Farrier Day

Busy weekend. I’ll start out with Farrier Day.

Friday was my flex day so I’d had Dude, Tommy, and Skippy scheduled for a trim since they were in desperate need of it. Unfortunately the weather was awful during most of the day. It started to rain at 8am and never let up until about 2pm. I should never complain about a nice steady straight down rain but after a full week of clouds it does get a little old.

I did chores Friday morning in the rain and became completely soaked. I’ve gotten behind on everything, including the horses’ shots. So I gave everyone their 3-way. I ordered the rabies and it should be here Tuesday afternoon.

I’d locked everyone in the big drylot since they hadn’t had their shots yet and the farrier was supposed to come in the afternoon. Since it was raining out, I decided that I would bring each horse into the barn individually, halter them, and then give them their shots. It went surprisingly easy. I figured I’d have at least one that would be really fussy but everyone was a complete gentleman. I also had to move Tommy and Skippy’s temporary fence around in the rain. So between catching horses for their shots and moving the electric fence, I was completely and utterly soaked. After an hour, my shoes were so soaked that every step felt like I was walking in a puddle.

My farrier called in the morning and asked if we could push our trim date to Saturday. I’d already gotten soaked once in the morning and so did my farrier. We were both ready to call it a day on Friday and wait for it to dry out so we pushed the appointment to Saturday about 2pm.

When the farrier came we started with Skippy first. He’s the smallest but still pretty naughty. It’s a good thing he’s little because he reared on both of us a couple of times. My farrier is awesome. He never lost his cool and was calm the entire time Skippy was pulling stunts on us.

Soon it was on to Tommy who only did a few circles around the farrier. Tommy really has settled down. I figured he would be worse because he’s the Shetland. I guess after seeing Skippy’s behavior he figured he’d stand.

Then it was on to Dude. With Dude’s hips I was pretty nervous that he would do something stupid. So the farrier only did Dude’s front feet. He did take a close look and filed off some of the flair going on with his back feet but for the most part we left Dude alone. Dude is pretty much out to pasture and hasn’t even been ridden in about two years. I’m hoping to contact the chiropractor soon. I want to see if the chiropractor can resolve Dude’s issue. I’m guessing because Dude comes from Impressive bloodlines that we’ll be stuck with a lame horse for a very long time. Oh well.

I also had the farrier take a look at King to see how his shoes were holding up. The farrier was impressed with how well the shoes were staying on. The only problem is his feet are starting to get long again. I want to keep his feet short so that he has a shorter breakover point and may start walking faster. The farrier ordered some pads that will help lift King’s heal. I’m worried that at some point King will develop navicular. He already requires shoes on the front since his feet are soft and flat. I guess in two weeks we’ll see what the farrier does for King.

I also had the farrier take a look at Bob and Sam. Bob stood like a gentleman while the farrier looked at Bob’s feet. He’s in need of a trim too but it’s not as bad as I thought. Sam needs a trim but I’m not so sure my farrier is looking forward to working with Sam. I didn’t see it but Sam did get spooked and I’m not sure if he let out a warning kick or not. Either way, I don’t tolerate bad behavior while my farrier is looking at their feet. I’m going to have to work Sam before we actually do his feet. I guess the farrier is going to bring another person out when we finally do get to the drafts. I know Sam hasn’t been done in over a year. His feet are pointy but holding up pretty well.

So that only left Maverick, Brego, Rain, and Chaos left for feet trimming for the boys. Surprisingly their feet are doing pretty good. I need to get Maverick’s feet trimmed but he’s in no way ready for a farrier. Neither I or the trainer worked with Maverick’s feet. So that’s something I need to work on with Maverick. Maverick did let me touch his legs (even the one with the big scar) and he didn’t care. Of course, it helps that I’m swishing away the annoying flies. Summers are great. I become their best friend because I introduce fly spray, fly masks and other fly relief.

So that was my farrier experience. I’ll blog later more about Sunday’s adventures. Although it seemed like it was a quiet weekend, we sure did stay busy.