what is was, they would be curios. You just cant tell with Horses.
A couple of years back we had a couple of Horses here for a couple of days. They must have boxed on a number of occasions previously to get here. They were collected from Denbury from a Horse transport company from Newmarket, so there was no way that they could not be collected. I was out when the lorry got here, but by all accounts they would not load. There was only the Driver and one other person here to get them loaded. Under no circumstances would I have let it happen if I had been here, for the Driver whipped the Horses on to the box. It took a long while to load Bliss and Misty, but they were not hurt in doing so.
I may not have told you about Indy, when he was sold earlier in the year. Jim a friend of mine had purchased him. He came to collect Indy in a two horse box. In between the lorry cab and the partition was a gap so that you could go and check the Horses. Indy was like Bliss and Misty not wanting to load. We eventually got him loaded, and as the ramp was lifted all hell let lose. Indy seeing the outside from the cab window decided that that was the way he was going. He tried to jump over the partition breaking a part of it and getting stuck. He broke Jim’s Wife’s nose who was try to stop him from getting over the partition, and finished up in a position that if we were unable to get him back, he would have broken his legs and would have been put down. Indy was eventually released none the worse for the experience, but it was close. Jim came back a few weeks later with a different box. To make sure that it didn’t happen again he was sedated and boxed alright getting back to Jim’s without any problems.
I will let you know when and how Bliss and Misty arrived in France in tomorrows Diary. I must admit it has been very hard to let them go and we will really miss them both. We are all bit choked up that they have gone, but they need to go on from here, to try to do what they have been bred for.