Moe is a Very Vocal Horse. Wow.

 Last night, after we grained and stalled Moe, we walked out of the barn and as we loaded up into the truck we heard Moe whinny.

Moe is all fight or flight at the moment. He starts to breathe heavier and faster when he is unsure. This was expected. He was taken away from his place of familiarity and inserted into a new herd. After a little hindquarter yielding work, I tried to send him off to my left to see how he would do with lunging signals and a flag. He was not happy about the flag. 

So we will be doing some flag focus work to help him with his lack of security and lack of trust at the moment. Some things are surprising. When I stand at a distance and relax, he is coming to me which was not expected because of the fresh trust issues. 

He has all the right in the world to have trust issues right now and we talked about this before we made the commitment to Moe. Another shock, Howdy was relaxed! I mean, head lowered, eyes blinking slowly like he's about to sleep, ears relaxed and focused on us, and when Moe squealed at Howdy's mouthy affection (which is funny because Moe is mouthy too), Howdy jumped back instead of puffing his chest at Moe and trying to jump on his neck to show dominance.

Then, when we finished the groundwork with Moe, I put him on the tie-block at the wall of reflection while I walked Howdy out to pasture. Moe loudly whinnied and his cries were echoing through the hills. Moe has a set of lungs on him! There's no question when Moe feels he is being abandoned. 

Maybe at one time Howdy was the worst horse someone has ever seen in their 24 years of equine experience. He has grown since then and he is gaining confidence every year. We're still not going to take any chances with the boys and Moe will spend quite a bit of time getting used to his new home before we try putting him out with the rest of the herd. 

Tomorrow is going to be another day of groundwork in the arena so he understands the flag and all the new noises are a part of the everyday activity in our barn. I'm excited to see how he rides when the tractor is fired up and going through the barn. Howdy gave me all kinds of things to be proud of today. He handled the introduction to Moe like a champ. This may be easier than we thought. We will see. We're not holding our breath and we're taking our time.

There's no need to rush. Going for a ride? That's going to be different.