The farrier came

Farrier came this morning (eventually, over an hour late). Got the ponies in from the field, it's a wild wet and windy day here so they were a bit skittish but settled down with a haynet by the stables.

Took some pics of Ebony's feet before the trim

Bit of a mess.......

She was a good girl for him mostly

only tried to rear a couple of times......!

Her feet are a lot better now, he said she's had laminitis, you can see where the laminae have come unravelled at the toe from this pic of a bit he cut off.....

Ruby wasn't too bad either, she only tried to bite him the once

.

 A couple of times when the wind really got up she didn't want to stay still so he had to let go of her and she flinched away, clearly expecting to get walloped for moving :-(

So now they have nice trimmed feet

Pretty good girls considering how awful the weather is!

We rode Chester......

The farrier came to remove his shoes earlier, and he was fine with that although to start with he kept trying to go and help himself to the hay that was just too tempting

Then after we'd found a saddle to fit him, I got on for a little wander round the campsite, he was quite happy to leave the others who were calling for him, the only problem is he wants to eat all the time, poor starving boy......

Yes, I look significantly under horsed, he's a bit closer to the ground than Gandalf!! Little bit of video here. He doesn't mind dogs, that's for sure!

Then Tanya got on him and we went for a little wander down by the river, he was good as gold!

Even managed a little trot on the way back up the hill, but we didn't want him to do too much as he's got to get used to having no shoes on.

Such a good boy!

Farrier time......

The farrier came again today to trim the girls' hooves. Kinna was none too impressed at first, she kept trying to get her foot back,

but after a while she realised it wasn't anything bad happening and settled down. She pushed her nose at me and rested her head in my hands, guess that means she trusts me.......

Skyfaxa was absolutely fine, just kept shoving her nose at me looking for food, didn't try snatching her feet away or moving at all.

She was very curious about the farrier, the poor man (I say man, he looks like he's about sixteen) got horse slobber on the back of his t-shirt, an occupational hazard I suppose!

Sky's feet were a bit of a mess actually, Kinna's looked lovely before and after, but Sky's were cracked and chipped before:

 and looked much better after!

Two horses? No problem......

Tried something new yesterday, hadn't been able to ride since Adam's visit (school holidays ) and finally got a morning without the kids when it wasn't raining, so off I went up to Jane's all ready to go, but she couldn't ride after all. Sod it,I thought, I'll go anyway and take Maverick on the lead rein cos they both need the exercise.

It worked really well, we were out for about an hour, Mav had a couple of spooky moments but I had him on a long line so I just let out more rope then reeled it back in again. The biggest problem was stopping him stuffing his face every time we went past some grass......

And on the roads (there's not a lot of traffic round here) Mav just tucked himself behind Gandalf when a car came past, such a good boy......

Then in the afternoon, the farrier came to trim the girls' hooves, I was a bit worried Kinna wouldn't want to play after all the vet trauma this week (they tried to take a blood sample from her, even sedated she was having none of it!) but the farrier made a point of being nice to her before he even started and she was good as gold.

The farrier came.....

Skyfaxa has never had anything done to her feet except me lifting them up and occasionally picking them out but she was such a good girl for the first ever farrier visit today....

She hardly moved at all, just a couple of times because she couldn't get her balance.

Then it was Noisette's turn, she took one look at the farrier and tried to run away!! This is the first time she's ever been worried about anything! But once she realised it didn't hurt, she was fine and Sky came to see what the fuss was about..!