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. 

New feet!

My farrier has a day job.  Which is great, given gas prices but not so great when her work rearranges her schedule at the last minute.  Luckily she's wonderful with updates. and I had plenty of time to flex things on my end.  I had Rufus picked up and over to the farm by 4 p.m., and she arrived on the dot at 5:15 as planned.

Remember Rufus, Tony's gelding?

He's been living a life of leisure over at J's this summer.

I've been wanting to get him over so L can trim him, but I have to admit I've been kind of dreading it.  I figured he'd be more upset to leave "his" herd, but other than a whinny - after I unloaded him - when he saw me leading Sunny and Thunder over to the trailer, Rufus was the picture of calm.  He left without fussing, loaded and unloaded sweetly on both ends of the trip (he's been hauled a lot, but almost never by himself since we've owned him).

When I took him back, he even hung out to be petted after I turned him loose.  All the rest of the horses were tiny dots clear down at the other end of the pasture, but he didn't just duck his head and show me his heels as fast as he could.  And since he's at the low end of the pecking order, that's pretty major.

Rufus's worst moment was probably the camera - the beeping kind of freaked him out. But after some sashaying back and forth....

 He decided whatever that noise was, it wasn't going to kill him.

In the meantime, I got a bunch of pictures like this one.

Rufus, when he's being ridden, needs shoes.  Unlike Sunny, who goes down the road beautifully barefoot with no sign of discomfort, Rufus gets ouchy.  He also has a tripping issue.

As you can see, he's still carrying the scuff marks from a nasty skid last year.  J uses a different farrier, and while I have no complaints, I wanted L to take a look and see if she had any thoughts on angles, trims or shoes that might help.

After looking at the wear on his feet and his angles, she suggested trying a reverse wedge pad in front next time we put shoes on him.  Nothing exaggerated, but enough to encourage him to step down onto his heel first, rather than digging in with his toes.  He's still barefoot for now, but after listening to her explanation - which I'm not going to try to repeat here, because I'll screw it up - I think it might be worth a shot.

Spring Maintenance

No, not fences, although those are definitely due for some attention after a winter of deer-induced trauma; last night the boys got their feet trimmed, and today they get their vaccinations.  I'm sure they'll be thrilled.

I was very happy to hear from the farrier that she'd be able to squeeze Sunny and Thunder into her schedule on such short notice, and after a cool, cloudy, grey and rain-threatening morning (it never materialized, unfortunately) the sun came out and the temps rose into the low 60's.  It was a gorgeous evening.

I got to the farm in plenty of time to get as much newly-loose winter fuzz brushed loose as I could.  They've reached the point where it's coming off in big handfuls, although neither of them look like they're molting yet.  They were quite content to doze while we waited, and I think Sunny actually slept through most of his trim, as well.

L didn't actually take much off Sunny's toes at all - between the drier winter and more frequent riding, the ground has kept his hooves worn down pretty well.  And working on getting the muscles in his topline built up and trying to get him more collected and balanced has impacted his feet, too:  he seems to be traveling more evenly and wearing his feet more evenly than he has in the past.

Sunny post-trim

Thunder stood well, but was less relaxed than Sunny.  He "talked" to L, nickering when she picked up his feet and snuffling her sweatshirt when she paused to tell him what a good boy he was.  He's still much less suspicious with women than he is with men.  But hauling him hither and yon with Sunny has been really good for building patience and increasing his comfort level with strangers.

Wow... bow-legged much?

Poor Thunder - he's not nearly as crooked in front as that picture makes him look.  I really should have squared him up before I took it.

I was going to clip bridlepaths tonight, but I forgot to plug the clippers in, and apparently they need to charge a full 16 hours.  Grrrr!

New feet!

No new pictures, but the farm five have shorter feet this morning. The farrier came late yesterday and we made good use of the warmer afternoon. Three were good, including Sunny who semi-redeemed himself for his earlier monkeyshines (more on that in a minute), but the last two were antsy.

The wind by the time we finished was really howling, and it was starting to get chilly, which isn't an excuse for bad behavior, but does make the fidgets more explainable.

T cleaned the sediment off the waterer innards - the water flow was down to a trickle again, and then we shored up a section of fence and strung an electric "thou shall not pass" across the upper end of the lot. The snow has drifted to deep and packed so hard where it narrows to the gate into the upper pasture that Sunny has learned he can step right over. And not only over the gate, but over the fence into the tree grove.

We raised the fence, but with no way to raise the gate, ended up running a temporary electric line. I flagged it well, and it should hopefully keep him where he belongs. Things are finally supposed to melt some this week, but this should take care of the problem even if the drifts don't subside.

Unfortunately, no additional riding time this weekend, but even working on the fencing didn't seem like such a chore when I could strip off my scarf, winter coat and hat and work in just my sweatshirt and vest!

Happy Independence Day!

Sorry about the sporadic posting, but between being gone most of the week, and as busy as the weekends have gotten - not to mention the lack of anything substantial to report on the horse front, well...

Ducky is getting bigger.
Soon s/he'll be going to live with someone
who has ducks.
But for now the spare bedroom
is the duck room at night,


and days are for paddling outside in a box of water.

The inside of the horse trailer is now clean and disinfected. I love trailer mats, but I don't want to move them by myself again. T helped me get them back in - or they would have stayed out!

Sunny the escape artist.
One reason why I like having
a bottle of green Tabasco sauce on hand.

The horses all had a pedicure yesterday and a dose of wormer. Thank goodness for the stiff breeze we had, because the mosquitoes are awful - all the rain is keeping the grass in, but it does have a pesky downside.

The horses were mostly good in spite of the bugs, however, although Sunny had the fidget and Sahara decided she didn't like the fly sprayer. I can sure tell they haven't been messed with much this summer.

And yes, that is a top down pic - I managed to snatch a few minutes of riding tonight. Rufus and I have a date for a ride tomorrow a.m., but I haven't had Sunny out at all. Bless his heart, he doesn't fuss if I hop on and steer him around the pastures with a leadrope - although I wouldn't bet on his manners holding if I tried heading down the road cold turkey without company after no real riding since last fall.

Happy feets!

The boys & girls all have nice short feet, and they all stood very politely for the farrier. She was very complimentary, saying she was impressed with how patiently they waited. It was good to hear, but today was a sunny, lazy day, so that helped!

This time I had them all caught and ready for her (I was mortified last time to still be collecting them when she drove in - she shouldn't have to wait on me!).
The upper lot is well-fenced in sucker rod & railroad ties, but the ties are getting old enough to be suspect at the bottom, and I'm afraid if somebody really tested one, it might snap.

I wasn't anticipating any disasters. Still, in the interest of safety I only tied the ones that like to be nosy to the posts I know are solid. The other four I haltered and just let stand guarding posts with their leads looped rather than tied. They were still standing politely without fussing when we finished up 2 hours later.
(Embarrassingly, Thunder and Sunny - two of the tied ones - self-released not once, but at least twice apiece. Note to self: must remember to bring out more green Tabasco sauce to discourage rope nibblers!)
I miss them during the week. And given the amount of wind-tangles the mares accumulated amongst them this week, they missed me, too! I didn't get all of them quite tangle-free this afternoon, so I think tomorrow will be a pony spa day at the farm.