Returning Home & Safety

My parents and I left Washington on the 24th of July to drive the 2000 miles home to Wisconsin, and spent 4 days in transit. Jobi was a wonderful traveller on the entire trip, and what marked the beginning of it was his complete interest in loading on the trailer. He is not normally a bad horse to load, but he’ll stand at the back of the trailer with the sort of look like, “mom, do I have to?”, and with minimal prodding he will get in. This trip however he never once hesitated to get onto the trailer, almost excitedly, and stand completely still once on. Perhaps I was reading into it too much with the thought that he too was excited to get back home, but who knows.
During our trip, we unfortunately had two flat tires on the trailer the first day, luckily not at the same time because they were both on the same side of the trailer and that would have been a much larger problem. Our first stop overnight in Montana, Jobi was well mannered, but extremely tense. His neck was like a board, head up and very measured steps, though distracted. The second days travel was uneventful and our stop in the Black Hills of South Dakota was very much appreciated. He was slightly less anxious stopping here, but still tense nonetheless. He got the pleasure of spending two days out in a large grass pasture, a first in a year’s time. When we pulled into the driveway at home however, it was a totally different picture. He was so relaxed, more relaxed than I’ve seen him ever in Washington even. I think he knew he was home, he didn’t cry to the other horses or get excited, he just happily meandered to his paddock for the night.
Now coming back to work yesterday for the first time due to the heat and me getting things unpacked, again I noticed him being more relaxed than I’ve ever seen him I believe. His movement, while a little stilted still from the long travel and being off work for several weeks, was more fluid through the back.
We did only lunge work yesterday, as the temperature was still very high along with humidity. This morning it was a little cooler so I rode him, and that too was some of the best work I’ve had out of him. He was relaxed and ready to work, there were occasional distractions, most notibly the horse fly that was following us around, but he felt like putty in my hands - an oddity for not working so long.
I feel like there is a sense that the two of us have reached that we will take care of each other. I broke the barrier to a real level of trust with him. Maybe he trusts that even if we do go away to someplace strange, I’ll take care of him and bring him home. Who knows what horses really think, but I’d like to think that is what is swimming around in his mind.