The Weather Gods Smiled Upon Me-Again!

Saturday was another lucky Saturday. By this I mean it wasn't raining, which meant I could keep My Boy's morning farrier appointment. If it rains, we have to reschedule because we don't have a dry place for shoeing. My farrier won't shoe in the rain because the equipment or nails could get wet or rusty. And, he doesn't like rain running down his back, which I don't blame him for. In the year and a half I've owned my horse, we've only had to reschedule once and that was due to an impending chance of snow. I didn't want to risk driving up in a snowstorm. And it did actually snow, so it was a good thing we cancelled.

Since I live 45 minutes from my horse and teach during the week (and now daylight hours) the weekend is the only convenient day for me to have a farrier appointment. A lot of farriers don't work weekends. My farrier is flexible and accommodates me on Saturdays.

What? The farrier's coming?

My Boy let me catch him, but was still a big pill about the haltering. We had less of an issue than last weekend, though. I brought him out and longed him in the grassy lawn next to the house. It was squishy but not slippery. This is the lawn formerly known as the arena before Paint Girl put in a paneled arena out back. After a warm-up, I walked him over to the grooming area just as the farrier pulled in.

I had the farrier pull My Boy's back shoes for the winter. Since we aren't doing any winter trail riding and My Boy is pastured on soft ground, I knew he'd be okay. When I first started leasing and subsequently bought my horse, he only had shoes on the front. But he was tender on rocky parts of the trail and never seemed to toughen up, which is why I went to four shoes for the summer months.

The farrier also said My Boy's hooves were really soft. There isn't anything we can do about the pasture the horses are on, it's just muddy and wet this time of year. The farrier suggested using venice turpentine, or a 7% iodine solution to help harden his hooves. Since Paint Girl had some venice on hand I slapped some of that on his clean hooves, but I am thinking I might try the iodine because of it's antiseptic properties. Any recommendations either way?

My Boy got to be Paint Girl's winter lawn mower for a bit after his farrier appointment. I won't get to see him today as I just came down with an awful cold and need to spend a day recuperating on the couch. Once I'm on the mend, I will get to spend few days with my spotted turkey over the Thanksgiving break!