This Thanksgiving, one thing for which I am thankful is the new place I moved JT. He's been there about a month and a half and things are working out great. The lady who owns the place, Traci, is very awesome. Here's some examples of how I know that moving him there was the right decision.
#1: About a month ago it was a rainy day with wind and temps in the 40s. Traci called me in the morning to say that she noticed JT was shivering and the other horses weren't so she was worried. She took him out of the pasture and put him in the paddock with big ol' pile of hay in the shelter in there so he could get out of the rain and still eat. That night after work I bought a waterproof turnout sheet and brought it over. I was so thankful that she had called me; who knows how many times that used to happen and I just didn't know about it.
#2: When I moved JT there I brought along his various supplements and a bag of his ration balancer that was about 2/3 full. I gave her a plastic scooper that I had marked with a Sharpie for 1.25 pounds of the RB. She took the bag of RB, the scooper, and his various supplements and measured one day at a time into a separate container (mixing each time) until she had gone through the whole bag of RB. That way, she could just fill the scoop to the line I marked. I guess in the long run that is a time-saver for her, but I was still impressed. I also know for sure that he's getting the right amount of food now.
#3: She noticed that he's at the bottom of the herd order and that the other horses would often herd him away from his pile of hay. He's also a slower eater than the others. At mealtimes she took to putting him in the yard on the other side of the fence from the other horses so he could still be near them but not get chased away from his food. Afterward she would just let him stay in the yard and eat grass. Her whole property is fenced in except for the driveway which she can close off by tying a rope across it, but he always stayed by the other horses anyway. The rope across the driveway was just a safeguard. When the power company's meter reader complained that he couldn't get to her house if the rope was tied across the driveway, she decided to fence off a pasture just for JT amid the pine trees. Now he has his own separate area alongside the pasture where the other horses spend most of their time, but he is still on the other side of the fence from them so he can't get pushed around or herded away from his food.
#4: The trails are awesome. JT loves going out! His ears are forward the whole time, he does his perky I-think-I-am-a-warmblood walk, and I can just feel his energy when we come to an open space and he wants to canter. It makes me so happy to see him gung-ho like that on a trail ride, and because it's no longer necessary to ride on the side of the road to get to the trails, I feel much safer and enjoy it way more. I actually want to go riding on nice days now.
#5: Last weekend my friend who is still at the old barn went there Saturday morning to get ready to teach a beginner lesson. She found her horse with a hoof mark on his side and a fresh 2” cut on his hip. Neither one of us has any doubt that his injuries were inflicted by the alpha bully gelding, and my friend was furious. Her horse is now separated from the bully, and I felt very sorry that it happened but I was soooo thankful that it wasn't my horse. If JT was still there, it very well could have been him instead.
