Start As You Mean To Go

That was the the thought Peggy and I came to as we drove home with Roscoe in the trailer yesterday. Of course the debate has been on going for the last month. How would Roscoe be when he came home? Would he still be okay with Comrade? How do we reintroduce him? Well we had two long drives to think about it.
The drive there included a passenger for the trailer. Regalia is a Half Welsh mare that is for sale to a special home.

I met her the morning we left because I had to head home before her arrival. An almost 4hr job interview had burned me out. She is a sweetheart and a bit aloof with strangers. I really liked how she is put together and she has a long forelock. Peggy and I hoped she would warm up to us as the drive went along. Turned out Regalia decided to worry us on the drive. She would not eat the wet hay cubes or drink any water. Peggy even went to the grocery store to buy dark syrup and sweet corn to try and tempt her. No such luck. Every stop we gave her the options, but she continued to refuse. The plus side was that she had a cool travel day and stayed dry. By the second stop I pinched her neck and it responded quickly, so I knew she was still hydrated.
Of course by the second stop the truck was making squealing noises. Seriously, we can't make this trip without technical difficulties. Turned out it was a leaky power steering issue. Between the truck and trying to tempt Regalia, we traveled for 13 hours. By that point, it was a matter of checking in with the foals while Lisa backed the trailer up to the barn to unload Regalia and load Roscoe's stuff. Roscoe was in a new turnout and was focused on the arrival of another mare. We left him to his strutting and went to the house.
It is amazing how time flies when you are talking horses. Peggy bugged out to go to bed since she was the driver. When Lisa asked it I wanted to help put the horses away, it was already 12am. Roscoe was acting the crazy stud due to Regalia and had to have his top door closed. Then we had to herd the mares and foals to the field he came out of. It was cool that the mares continue to remember me and let me play with their babies. They also remember the cookies I tend to keep in my pocket :)
These pictures were taken by Lisa back in June during our visit.

Back at the house we managed to talk another 2 hours, definitely a late night. I managed to get up on time and except for an unexpected distraction I had to text Lisa about, we left close to the planned time. We found a little auto shop to top off the power steering and picked up Peggy's coffee. Just having Roscoe on the trailer, we had a weight lift. He was back. Lisa took awesome care of him, but it just is so much better when he is where he is suppose to be.

The other thing that was a relief was that he ate and drank when we stopped. He also cleaned up the corn that Regalia left behind. Peggy gave him another one later on and he brought me the husk to hold while he plucked bits off of it. Yep our boy was back.

Yum, Corn

He was not 100% sure he was going home and decided to reserve  his judgement until he actually saw home. You know we could be bringing him somewhere else and dropping him again. So at the last stop we hashed out where he would go once we arrived. We decided to take advantage of his travel tiredness and start as we mean to go on and turn him out with Comrade. Larry, bless him, got all the horses shifted so that when we pulled up he could go right out.

Roscoe was so happy to be home. I could barely hold him as we approached the gate. Comrade waited and Roscoe went right at him. We all held our breathe as we waited to see the outcome. They squealed, but it was all normal. Roscoe did nothing out of the ordinary and Comrade was not worried. They trotted around, checking out the place. Rosemary was not happy because we separated the girls completely and she could not check in with him. That was for another day.
So turnout is back to normal, he even was by the girls today. Of course the hot wire had to be plugged in again. Now we will have to see how the riding goes. That was the only thing that did not work out while he was away. With the weather and life in general, Jen was not able to ride Roscoe at all. While he gained some butt muscles, he did lose some back muscle. Time to get him back in work.

Oh and the stabilizer system was totally awesome. The mountain turns were easier to navigate and the horses shifting was muted. The truck stopped and started so much smoother.