Jordan arrived around 4:00 Sunday afternoon. We were very pleased at how he adjusted. He was curious and a bit nervous, but did not snort or whinny. I introduced him to his pasture and his stall progressively. He immediately found the fresh grass and did very well.
The only issue we had was with drinking water. He drank only about a gallon the first night. I rubbed some molasses on his bucket and used treats to get him to lap at the water. In the morning I drove over to his farm and picked up 20 gallons of his old water to help him make the transition. By 10:00 am he had drunk a full half bucket of water. All along he was pooping well and peeing like a racehorse, so we were never that concerned.
I lunged him for about 25 minutes the next morning, stopping to throw ropes all over his body and work on his yielding of the front and back. The hindquarters move over well on both sides, and he backs well. On the off side he will need some work on yielding the forequarters. All in all he looks like a terrific horse with a good head. His off side has the usual stiffness and lack of respect, and his lateral flexion is only so-so. He looks out of the circle a lot but it's easy enough to bump his attention back to me.
I plan to work him twice per day for the foreseeable future. Hopefully I can live up to this!
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