Horse decisions

This has been a very up and down week for horse decisions.  A  month ago, I began fostering a 3 1/2 year old Arabian/QH cross named RJ. He's just adorable. He's sweet and follows us around. We took him camping and he didn't even get stressed with his stable mate went to ride and he was left in the pen. I was poised to adopt him but the vet says that his conformation might prevent him from being a good long distance horse, which is what I was going to adopt him for. My plan had been for him to be Maggie's long distance/open horse since it appears that Dixie just doesn't go far and fast.  The news made us really sad as we love this guy so much. He'd be a great pleasure horse, or a TTC horse, but Open NATRC or endurance isn't going to be his cup of tea.  So, the decision was made to swap him out and foster a horse who had more potential for what we wanted to accomplish.  But the more we thought about it, and talked to the head of Bluebonnet, Jennifer Williams, the more we all realized we weren't ready to adopt and the horse we were going to trade for has several potential adoptions applications on him already...and I'm just not ready to make a quick decision.  So, we've decided to keep RJ and keep working with him. If he's still with us in the spring, I'll take him to the TTC at Parrie Haynes if he's ready and when I get ready to ride him, I'll make sure he's well advertised. This horse has the best mind. We just love him. 

Joe Bear continues to hang in there. Some days I really feel like he's screaming at me to let him go, but then other days he runs toward us wanting his bucket of feed. He's very antisocial with the herd now, when he used to be in the middle of things. I'm not sure if it means he's ready to leave us or not, but it's so hard to know when the right time is.  I find myself wishing he'd just lay down on his own and make it easy for me.

If I adopt another horse right now, I will feel obligated to move someone else on.  There isn't a horse in my herd I want to part with (RJ included) Plus, I worry about the stress of adding a new horse to Joe Bear's life. He's taken RJ in stride...they get along great, but his attitude toward life in general makes me wonder if we just need to leave well enough alone for now.