Yay, big improvements for Solomon!

am really happy for Solomon today.
He is no longer in the wet stall. He is out in a pen with other horses. The bedding is dry, there's room to walk around, and there's shade.
It's crowded and he doesn't like it there because he is at the bottom of the totem pole, but I think it's much better for him. They've iodined his feet and cleaned them, too. I'm so happy about this.
Here he is in his new area:

Not a great conformation shot but out in the paddock area he doesn't feel safe coming up to the fence because the mares will beat him up. :/
We spent a couple of hours hanging out in the arena though. He was a good boy, and he felt safe enough to roll.
It's hard to tell in the picture I got of him when I first started working with him, but he was thinner. His ribs really did stick out a lot.

So today, like I said, we pretty much just hung out. I brushed him and fed him some extra alfalfa and carrots, and then we went into the arena and walked around once with the lead rope, and a few times without it. After that we just hung out. I hugged and petted him and he very gently rested his forehead on my leg for a long time.
He did NOT want to go back into that pen when we were done though. He stopped right before the gate and would not budge. Planted all four feet in the dirt and refused to move. I had to ask another volunteer to come help me. It was still a big struggle, and THIS guy:

Decided that it would be really amusing to make a break for it while we were trying to get Sol into the pen. Ever look at a horse and know that he's trouble? That's this guy right here. I think his name is "Prince." His ears weren't pinned just because he was sticking his head through the fence, they're pinned most of the time. :p
Luckily I remembered reading in Fugly Horse of the Day comments that throwing something around the neck of a loose horse can often make him stop. I had nothing on me (the other volunteer had my lead rope) so I threw my arms around his neck. He stopped right away, thankfully, otherwise I would have gotten dragged around, heh. Anyway we got them both back into the pen, and that was my adventure for the day.