"Joey" Bay Gelding Project Horse

We purchased Joey earlier this Summer as a Project Horse for my Wife to ride once brought back into work. I knew the previous owner and was aware that Joey had been out of work (hacking out) for a couple of years.

Joey was then plagued by an abscess followed by both of us getting COVID which delayed properly getting started with him. Since then I have been doing regular ground work with him; and both my Wife and I have started taking him out on his own for about a mile down the road and back from our stables yard in walk and trot (not got anywhere to test out a canter yet and we do not have an arena).

I would describe Joey as having a lovely soft temperament, he stands still to be tacked up / mounted and when passing moving and static cars, vans and the refuse lorry seems not to be fazed by them at all. In addition he responds well to leg and voice commands, he also stops when you want him to stop and will pull into laybys and stand whilst traffic goes past him.

He is however still green and requires a competent rider (not a novice horse in my opinion) to bring him on with a proper plan to build his confidence up, as he spooks without warning at random things like for example lengths of timber propped up against the wall of a house being renovated and can be quite sharp.

At present he is not shod we use hoof boots for the other horse we hack out on and so I purchased a couple of pairs for Joey. He does receive a 5 weekly trim and he is good for the Farrier.

I have not tried to get him on my trailer yet, something I could look to do to answer the question from perspective buyers however at time of writing don't know if he would load easily or not without some practise sessions. Likewise I have only ridden him on his own and not in the company of another horse, albeit he has seen other horses hacking in the opposite direction on the same road and he was not bothered by them at all.

Reason for sale being that both me and my Wife are in our 50's and I just do not have the time to devote to him moving forward (we have other horses on our yard). Joey needs a medium to long term plan as a project horse and on reflection we cannot commit to this at present.

We are in possession of his passport and as stated earlier know the previous owner and where Joey was stabled prior to us purchasing him.

I would also be very interested in rehoming Joey as a companion horse at a reduced price to a good home.