Farrier Day

Last night was another farrier night. I planned on trimming up Babe, Queen, and King. I knew King would go ok since he's been handled by my farrier before. I was unsure how Queen would handle. The last time Queen was trimmed she was a doll, but the time before she was a stinker.

We decided to start with Babe since the farrier had never worked with her. I know I've had Babe for along time and I've been naughty about her feet. But her feet have been so good up until now that I've always skipped her. We tried for a good half hour to get her to stand. Of course being blind, the farrier couldn't do some of the normal tricks to getting a horse to stand still. After fighting her for awhile, we decided that the only way for her to get her feet trimmed would be to put her in a chute. So I guess I'll schedule yet another appointment and have Babe and Sam trimmed in the chute. Hopefully having Babe in a confined location will make life easier for everyone involved.

We then went on to Queen, who was happily eating grass. She wasn't thrilled with getting her feet done. She started a bad habit of nipping me. Luckily it was so cold out that I had my heavy coat on. She took me by surprise with her nipping. But she's at least 32 years old so I let her naughty habit slide. By the time the farrier started working on her back legs, her front legs were shaking. She really doesn't have much muscle left. I'm wondering if I should have been a better horse mom and given her more exercise. I now haver her on a joint supplement to ease her arthritis but maybe more walking would do her good. We finally managed to get her done (with multiple nips to me).

Then it was on to King. He was naughty for just a little bit but not too bad. I'm thinking of leaving shoes off of him but buying some type of boot. What's your preference? I was thinking Boa or Old Mac but I don't really know much about the different types of boots. Without shoes on I can't ride him and he's too good of a horse to just sit in a pasture. I mentioned that to the farrier and he started asking what types of things King could handle. King doesn't like trail riding and gets upset if new horses are behind him (he's been known to kick). He gets very nervous with horses coming up behind him that he doesn't know. He's also painfully slow and his trot is very jarring. I think he'd be great in an areana doing english. I think his trot would be easy to post to. So the farrier asked if King would make a good lesson horse if it was in a controlled environment. I figure King would excel at that. He really is a one person type of horse. But it never crossed my mind to sell King. I'm not sure that I could. I might not be the best owner but I can assure him a forever home where there will always be food, shelter, and love.

That was about all the excitement for last night. I think we were lucky to have the farrier come out last night. The weatherman is calling for more rain the next two days. I guess this means I'll be doing more housework instead of horsework.