Barefoot trimmer

The trimmer came today to check out the troops, he says none of them really have any serious issues, they've all been tidied up, most of them were well behaved (apart from Sky). Took lots of pics.....

Fina

Sky, showing some flare (you shouldn't be able to see daylight between the rasp and the hoof!)

One trimmed, one not:

Gandalf, bit of flare....

...but generally pretty good for a horse that's been shod til 3 months ago

Here are some pics of Tanya's pony Polo, showing some serious flare:

He said Kinna has beautiful feet. She was interested in the anatomy lesson too.....

So which one is the good hoof and which one the bad?

Oh, and the best thing for their feet is a gravelled area in the paddock so it looks like I am going to have to dig out all the mud in front of the stable and replace it with gravel......that'll keep me busy!!!

We visited the girls

Went down to Sarah's to see the girls again this weekend, they are doing really well at Sarah's. They have grown a bit and filled out, and acquired more spots! They are getting on fine with Sarah's horses, in fact, Sky is getting on a bit too well with Maverick the mini mule......

Sarah has a new horse, Squaw, she is lovely, the three of them make a pretty picture!

Kinna is definitely getting less spindly, still no sign of her tail growing though......

Sarah has been trimming ttheir feet, she did Kinna's this morning, they are looking good. I am going to look into doing some sort of barefoot trimming course myself to be able to do a bit of maintenance between visits from the trimmer.

And as Sky is two years old today, we took her a cake, and Ali sang happy birthday to her, as you can see from the video Sky was more interested in the carrots than the singing......

Really miss those girls......

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!

The vet came

This being France, a UK equine passport just won't do so the vet came to do a "signalement" so Skyfaxa can be registered with the National Stud. They have to note down idintifying marks and whorls of hair on the horse, this is normally fairly straightforward but not with an Appaloosa!! The poor vet spent ages drawing her muzzle, can't help thinking it would have been easier to just take a photo!!

She even had to draw the stripes on her hooves......