Finally, with a week of delay, Rajmani was due today. I was excited and had spent the last week mentally preparing everything. Which stable would I put him in, which horses would be his new neighbors, and how would I go about his integration in our herd.
My friend had wanted to send him the previous week, but the truck in their stable had broken down and they had to postpone. So, I had spent the week worrying that she might change her mind and hoping she would. Finally, on Monday, she had texted me, that they planned to send him on Wednesday to us.
In the morning she texted me some photos of him on the truck so I knew that he was on the way. Coming from Gujerat, I calculated that he would take around 4 hours to reach.
Again, I spent my morning peering outside the window and straining my ears to hear the truck arriving.
Around noon I got a phone call and was informed, that they were outside our gate. I sent the boy to open the gate and show the driver where he could unload the horse. In India, horses are usually transported on trucks or jeeps which have only a short ramp, so they need an elevated place so that the horse could be unloaded without him having to jump down. We unloaded Rajmani and I brought him to his new paddock, the last one in the line of seven. It was the biggest and latest we had built.
The other horses were outside and Rajmani was now alone. I had filled his water trough and gave him some roughage so he could relax and arrive in his new place. He was not as big as I had thought, black, slightly bleached by the sun with an irregularly cut mane.
His escort left and I was alone with him now. I fed him a piece of sugarcane molasses and made sure, he was relaxed and not in any way agitated. He was clearly looking for company, but he had water and munched away his feed happily.
He had come without anything, no halter, not bridle, no nothing. So, the first thing I did was to find him a fitting halter. I still had an old one which needed repairing which I did and then tried it on him. It fitted. He did not like me to touch his ears or head and started throwing his head around when I came near him with the halter. I was not deterred and put it on anyway. I then left him alone for a bit to prepare lunch and wait for the day to grow a little cooler.
In the afternoon I returned and exchanged his halter with a knot halter. I did not want to take any chances. I had no idea how he would react or how well I could lead him.
I took him out of his paddock and started showing him a bit around. Just in this moment the rest of our horses returned from the fields. I hastily put him back inside and stowed away the others before I took him out again. We then wandered the farm. I let him chose the direction, just controlled his speed. He was nervous and jumpy. He smelled this and that, called out and did not pay me much heed. I tried to stop him at times, change direction or turned him to the other side. He did not react very well. But then he had barely arrived and I knew he would need time to settle a bit. We wandered over the farm and finally he settled enough to munch a bit of grass here and there. I was satisfied and took him back to his stable as it was feeding time. He made contact with Dhanraj and Rashmi in the paddock next to his and generally settled once his food arrived.
I checked on him a few times more in the evening. He was still nervous, but settled down nicely. Nothing which was not to be expected, after all he had changed stable twice in the last month. At least he respected the fence and did not try to jump out or do any stupid things.
I will need to time to arrive and get used to his new place. I am not in a rush, he can have all the time he needs, even though a young horse needs some work, otherwise he will get naughty and restless. So lets see how things will work out during the coming days and weeks.