First Day of Spring and a New Farrier

Sunny with a nice breeze.  Sure hope April actually comes with showers!

The farrier called approximately when he said he would, got directions from the closest town, and arrived with his wife just about the time I finished tying up the last horse.  I figured I'd have him start with Rufus and Sunny as they're apt to be either the best or the worst, depending.  

DT turned out to be a stout, solid, older gentleman with a slight limp - especially after Sunny stepped on him.  He talked as slow as he had on the phone - when he could get a word in edgewise.  His wife was a hoot, and rattled on with descriptions of her horses, relatives, etc. for most of the time.

Rufus went to sleep.  Sunny was tolerably good, although he did manage to step on the poor guy's foot.  I won't say he does the most careful trim I've ever seen, and he didn't appear to fuss around with angles, or leveling, and he didn't do a lot of rasping. He said he's been trimming for about 25 years give or take, and apparently he does mostly cow ponies and riding horses - no show barns. But he did a neat, workmanlike job, didn't mess with frogs, trim them short, or do anything drastic.  And he was quiet with the horses, which I liked.

I explained about Rufus's toe-jabbing problem and he did check out his shoes before he pulled them.  I didn't have Rufus reset - I figure he can go barefoot at least until his next trim and maybe I'll have shoes put back on. 

I deliberately left Thunder tied where he could see what was going on, and pulled him out third. He's pretty good about monkey-see, monkey-do, and I figured if the first two went smoothly he'd be calmer.  He's leery of strange men, but he's always been good about getting his feet trimmed.  DT was sitting down on his tool box when I walked Thunder over.  Thunder, of course, had to snort and blow a bit, but stood where I'd put him, although his eyes got big and he stretched up on his toes when DT stood up to say hello. 

DT scratched his neck and talked to him for a few minutes until Thunder stopped being quite so tall, then went to work on his feet.  Which tends to be the trick with Thunder - just don't pull out a needle, and you're all good.  Although he's still going to keep a darn close eye on you.  He's all checked out on stranger-danger.  He blew at J when she came over pet him, but didn't give her the big eyes and high head treatment which didn't surprise me in the slightest.  He's never minded strange women near as much.

Amyra, as usual, was cranky for exactly one foot.  It's never the first, it's never the last.  Generally it's the second front one, but it varies.  She's been exactly the same since the very first time she was trimmed, although this time the cranky was limited to cocked back ears, a set jaw and a couple of yank-aways with her foot.  The second time she pulled her foot away I popped her lead.  Her head came up, her ears came forward, and she decided minding her manners would be the proper thing to do.  Mares... or at least that one.

The trims were $25 apiece, which shocked the heck out of me considering.  I thought it'd be higher even given the fact that my Arabs did their bit for the breed and (mostly) behaved themselves.  He charges $65 for shoes, which is really reasonable, too.  He makes a loop this way about every 8 weeks, which is slightly longer than I'd like to wait, but he also said if something comes up it'd be no problem to work me in.

So...  We'll see how they wear and go from there, but I think he'll do.