Trimming Blog

When overdue becomes neglect

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As a trimmer, I see a lot of hooves.  Sometimes, new clients have horses with hooves in great shape being transferred from another farrier or trimmer for whatever reason.  Sometimes, hooves are overdue because money has been tight, previous farrier didn’t show up a few times, or just life happened and the hooves got overdue.  But when does overdue become neglect?

Earlier today, I got a call from someone I have worked with before.  She isn’t a regular client and uses a local farrier to keep her horses in shoes.  However, her farrier hasn’t been available and she needed help.  She had recently been looking for a companion pony.  In the course of her search, she went to see one particular pony that was a little older (maybe mid twenties).  When she arrived, she was basically told the owner planned to put the pony down if no one took it.  The hooves were in serious disrepair.  She decided to load up the pony and take it home.  It needed everything – hoof care, vaccinations, feed, etc.

I didn’t see the hooves when she first got the pony.  Apparently, the hooves were so overgrown, they had wrapped OVER the shoes on the front hooves.  She had been using a rasp to slowly work at exposing the shoes so they could be pulled.  This morning, discovered one shoe had finally come off and she wasn’t sure about what to do with the hooves from there.  I was passing within a mile of her farm today anyways so I stopped to take a look.  Note she has only had this pony a short time.  The pictures show significant neglect by the previous owner.

Left front before trim

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Right front before trim.  I snapped a photo of the bottom of this hoof, but it didn’t turn out.  This hoof still had a shoe with pad on it.  The shoe was mounted backwards, which is usually a sign the previous farrier was treating founder.

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Since the current owner rescued this pony and had already paid to have it vetted, I did the trim pro-bono.  I don’t think she is going to be keeping the pony long term as it doesn’t get along with the intended companion, however, I’m sure it will get hoof care while she has it.

Left front after trim

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Right front after trim

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horse, kids

A Mother’s Day at the Games rally

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Sunday May 11 2014 was Mother’s Day. I spent the day at the Pony Club games rally with my kids. Well, sort of, because parents aren’t allowed in the horse management area. We arrived at 7.30 ish. That meant we left home around 6.45. The rally was at Mitchell farm in Salem, CT. We helped the kids set up the pop up tent and chairs for the day, left a cooler of food, a cooler of water, and helped get their tack room stuff and horse management kits. Their C rated pony club advisor for the day was Grace Perkins who volunteered (!!!) to head up the walk trot grasshopper games team Pony Pals. 5 kids 10 and under, and five ponies for a full day, ending with awards at 6 pm. After the briefing at 8.30 parents were banned from the horse area. The kids had jog outs to check for soundness and later a formal inspection for turn out of horse and rider. There were horse management judges asking questions and doing inspections. Then they played games against the other grasshopper team ” the runaways”. Throughout the day they killed dead time around the trailer, reading, eating and playing games ( board games). At six pm the day concluded with awards.  The Pony Pals came home with double blue ribbons, one for horse management and one for the riding portion. They were all exhausted. Rob volunteered for 4 hours on the field helping out with the games play.  I watched Amanda and spent money at the food truck,  while watching the games play and chatting with other parents. Amanda fell asleep in the afternoon.
Overall it was a good Mother’s day with great weather.

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Trimming Blog

Rob the farrier – now shoeing horses?

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When someone sees the sign on the side of my car advertising “Natural Hoof Care” they ask me what that means.  For the average person, I explain “You know how a farrier puts shoes on a horse?  I am a barefoot trimmer and specialize in un-shoeing a horse.”  I guess it’s time to change my answer.

According to Wikipedia, a farrier is a specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of horses’ hooves and the placing of shoes on their hooves, if necessary. A farrier combines some blacksmith‘s skills (fabricating, adapting, and adjusting metal shoes) with some veterinarian‘s skills (knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the lower limb) to care for horses’ feet.

Before anyone gets too upset, let me explain.  I firmly believe that horses should be barefoot.  I have also previously stated I would not turn to shoes unless I met a horse I was convinced couldn’t be helped without them.  Well, I’ve met that horse.  At the same time, I have been closely following the development and release of the Easy Shoe from Easy Care.  It is similar to the Epona that some of you may have heard of before.  This is essentially a plastic shoe that is designed to be glued or nailed on.  At this point, I am only planning to offer Easy Shoes as a glue on option.  Specifically, I plan to use the Easy Shoe Performance and the Easy Shoe Sport.   Here is a good article comparing Easy Shoes and Boots http://blog.easycareinc.com/blog/bootlegging/easyboots-or-easyshoes-yes

So why would I make this change?   There are a number of scenarios when people choose to shoe a horse instead of boot a horse.  In years past, I showed King in dressage at Falls Creek Farm.  Boots are not allowed in dressage and if I rode him on the gravel roads between the warm up arena and show ring, he would occasionally take those wincing steps.  His feet couldn’t handle the gravel, which is why he gets boots on the trails.  Easy shoes solve that issue.  Another example is the horse who needs 24/7 protection due to laminitis or founder  recovery, but destroys the boots out of boredom.

The initial reports are that these shoes last a full 6 weeks when glued on correctly and still allow a hoof to function as it should.  Because this isn’t a completely rigid metal shoe nailed to the hoof, it still allows the hoof to flex.  Since I will only be gluing the shoes, if you are interested, you must have a clean, dry area for me to work on the hooves.  At my farm, that means I will be shoeing in the garage since our barn floor is dirt.

As I have stated before, I won’t sell something I haven’t used.  So, as soon as my first order of shoes arrive, I’ll be gluing up the hooves of King and Calli. Glue on shoes will be $65 plus the cost of the trim.  If you are interested in having shoes glued on the next time I come out, please email me so I can make sure I will have shoes in the correct size and plan for the time required.

 

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The love of reading.

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As a child I loved to read. I would go to the library and come home with lots of books on the newest topic of interest, or some novels to read. I spent many nights up late reading. Then I would sleep late. I am still a night owl and I am trying to get back into pleasure reading but I am so darn tired I always fall asleep when trying to read at night.
Today I took my kids down to the library. They love to go and immediately disappear in search of their next read. Alex goes upstairs to the young adult section because he’s read most of what interests him downstairs in the juvenile section. Vicki goes off in search of her next horse book or Nancy Drew. Amanda picks out two books quickly and then plays quietly. The library volunteers and the youth librarian recognizes us. In a town with a school the size of Griswold’s this is pretty sad. We go once a week on average, because my kids read a lot. Alex devours books. Vicki will not go to bed most nights without finishing the book she is reading. Amanda insists on two stories before bed. I strongly believe that video games and TV are rotting our children’s brains. Alex reports that is all the boys in his class talk about.
So why do you wonder do I not buy a kindle or nook instead of constantly going to the library? Well we had a tablet with a Kindle reader on it and Alex was a fan, but the kids broke the screen, and we refuse to replace it until they’ve earned the money back. I just don’t want their eyes staring at a screen for hours. The feel of a real book and the library experience is important. The unusual quiet that enters the house after a library trip is priceless.

goats, Uncategorized

Kidding season ends with a bottle baby

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This afternoon as I was working outside, I heard screaming coming from the barn.  It was Anna yelling “Rob!  Rob!  Rob!”  I assumed she found a snake sunning in the spring sunshine, but since she had just finished riding King and was in the barn with him, it could have been something more serious, so I trotted over.  She had Frosty (West View Frosted Love) coming down the aisle of the barn, with Onyx following and King in cross ties.  Maybe the goats got through the fence?

It turns out Frosty was in labor.  Frosty didn’t settle right away last fall, so we let her live with Apache for a while.  Therefore, we were not exactly sure of the breeding date.  I guess now we know it was 5 months ago from today.

So, we parked Frosty in the kidding stall, caught Oynx and put her back out with the other goats, and turned out King.  Then we went about the other projects planned for the afternoon.  Checking on Frosty later, we saw she was actually in delivery, but when we stepped into the kidding stall, we discovered the first kid was already out and on the ground.  It was a tiny little buckling that weighed in at 2.5 lbs.  That is Anna’s hand for size comparison.

20140424_171143Anna and Vicki left for dog training with Turbo.  Luckily, Frosty kids easily and didn’t need help.  She had 2 more bucklings, each weighing in a 5 lbs.

Since the runt wasn’t standing as fast as his brothers and would likely get less teat time, against my objections, Vicki and Anna decided to move him inside and make him a bottle baby.  Apparently they are of the opinion we are keeping him.  I’m not convinced, but I have a feeling I will lose on that discussion too.

So, for now, Hazelnut is living in a dog crate in the house.  Mack doesn’t seem to care.  Vicki and Amanda are excited – for now.

Final tally for kidding season: 6 goats freshened giving us 1 single, 4 twins, and 1 triplet with 8 bucklings and 4 doelings.

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Making the Main Thing, THE Main Thing

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Every family struggles with juggling all the kid activities, parent hobbies, jobs, volunteering, and so on.  Our family is no different.  It is easy to add on one more thing here, and there, after all, that activity is only 1 hour each week.  Some of the hardest decisions are the ones where you stop doing something and draw back.  We have been having a lot of discussions about this lately.  Obviously, we invest a lot of time and money into our agricultural activities, and in particular, with the horses.  However, as we have added one more thing here and there, we reduce our available time to ride the horses, keep them in shape, and help the kids improve in their riding.

Therefore, we made some tough decisions this week (the kids did get included in the choices).  Alex is stepping out of Boy Scouts.  That was a hard choice since I grew up in Boy Scouts, but I think this is the right choice for Alex and for the family.  Also, Vicki will be ending her participation in Girl Scouts.  I sold my wood working tools because I don’t have time to use them for big projects any more (it has been almost 4 years since I did a real project).

Instead, we are choosing to focus the family on our farm activities, the core of which, is horses.  Both Alex and Vicki will be attending 4-H camp this summer, and will be taking a goat with them for Goat Week.  They will also be riding in at least one Pony Club horse camp.

Sometimes, you have to just draw a line in the sand and re-focus things.  For us, horses are THE Main Thing, and we just have to make sure to keep that priority at the top.

kids, Uncategorized

Happy Birthday to Anna

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Today was Anna’s birthday – she turned 28…

For her birthday, Vicki showed up at our bed side with a cup of coffee to help her wake up.  During the day, Vicki (our resident 8 year old baker) made the birthday cake.  She uses Anna’s tablet to find a recipe and only cooks from scratch.  Today, she baked a chocolate cake, made the icing including 2 colors, and decorated the cake.  She started decorating before the cake was completely cooled, which caused some collapsing, however, it was still a very good.

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If your horse is fretful…

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This afternoon Alex and I went trail riding. I rode King, and Alex rode Dakota. Alex grumbled a little for making him leave his game on the computer but then went to tack up his pony. After we crossed the water behind out barn we picked up a trot. We rode for an hour, trotting and even cantering, walking only when necessary, crossing water, going down majorly washed out rocky trails and zig zaging through downed trees. Dakota was such a rock star, no spook, no stop, climbing up and down and over stuff without jostling Alex out of his saddle. He even carefully climbed over a two foot log.  King, who recently has been a handful jigging back to the barn was a pleasure to ride today, albeit a little out of shape. Recently Rob and I watched an 80s outdated endurance dvd about conditioning and one of the veterinarians stated “if your horse is fretful, you are not giving him enough exercise”. Apparently, horses are related to my husband and require exercise to mellow…
I really am looking forward to taking my family of riders to some hunter paces this year.

The story of our lives with horses. And goats.