Sharon Madere and I have been investing time into preparing 2 year olds, Tranquilo and Bailador, for riding in the trailer. We did this over the course of a month or so in several sessions. We first ensured that they were happy to get on and get off. Check. Then we drove 100 feet, unloaded, loaded and quit on that. Next time we drove around the barn. So a couple of minutes drive. Check. Another time we drove a couple of minutes to Sharon’s ‘obstacle playground’ and unloaded there. Walked around the playground, had a snack, loaded back up and drove back to the barn. Check and Check!
Having handled all of that very well we decided the next adventure would be off of the property. So we took the boys to the farm of a friend which was maybe a 10 or 15 minute drive. They both unloaded nicely and were calm in the new environment. No problem! We hung around a bit and then loaded back up and went home. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
A week or so later I heard about a little obstacle challenge competition. We had visions of our wonderful 2 year olds showing off their obstacle skills. It turned out that we weren’t going to be able to get onto the course as there were quite a few people ahead of us and we didn’t have time to stay all day.
Just as well, since apparently THIS amount of new stuff and excitement was just Too Much for poor Quilo who definitely lost his tranquilo ways in this environment. We just walked around with him sometimes doing his giraffe impression, other times, his kite impression. LOL Eventually, Quilo did start to relax a bit and about then we loaded back up and headed home. (Bailador, OTOH, was cool as a cucumber all the way.)
We’ll try another off farm adventure again soon, but this time something a little LESS exciting. I’m confident that with a few off farm adventures under his belt he’ll be back to his usual tranquilo self.