A Brand New Experience: Animal Handling

On Monday, it was confirmed the some of the rescue horses from the ranch would be used in a music video that was being shot on Tuesday. I was asked to haul the horses since I have the truck that can pull the horse trailer while fully loaded. We knew that Tuesday would be crazy, but I don’t think any of us realized how crazy it would really be.

Tuesday morning found Munchkin and I at the ranch earlier than usual – much to Munchkin’s chagrin as a morning person she is not. We still had not heard what time they needed the horses, and they were still deciding which 3 horses we were going to be bringing. Once we got the call, we realized that Munchkin and I need not have arrived so early as they didn’t need the horses until 3:00 pm.

We did some of our normal work on the ranch before catching the horses for the music video. Once the horses were caught, the clean-up began. Munchkin and JJ each worked on getting a horses squeaky clean for the cameras. It was a long process, but they did a great job. The even tougher job was yet to come as now that these horses were clean, they needed to keep them from rolling in the dirt – like the horses normally want to do after a bath. This meant lots of walking and side-tracking of the horses. (The third horse was a mini, and he just needed a really good brushing.)

Finally, the time came to load them on the trailer and hit the road. Upon arrival on the set, we unloaded the horses and waited to be called. After some time, we learned that they were not only running behind but they also decided to change the location of the shoot to across the street. Isabel (the ranch owner) decided it would be easier to just walk the horses over rather than load and unload. Fran and I moved the horse trailer across the street once the horses were over at the new location.

After more waiting and keeping the horses side-tracked, they finally got their shot on set. Unfortunately, there was a horse (or two) on the property adjacent to the set that decided he/she was going to keep calling to our horses which got them stirred up a bit. They weren’t bad, but they didn’t want to stand still. They also wanted to have their own conversation with the other horse(s). In other words, they were just being horses. lol!

To make a long story shorter…. the horses were sent back out of the set until they calmed down. Well, as soon as the other horse stopped calling, they calmed down. Unfortunately, it took them quite some time to call them back onto the set. The additional long wait caused them to be extremely restless, so we all got a bunch of practice being animal handlers on a video set. Munchkin has decided that it isn’t a job that she would want on a full time basis. **grin** They did eventually get the shots they needed, and we made our way back to the ranch in the dark of night. The horses (and people) were glad that the day had finally come to an end.