Welcome Joey!

New member of the herd today. Welcome 7 yr old registered Arabian gelding Touch of Mojo, "Joey." He came from a home where he was well loved but had found himself low on the totem pole of late, and as such wasn't getting his share of groceries. He is in his own paddock for now so I can sock the beet pulp and extra goodies to him, but he might make a nice pasture mate for Sheza as he is used to the herd and is pretty gentle. He'd probably be better off with her than trying to join the Blaze-Bandito gang, I think Blaze would boss him pretty hard. Sheza was all mealy-mouthed baby for him, gumming his face and halter. 

He is very calm and sweet--and a little stubborn I discovered! He popped right into the trailer to come home, with the help of a domestic turkey standing behind him and thrumming at the perfect instant--it was really something! THRUM went the turkey and IN the trailer went Joey. Getting out of the trailer, however, didn't prove as easy. He knows how to back up, but for whatever reason decided he was quite comfortable in the trailer and really wasn't interested in backing out. My horses were whinnying of course and he yelled back twice then didn't bother to again which I thought was interesting, especially considering he came from living in a herd. Then again he wasn't fairing the best in the herd so maybe he liked the peace and quiet! He was eating hay most of the ride up, which was funny to see since neither of mine ever eat in the trailer. But yeah, backing out, not gonna happen. I tried every trick I could think of for over an hour, then called his previous owner for any ideas. His problem was he would get to the point of setting a hind foot on the ground and then get scared and surge forward. Thanks to an idea from his old owner I tied the lunge line across the trailer stall so that he couldn't just continually surge forward all the way to the front again. He wasn't panicky, just back back back, surge forward, and repeat. In between times he was mellow and licking and chewing. Just not interested in putting that hind foot down into the "lava" or whatever he thought was happening. Once I blocked half the stall off I pretty much let him figure it out for himself. He tried to go forward, couldn't, took a few tiny steps back, put a hind foot down, surged forward, remembered the rope and stopped. Then slow both hind feet went down. He stood half in half out for a few minutes while I praised him to the heavens, then a little pressure on his lead and he stepped back and all the way out!! Phew! Once out he had eyes only for the endless green grass, and even meeting the other horses wasn't particularly interesting to him, just EATING. 

He's now settled in a paddock on the house side of the property, with Nan and Maizie goats as neighbors and the horses in sight across the property. Looking forward to seeing him fill out and settle in, and who knows what adventures are in store for us!