Another glorious sunny day at the farm despite the ominous clouds and after riding out with Pat there was a chaos of children. Jack, Indy and especially Nettles love the attention of these kind hands and they also help to sort out the brushes.
Prior to the farrier's visit the riding horses along with Bella had a break out in the top paddock.
Having heard about Guy's the farrier's degree in Military History Barbara decided to search the Guygle engine and asked him for a complete history of shoeing. Apparantly there is little ridden record of when shoeing actually began but there is evidence that the Celts used some sort of hoof protection.
You hear me banging on about time, patience and technique enough times but sometimes just one or two of these will do. It's been some time since I practiced 'farriery' on Jack's feet, imitating Guy with a rasp and so on, although I do pick his feet up and out fairly often. Until today we have only ever been able to trim his left front foot without him panicking and I have been relieved that his feet have always trimmed themselves. Lately his feet have become rather tatty as the ground has not done the job for me and so I asked Guy to see whether Jack would let him trim all of his feet. Success! and a well earned cuddle from Guy.
Time to put the horses back out and to see whether Nettles would allow Barbara to lead him from her scooter. She hasn't got the strongest hands in the world and relies on her right one to accelerate so it was great news that Nettles led from the lightest feel on the rope.
