Farrier Visit

The farrier came out last night to take care of King. Unfortunately my brain was completely shut off so the best I could do was hang on to the lead rope. Luckily I was able to catch King without any problems and got him settled into the barn while we waited.

I can definitely tell King hasn’t been ridden in awhile. He was absolutely a terror for the farrier. He wouldn’t stand still and kept taking his foot away. That would be fine if he was just getting a trim. But he was getting his shoes reset and new pads. The farrier wanted to see how he would do with pads to help lift him up to the correct angle.

I’m hoping it’ll speed King’s pace up just a little bit. I want to try riding King tonight to see if the new shoes and pads help him with a quicker breakover. When I trotted him in hand he seemed to take quicker steps and not lag behind. If the pads help, then we’ll go with pads from now on!

King’s shoes and pads took quite awhile. But I don’t mind. My farrier is slow and methodical. I’d rather have that than in impatient farrier that ends up upsetting the horse and myself and winds up doing a poor job. I’ve been to a few that have too hot of a temper to be working with horses.

After King, I caught Queen. She was in desperate need of a trim. She should have been trimmed months ago but I couldn’t figure out the most cost effect of way of getting her home, trimmed, and then back to her “winter” home. So instead we waited until today. She’d already chipped out a large section.

I wish I could have snuck Babe in too for a trim. She’s past due for a trim too. I’m figuring on calling the farrier right after the 4th of July to get the big boys trimmed. Then maybe I can sneak Babe in too.

Queen really surprised me. The last time I had her trimmed, she was a holy terror. Of course, I think the last time was the first time I’d ever had her trimmed by my farrier. I’m guessing she hadn’t been trimmed in a few years by that time. She’s actually pretty good at breaking off the long stuff and going short.

This time I warned the farrier that she might be a pill. I’m not sure if it was her age setting in, she knew she was going to get a pedicure, or it was too hot out. But she behaved. I think she only moved around this time because her joints started to hurt. The farrier did her front feet without much fuss and then tackled her back feet. I told him he didn’t have to but he wanted to see how she would do. He used a rope around her neck that would hold up her back foot (and to avoid kicking him). I think that helped some. She has arthritis in her back end so I think the rope trick helped.

Although by the second back hoof you could tell she was struggling. Her poor front legs were starting to shake. I felt terrible. I didn’t know she was that out of shape. But I was thoroughly impressed by Queen. She behaved better than King. I’d warned my farrier that Queen would probably be worse than King and Mike said you could just see the look on his face. I had to laugh. Good thing Queen behaved much better.

I’m not sure my farrier will come back if I continue to make him work on naughty horses. Next time I’ll work King over a bit before we do anything with his feet. I need to do the same thing with Sam. I don’t want him to cause any problems. Sam is a bit naughty when it comes to feet trimming. But I blame that on his Amish training.

So all in all, the farrier visit went very well. I need to make an appointment soon for Bob, Sam, and Babe.