In which I declare today is Official Hug Your Farrier Day

Here's the trot-out video we filmed last week, 

a few days before Fiddle's farrier came out:

Between the passage of time since her last shoeing (right before she tweaked that tendon) and a springtime growth spurt, Fee's feet were long, especially in the toe.


Most Beloved Farrier Mel took off a bunch of foot and rebalanced my mare's feet last Thursday.

The result:







Do you see what we see? 

Doctor Fehr rated Fiddle SOUND on the tweaked tendon left hind, and 1/5 (very intermittent lameness) on the right hind--vestiges of the stifle injury in 2016.

TRANSLATION for the folks at home:  Fiddle can go back to work.  

Slowly, at first:  5 mins trotting, adding more walking and more hills with each session.

EVEN MORE:  She can go and work trails (carefully) with us at Renegade.

We won't be competing until Labor Day at the very earliest (and possibly not then, it's too soon to tell) but our days of trudging grudgingly bareback around the pasture are coming to an end. 

I won't be giving up my own training at the physical therapy gym, and my bicycle won't start gathering dust any time soon.

Photos from the trail this spring had handlebars at the bottom instead of ears

However, we are both definitely headed back where we belong:  together, on the trail.

And that is a Very Good Thing!