Farrier’s visit

The farrier found a roofing nail in Rags’ foot. We believe these nails are a remnant of our old barn’s (really a shed) former tarpaper roof. This one hadn’t done any apparent damage to Rags, since it seems to have missed any soft areas.

My farrier also pulled Hap’s shoes. We had been debating whether to do so since he won’t get much use for a while. Not only would doing so save me some money, but barefoot horses do better in the snow. She was happy with the way his feet looked, and the ground should be soft from the snow for a few days so he can adjust to his new barefoot status. He had suffered the effects of poor shoeing when I bought him, and it took a long time to get his hooves looking healthy with solid hoof walls and adequate soles. I still think of him as having soft feet, even though he has great feet now, at least for a Thoroughbred. I will probably worry about him for a few days until I see how he is doing.

Smoke was the hardest horse for her to trim. He can’t hold his right front leg up long enough for even a trim, due to apparent stiffness in the knee. My farrier had to lean down a lot further than she would like to be able to trim and file the foot. She thought he looked in good weight. Making sure old horses get enough calories is a challenge since they don’t have any teeth. My farrier only sees him every eight to ten weeks, and she has a better idea of whether he is maintaining his weight than I do, since I see him every day.

Snowy day

I was happy yesterday when my farrier called and decided it was too snowy to shoe the horses here at home. It seemed too damp and cold to be standing in the barn holding a horse. I usually don’t feel I need to be here when she shoes, but I wanted to be here the first time she did Hap since he has a talent for extracting drama from every new situation.

Recent forecasts of snow have only resulted in one or two inches so I was quite surprised that we actually ended up with six inches. Aside from one quick trip to the grocery store, I spent the day organizing, cleaning, and nursing a beef stew on the range. The stew was excellent, and not harmed by Jack getting home a lot later than usual due to icy roads.

Deer

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These deer were grazing in the meadow across from our house when I arrived home from the grocery store yesterday.

Barbara Hambly

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Yesterday, I took author “Barbara Hambly”:http://www.barbarahambly.com to the airport, but first we went for a walk in Garden of the Gods.