I woke up with a start and once dressed, went to see him. Rajmani had slept well and was happy to get his breakfast. Nothing had happened during the night, at least nothing bad. I had half expected him to jump out of his paddock or kick down the fence or injure himself, but he had done nothing of that sort. I slowly relaxed a bit. I decided to leave him be till afternoon, so he could settle and meet the others behind the safety of the fence.
Once the others were turned lose, they all went to meet him. One after the other, put their nose through the fence to check out the newcomer. Some of the mares squealed at him, some pinned back their ears. But generally, all was well. I left two other horses inside another paddock, so he would not be all alone during the day.
Maybe I tell you a little bit about his new home first. I had put him in the last paddock of a row of paddocks. We don’t have closed stables as I like my horses to see and interact with each other. They are only separated by two iron poles in each direction. Five horses share our big paddock, spending the nights together. The other horses are either alone or in pairs in smaller paddocks. When I say small, they are still around 5×4 meters big, some even bigger. Rajmani’s paddock is 8×4 meters big, so a lot of space for one horse to roam around. During the day, they all are out together on our farm, having loads of space to graze, run and enjoy life. Depending on the season they have a rain water lake on our farm. All our horses love to drink water or splash inside. Some will even lay down in the water or depending on how much water is there, swim. Our horses share the farm with two cows, chicken and four dogs. The cows are grazing alongside with them.
In the afternoon I decided to leave him and another horse together in the big paddock where they could run around and had enough space to get out of each other’s reach if necessary.
I put him inside first, then brought Dhulika, one of my mares. Dhulika was on heat and clearly had an interest in him. But Rajmani not in her. Both kind of stood inside the paddock without anything happening. I decided to add Madhvi to see if this would increase the action a bit. It did not, at least not much. Madhvi pinned her ears at him, every time he looked in her direction but both of them kept a polite distance. I had put some roughage and Madhvi went to eat while Rajmani wandered around a bit, smelling at some poo and checking out each corner and part.
After a while I went inside and put the knot halter on to do a bit of work with him.
I checked him out working with the triangle of the pylons, going for right and left turns. He turned well towards the right but less so towards the left. He was distinctively a right-handed horse which was also indicated by his mane falling to the right. This does not always hold true, but in most cases it does.
We then proceeded into my circle, which has some soft pole laying there for the horse to go in-between them. First, I led him which went okay. His stops were not that good and he sometimes refused to follow, but he paid more attention that yesterday. In one corner I have a little tree trunk my horses need to step over. That is usually a bit difficult for horses doing it for the first time. I showed it to him and led him over it. He sniffed it and was impressed but after some thinking, stepped awkwardly over it. Another horse which never had to navigate difficult terrain I thought.
One of the things I really want my young horses to do and learn is to run around on difficult terrain. The more the better. They have full turn-out, spending their days on the farm which is rocky, has an incline and lots of stuff to navigate around. There are some low walls to run around or jump over, there is a seasonal lake and there are bushes and trees, the ground is not level and has holes. It is the perfect school to prepare them for a life as trail horse. All my youngsters are very sure-footed and can navigate all kinds of obstacles with ease.
On the other hand, a lot of the horses we buy, have never had this kind of exposure. They lack confidence over small obstacles and often don’t know how to sort their feet.
Then I tried to give him more rein in order to lead him from a distance. He immediately tried to come inside by turning towards me. I sent him back outside but he stood still and refused to continue.
I sent him out with more energy and he shot forward only to stop and turn again after another quarter round.
Same on the other hand. I had a lot of work at hand.
I went back to lead him on a shorter rope, working on the transitions between walk and stop. When he did that more or less satisfactorily, I called it a day and put him back in his stable. I now knew what I could expect in working with him.