Dear Horse World, It's Tik Maynard: Master Trailering with Trust and Respect

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Most horse owners don't admit
it, but more than half of us

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struggle with trailer loading.

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It's stressful, sometimes dangerous, and
in an emergency it can be terrifying.

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That's why NF Plus partnered with Horseman
bestselling author and behavior expert

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tick Maynard, to create Trailering 1
0 1 and common trailering problems.

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This masterclass has now been
updated with four case studies.

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That follow riders working through
their trailering challenges alongside

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tick, step by step with 19 videos and
over three and a half hours of content.

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It's one of the most comprehensive
trailering resources available,

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but it's not just about
getting your horse from A to B.

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Tick shows you how to read your horse,
respond with clarity, and create

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calm, confident loading experiences.

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The best part, you can start using
these techniques right away, even

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if you don't have a trailer at home.

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In this episode, you'll hear
the very first video in this.

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Series where tick explains why trust and
respect are the foundation for solving any

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training challenge, not just trailering.

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If you'd like to continue the series
or explore your own personalized

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learning pathway, head to noel floyd
plus.com and use code Dhw for 15%

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off an annual NF plus membership.

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Because a horse that loads quietly isn't
just convenient, it's peace of mind.

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Trailer loading is such a huge topic.

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There's so many variables, um, so many
different situations, so many kinds of

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trailers, so many kinds of forces, so
many kinds of, uh, uh, people, uh, how

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they want to interact with their horse,
how they want to train with their horse.

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That there's no simple 1, 2,
3 step process for teaching

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your horse to trail load.

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What we're gonna try to go through
is, is look at the big picture, look

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at some of the different situations
that are gonna come up, and, um,

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try to empower you to how, how to
figure out these puzzles on your own.

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And that's kind of how I think about a
lot of things with horses as a puzzle.

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Now, before we even get to the trailer, I
want you to think about the relationship

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that you have with your horse.

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Um, you know, we use a lot of
words like trust and respect.

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And, uh, often we don't have definitions,
working definitions for what this

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means for how we relate to our horses.

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You know, if I come home, uh, after a long
day at work and I go upstairs and uh, I,

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I wave to my wife or I, I call to Sinead
and say I'm home and she goes out the,

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uh, out the back door to do something,
or she locks herself in the bedroom.

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You know, I don't have a catching problem.

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I've got a relationship problem,
and a lot of people approach

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horses with that idea of.

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Of I've got a catching problem
or I've got a loading problem.

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Whereas what we really have
is a, a relationship problem.

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When we talk about the word trust
with horses, what that means is

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that we're constantly setting
our horses up for success.

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And even when things happen that
are outside of, uh, you know,

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things that are not our fault,
let's talk about trailer loading.

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With trailer loading.

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There's no 1, 2, 3 step process
that I can take you through.

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Instead, I wanna look at the big picture.

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Uh, there's so many variables.

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With trailer loading.

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There's different kinds of trailers,
different setups with the trailers,

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different situations with how the
trailer, you know, is related to the

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barn or the paddocks or the arena.

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Different kinds of horses, uh,
horses that are high on energy,

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horses that are dull, horses that
are relaxed, horses that are nervous

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or scared or distracted or fearful.

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And you have all those same
kinds of things with people.

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You have people that are nervous,
you have people that are distracted.

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You have people that are in a hurry.

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Uh, what we wanna look at is all
these different variables that

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can happen and try to figure out.

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Why something's happening.

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Before we even get to the trailer, we
want to back up and we want to think

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about our relationship with the horse.

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So many times people think
about the relationship with

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the horse or the problems with
the horse at specific moments.

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You know, somebody might have
trouble catching their horse.

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And the way I like to think
about it is if I come home.

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And I, I'm calling for my wife.

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I say Sinead, I'm home.

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And uh, she goes out the back door
or she goes into the bedroom and

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locks the door and, and does her own
thing and doesn't wanna talk to me.

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I don't have a catching problem.

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I've got a relationship problem,
and it's the same thing with horses.

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A lot of the times when we think we
have a specific problems to do with

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the trailer or to do with catching
or to do with mounting, or to do with

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leading, that's not just particular.

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That moment, that's a whole relationship
problem that we have with the horse.

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What trust is with a horse is that we'll
constantly set up our horse for success,

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even if something is not our fault.

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Even if something is not my fault
and I put my horse in a situation

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where it ends badly, that's on me.

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That's a little bit less that
that horse is gonna trust me.

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If I take my horse into a warmup
arena and there's all kinds of people

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trotting and cantering around, and
some kid on a pony that's outta

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control, runs into me and my horse.

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Even though that might be that, you
know, that Pony's fault or that kid's

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fault or that coach's fault, the horse
I'm riding is still gonna trust me

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and that situation a little bit less.

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And so that's on me to be proactive,
to look ahead, to predict things

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that are gonna happen in the future.

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That's what being a good
horseman is all about.

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It's about preparing for the future,
uh, being able to predict the

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future and getting good at reading
horses what respect is, that's not

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something that a horse gives us.

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That's something that we earn.

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The way that we earn respect is
by using the appropriate amount

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of pressure, the appropriate, uh,
balance between, um, reinforcement,

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um, and, and, and punishment.

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For every situation, it's
about being ready and reading

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our horse in that moment.

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One of the big things to do with trail
loading is that people don't think of

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it often enough as a particular skill.

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People are, are ready to
always go for a lesson.

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They're ready to practice
their shoulder in.

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You know, people take many
lessons, learning flying changes.

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People are going for a lesson two
or three times a week learning how

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to jump or do cross country, or
if you're a western rider, reining

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or cutting or sliding stops.

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We think of these things
as particular skills.

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How often do we go take a
lesson on how to lead our horse?

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How to catch our horse,
how to groom our horse.

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All these things are particular skills
that can be made better and better.

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Just because you are okay at leading your
horse or okay at catching your horse,

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doesn't mean that there's a whole nother
level that we can get better at it.

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With trail loading, it's the same thing.

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Don't just go out and trail load
your horse when you gotta go Some.

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This is a particular skill.

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I want you to think of it as important and
as unique and specialized as shoulder in.

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So you've got this relationship
now, and now I want to go out and

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practice this particular skill.

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Maybe you take a lesson, maybe you watch
a video and don't just make it okay.

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Make it really good.

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Trailer loading is a little bit like
a lot of other things that we do,

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that there has to be a foundation
that we have to build first.

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You know, if you're gonna go out and jump
your horse, you have to have a foundation

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of being able to walk dry and canner.

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A groundwork foundation, being able to
ride into new spaces, into open spaces.

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So before we even start with the
trailer in this course, we're gonna

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back up and we're gonna work on some
specific exercises on the ground.

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Then we're gonna go back and
we're gonna look at the trailer.

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We're gonna sort of identify different
ways that trailers might be oriented

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or how to load a horse into a trailer.

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There's different ways to
take a horse into the trailer.

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We could lead them in.

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We could send them in.

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We could draw them in.

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Sometimes you could use multiple
people, two or three people.

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What we're really trying to do is take
into account how the horse is feeling

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in that moment and not rush through it.

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But to teach things slow and
thoughtfully, slow and thoughtfully is

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always gonna be fast and in a hurry.

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All right.

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One time I, uh, I was helping an
event rider, a close friend of mine.

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She had a, a 5-year-old stallion and.

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She invited me over to her farm to
give her a trailer loading lesson.

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You know, her, her styling was
very well behaved in most respects,

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but he wouldn't go on the trailer.

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And, uh, I, I went over there and I helped
her for about an hour, and I showed her

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some little things and, and I got her to
the point where she could take the horse

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on and off the trailer quite easily.

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And then I left.

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And, and as I left, she, she said to me,
she said, tick, I'm gonna call you out.

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I want you to come out once a week
and I wanna get better at this.

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And I, I said, that's great.

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I didn't hear from her for two months.

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Uh, so I just assumed things were
going well and I saw her at a horse

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show two months later and I said,
how's it going with that, with that

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stallion, with the trailer loading?

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And she said, uh, she
said, it's going well.

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I just gotta go out, you know,
two hours before I have to leave

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to get the horse on the trailer.

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And I thought, geez, two hours.

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It takes you two hours to
get the horse on the trailer.

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And she said, no, no, it just
takes me a couple minutes.

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Like the horse pretty much just walks on.

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And I said, well, if it just takes you
a couple minutes, why are you going out

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there two hours before you have to go?

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And she said, 'cause if I go
out there five minutes before I

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have to go, it takes two hours.

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And this is a great, you know, a great
thing that it shows us is that the

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horse really reads the mindset that
we're in, uh, how prepared we are, how

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relaxed we are, and if we're in a hurry.

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You know it's not gonna go well.

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One of the number one rules of
trail loading is don't trail

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load when you're in a hurry.