First Farrier Appointment!

Ok so technically calling this a "first" farrier appointment is a misnomer because obviously Zoebird is four and well taken care of, so obviously she has had her feet done before. I mean. Her former owner, a farrier, picked her feet up and hammered on them for me to show me that she was fine. 

O HAI ITS U

Buuuuuut.

You know. You take a baby horse from the forested mountains that she grew up in and drop her in the desert with a bunch of strangers and completely change the expectations for her life, and it's a bit stupid to expect everything to stay the same.

So anyways. Zozobird has fabulous Percheron feet. She's four. She's never worn shoes. She was definitely due for a trim.

It's stupidly hot (still) and the flies are TERRIBLE (don't get me started on dumping pig manure on fields right now) and work has been exhausting, so when I showed up at the barn and my friend was having the farrier out, I begged us an appointment so we wouldn't have to roast in the sun-toasted arena.

IT BURNS US PRECIOUS

Anywhoodle. I'm that weird dork that asks a million questions of qualified professionals so I watched him work on a couple other horses and tried not to be too annoying, then we pulled out Zoe. 

#adultammystrong yes those are heels at the barn

I'd told him about the draft cross thing and when I said "momma was a paint" he started on like "paints tend to have trouble with their digital cushion like the one we just looked at" and then I said daddy was a Percheron and he was immediately "PERCHERONS HAVE AMAZING FEET" and then he looked at her and was like "omg yay percheron feet!" (my interpretation after a long hot day. not his actual words). 

I warned him Zoe was a baby with a baby attention span and baby issues. 

I didn't really need to. 

SMOOSHY NOSE

Zoe was all "o hai" and then a total superstar. We talked about transitioning from a mountain environment to the desert a little and we talked about her changing from teenage feet to adult horse feet--he commented that baby feet tend to be more spongy whereas adult hooves are harder. You can actually see the growth line of the grown up feet coming in on Zoe, which is pretty cool. 

He raved about her big, solid feet with excellent concavity. He also said that if at all possible, he likes to leave shoes off of babies so that they can keep growing and developing--apparently if the shoe helps them compensate for structural weakness while they're growing, then the foot kinda stops developing in the younger horses. I've never had a proper baby before so that was a fascinating insight. Good news is that Zoe is doing great barefoot, so we're greenlighted to continue on. 

unrelated photo of farrier and vet consult over a mobile xray for a different horse

I mean. It's probably silly to write up like "my horse got a trim and it was a total non-event", but it's just so weird to me to have the horse that's non-dramatic, well-behaved, and has awesome feet. Like. Awesome.

<3 Ms Zoebird

Can't Forget Cuna

The handsomest horse

I haven't said anything about Cuna lately. I'm letting him have a break, physically and mentally. I needed it emotionally almost as much. I adore that old red man and he made me into the rider I am today. It was beyond gut wrenching to watch him come through his last round of lameness and I'm in no rush to try it again.

Here's the thing. He came to me for a specific reason and he more than accomplished that. I wanted him to carry on and be a fancy show horse, and he's letting me know that as much as his heart is in it, his body won't hold up to it. 

He was "sound" after a solid month of rehab. Sound until he wasn't. Sound until he was tired, and then he limped again. 

The vet told me that there was no benefit to making him limp. It's not something he's going to work through. It's something that requires healing. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. Sometimes longer. Sometimes shorter. 

Cuna, then Jake, then Wiley

So Cuna moved to his new home--a giant pasture he shares with a couple of nice geldings. We pulled his shoes as per his farrier's advice and took away his grain. The old man hangs out and enjoys life. He has the other ladies at the barn wrapped around his goofy hooves and they love him. I visit him four or five days a week. I tell him about Courage and life at the track (as if he didn't know!) and I groom him, pick his feet, and scratch his itchy spots. 

I look back at the pictures of our time together, and it makes me cry a little. I can still feel him taking me to the jumps, his red ears locked on with perfect focus. I feel the confidence and security that he taught me, and I know my life won't be the same now that he's been here. 

My show friends keep asking when he's coming back. I tell them the same thing every time. He's taking a vacation. Maybe we'll hack around this fall. Then he's taking the winter off. 

And that's it. I'm not making plans for him. I love him. He gave me more that I could have hoped for and I have no right to ask for something beyond that. Maybe I'll find another field for him that backs up to trails and he and I can explore the mountains like we used to. No more collection. No more drilling. That's my favorite dream. We'd both love it. 

So we're healing together. At our own pace. And it's ok. 

Here We Go Again (Hoof Whoas)

Please laugh at my funny pun in the title. :-p

Anyways. I'm breaking my personal rule again and talking about hoofcare. Here goes.

Cuna has stereotypical crappy thoroughbred feet. We tried to do some work on them this winter, but pretty much as soon as his shoes got pulled, his feet fell apart and it was a no go.

Living it up

Enter semi retirement.

Our farrier came out and pulled Cuna's hind shoes so he could be safely turned out with other horses. At the time, he looked at his front feet, but declared them to be ok and set another date to come and check.

A few days later, I noticed that Cuna's right front looked all manner of funny, with the hoof wall coming over the shoe and the nails suspiciously loose. Before I had time to call the farrier about it the next day, Cuna did a wild stallion gallop around the pasture and left the shoe behind.

Our farrier was out again last night, supposedly to put the shoe back on. He and I stared at Cuna's bare right front. Cuna had done quite a number on it, chipping out both sides and leaving a lopsided toe. Hmmmm.

The farrier chewed and spat. "How long is he on vacation for?" he asked.

"Mid September," I said.

He got that face that tells me he's thinking, then said, "We should probably just leave his shoes off."

It's not blood. That's fly goop to keep hives away.

Basically, due to the nature of a big, grassy pasture, Cuna's hooves get wet, then dry, then wet, then dry. That cycle causes some natural expansion/contraction of his feet. The problem is that the nail get bent out when the hoof expands, then don't come back in when it contracts. This sets him up to lose shoes and potentially get injured as the sole of his hoof make contact with the shoe.

I feel pretty apprehensive, based on the fact that Cuna has never been able to go barefoot successfully. That said, I'd be thrilled if it worked out. It's cheaper for me and it has to be nice for him.

The best part was walking him away from his appointment and seeing how comfortable he looked. The last time he had his shoes off was that horrible day at the vet and it was sheer agony for him to stand without shoes.

He's come a long ways. He's pasture sound, fat, and happy, loving life in the herd. Here's hoping he can do that barefoot.

What Have I Done? (Farrier Edition)

Happy boys playing in the arena before the latest ice sheet

Ok, so I have this rule on my blog: no discussing of hoof care techniques. It's like discussing politics and religion in polite society. Just don't do it. People get all up in each other's business and things are said that shouldn't be. We all have opinions and we probably hold them dearly and if we want to change other people's minds, we need to do it on NOT MY BLOG. K?

That said.

Cuna has stereotypical TB feet. His last farrier didn't do him any favors, but the new guy is doing his best. Cuna's right front hoof has a badly underrun heel and it hasn't been getting better. Given our absolutely horrific winter weather and the fact that our trainer escaped to AZ for better working conditions, we aren't doing a ton.

I told the farrier to pull Cuna's hind shoes. I got my hours cut way back, and every little bit helps. He hemmed and hawed and muttered and grumbled. And then muttered and grumbled more. "Are you having a brilliant idea?" I ask him.

"I think we should just pull them all," he said.

After subjecting him to a string of questions and verifying that he would indeed come back out and put shoes on if/when it starts to go very badly, he did it.

"That's all?" I asked.
"That was a fine bit of work there," he said.
"Well yes," I said, "but usually your fine work takes a lot longer."

Cuna is boss horse. Go away.

So there it is. I never, ever thought I'd say this and I'm not convinced it will last, but my TB gelding who has probably been in at least front shoes since he was 18 months old is now barefoot. The plan is to leave his shoes off for one cycle to let his heels decontract a bit and hopefully get them growing more.

Only problem so far? Due to the aforementioned cut hours, I have to choose between new muck boots (mine gloriously died and we have INCHES of water and ice everywhere) and a hoof supplement to help him out while we try this out. Or neither and then I can afford gas.

It's not like we have a lot else to do.

So that's the story of my barefoot thoroughbred. Alternate title: "Oh god, oh god, what have I done?"

Someone tell me his hooves aren't going to explode into tiny pieces and take years to recover. I am really quite nervous.

Pony Feet

Rest assured my friends: despite my inconsistent riding and blogging, my tiny little brain has been churning like mad lately. Here's the root of the issue: hoofcare.

A huge number of bloggers keep their horses barefoot with pictures of healthy hooves, sound horses, and even competition results to go along with them. Of course, there are plenty of you out there who do the same with shod horses, but...

Izzy spends most of her time barefoot, in general. I like it because it's cheap and I'm poor. She got front shoes on this summer because she was not dealing well with flood irrigation and the ridiculously rocky footing we have in the desert. In theory, I'm fine with this. I wholeheartedly believe that some horses can go barefoot and some can't, and there's no point in worrying too much about it one way or the other.

Here's the kicker--while I will never pretend to be any sort of high performance athlete, I do run to keep myself fit to be a rider. I have found that I am at my best when using the very least in footwear--minimalist shoes that allow me to feel "barefoot" while protecting me from the hazards of an urban environment. I am more balanced, have better posture, am more comfortable, and am far more aware of how I am using my feet and my body.

Furthermore, Andrea mentioned some months ago that in her observation, horses were frequently more clumsy when shod, to the tune of tripping and stumbling more often. At the time, I wrote it off as circumstantial evidence from a biased observer (sorry), but that was when my mare was barefoot and almost never tripped on anything.

On to the past month. We still have nasty, rocky footing. Izzy is fine walking over the rocks in her shoes, but when we work, I've noticed that she tends to trip a LOT more than before. Yes, the footing is crap, but it's been crap all along. It's just that now her ground feel and feedback is reduced that she's begun having problems.

There is an obvious solution to this: pull the shoes. This is what I'd do this time of year anyways. The only problem is that as of 11/1/11, Izzy and I are moving in with beloved event trainer to spend 6 months working hard. That is exactly two weeks from now. (OMG 2 weeks from this very second I will be with my pony at the barn!!!!)

Two weeks simply does not seem like enough time to try and re-transition Izzy to barefoot in preparation for a serious training regime over presumably also-rocky terrain. In fact, it seems rather hair-brained. I'm going to contact my (very pro-barefoot) farrier and get an opinion, but I'd like some thoughts from you guys, too. How long would it take to successfully switch a shod horse back to barefoot? Have you done it? Are you currently (or have you in the past) dealt with barefoot performance horses?

Am I completely insane to even think about this? My plan was to stay in shoes for 6 months, then go back to barefoot when we moved back to our current barn, but 6 months is sounding like a long time of a stumbly horse.

If you have a barefoot horse with occasional tenderfoot issues, how have you dealt with it? Please, share your thoughts. Obviously, if I'm going to move on this, it needs to be sooner rather than later.

World's most beautiful big mare appreciates your opinions.

A Mysteriously Good Day

We rode in a dressage clinic this morning. (Lest you think I have come into money--I worked off the cost with the barn owner, so I'm still broke, just in a good situation.)

Izzy was amazing. I couldn't believe it. We really haven't done "dressage" in a dressage saddle in weeks, maybe since the last clinic. I've been working her and we've had a few good days, but my expectations weren't high. We're starting to ask her for a whole new level of performance and teaching her a new skill set and she did really, really well.

It's not that we're at a really high level; all I'm asking her to do is step up underneath herself, go forward into contact, and actively stretch down. Oh, and steer. And focus. Is that so very much? ;-)

We had moments of excellence and moments of less excellence, but nothing terrible.

The only bad news is that Izzy is ever so slightly off in her right front which is not the one she banged up a couple weeks ago. It's not serious, but it does affect (effect? Jean, help!) how she's working. We focused more on going left so we weren't weighting the right fore too much... Sigh. Always something.

I'm thinking that we might be looking at front shoes after her next trim. The footing at the new place is a lot of sand and road mix, so it's exfoliating her sole really nicely and her feet are developing well and becoming concave (all good), but since she works 6ish days a week on sand, she may just be wearing her feet down. I dunno. That would be a nice, easy fix, so I'm crossing my fingers. I'll consult with my farrier when she comes out next week.

Cold, Foggy Day

I'm still buried in a heap of homework, but I had to run out to the barn this morning to hold Izzy so she could have her feet done. She's still happy and barefoot with lovely feet.

While out there, I talked to two different horse people whose opinions I value about Izzy's contentiousness lately. I literally cannot walk away from her when she's tied up and there's another horse around. She will lunge at and attack them. She's pretty good about not doing it under saddle, but I'm careful not to get too close to anyone.

Both of them pointed to it as an example of insecurity on Izzy's side. She is in some way incapacitated and feels threatened by the other horse, so she attacks in order to gain safety. One of the people who mentioned this was the farrier/trimmer. She was working on Izzy in the pasture, so Izzy could eat breakfast while having her feet done. Her pasture mate tried to approach and Izzy pinned her ears. Before the situation went any farther, Toni (the trimmer) approached the other horse with an aggressive posture and told her to go away. She did,Izzy relaxed, and all went well.

I'm intrigued. I'm not one who usually speaks up for myself on other people's property. If Izzy pinned her ears at another horse while I was leading her, I'd be more inclined to discipline Izzy than approach the other horse because I feel the other horse isn't mine to control. This method makes sense, however. My only trouble is trying to figure out how to make Izzy comfortable at the hitching post so we can circumvent her lunging at other horses. Any ideas?

Trouble in Pony World

Remember how a week or so ago I was promising that I wasn't going to go nuts and get into all that "natural" stuff just because I'm getting a treeless saddle? Well, I still mean it, but Izzy needed her feet done in a bad way. The regular farrier, who I wasn't too thrilled with, wasn't scheduled to come out for several weeks, which irked me. His schedule never seems to line up with when she needs her feet done. I talked to a friend of mine about it, and we had her farrier come out early to do both our horses.

Yes, she (!!) is a barefoot trimmer (!!). First off, there aren't a lot of female farriers in Idaho. It's just sort of a man's job, and Idaho is old school and patriarchal enough that not a lot of women even want to do that. I don't have a problem with a female farrier, but it was unusual enough to note. Second, yes, she does barefoot stuff. I figured it's not a big deal. Izzy isn't wearing shoes right now anyways, so what's the difference?

I was actually quite pleased. She was good, quick, and gentle, and she talked to me about my horse's feet. I like that. The other guy was fast and efficient, but he never said anything and rarely answered questions. Izzy threw a fit about her last hoof, so we just turned her out, did the other horse, then came back and finished Izzy. It was mostly an attention span problem, and I was pleased with how she (the farrier) handled it.

All's well that ends well. Plus, she's $10 cheaper than the guy I didn't like.

In other news, I got Bear out again today. I'd left him alone because with the presentation last week, I just didn't have time to deal with his form of neurosis. I really didn't have time today, either. It was 10 by the time we were done with the farrier, and I needed to get to work. I hate being late to work because I always have to leave early anyways to get to school. Nothing like a full schedule.

That said, I didn't rush Bear. He's one, like most others, that just needs time. I find him frustrating because he just doesn't have an attention span. He kicks almost constantly when I pick up his feet because he's forgotten I'm there and can't figure out why his feet are stuck. It's not malicious; it's just dumb. He was ok to groom, fussy about the saddle, and then absolutely wouldn't take the bridle. Michelle assured me she'd put it on him in the past few days, but then managed not to be there when I was trying. In her defense, she spent yesterday in the emergency room. (Needle in foot=much pain.)

I finally got the bridle on him with another boarder's help. She's a shorter lady used to dealing with tall horses, so she showed me how to ask for him to put his head down and eventually he just gave up and took it. He was awful in the arena. I think he needs more turnout, because he would just jump straight up in the air, then explode bucking, then stop to look at something, all the while forgetting I was there.

Apparently, his owner is claiming that a friend of hers beat this horse around the head and that explains his behavior. I don't really buy that. First off, just being a big, dumb, pushy baby explains most of it. Second, he's not headshy. Sure, he's not wild about complete strangers running up and grabbing his face, but he doesn't have a meltdown, either. Third, and I guess this is a completely different topic, but who on earth just lets their "friend" beat a horse around the face? Maybe I'm imposing my high standards on others, but there's no way I unleash a newbie around a horse until I've drilled into their head that they will absolutely never hurt it. As for more experienced people, I never let them alone if I distrust them at all.

Anyways... I'm soldiering on. I'm thinking about asking for a contract type agreement so we both know what we're working with. I don't feel like training someone else's horse just because I'm a nice person. (I'm really not that nice. Just try beating my horse around the head and you'll find out.) While I know the owners intend to pay me, I think the best path forward is to discuss exactly what they're willing to pay, what I want to make, and how trained the horse is to end up being. It's hard to make decisions without knowing this sort of thing. Also, I rather want them to provide the tack. It's their horse and if does something stupid, I'd rather mine and Cathy's not be damaged. Is that so unreasonable?