In which Fiddle's feet are looking better than ever. And soon: we're off!
I fell in love with Fiddle's feet before she even had a name.
On the trail today |
The first night that she was delivered to me, I put her in the cross-ties to dust her off before putting her in a stall, and when I picked up that first foot I remember thinking I cannot send a horse with such great feet back to Canada.
And, clearly, I didn't send her back.
But finding the Right Farrier for her hasn't always been easy. She loved Ron, and so did I. Sadly, Ron's back was giving him too much pain (at age 75, after 60+ years of being a farrier) to continue forever.
The next two farriers were not successful, especially the guy who insisted on patting Fee's face. She hates to have her face patted. She will tolerate it (after much practice) from pretty much everyone, but she doesn't like it--and anybody who knows anything about horses can see from her body language that she doesn't like it. The face-patter insisted that all horses like it. Out the gate he went.
And now, there's Mel. Fee loves Mel.
Mel knows exactly what the Dragon likes--how she wants her legs positioned, how her angles should be just-so, how she needs a break after the front feet and before the back feet.
Last winter, we made some changes to the shoeing routine. The biggest change: no plastic pads. I was wary: Fee is notoriously thin-soled. But November is a good time to try new things, because the weather is so horrible that she doesn't work very hard.
Swamp foot, November 2019. Note the small bruise in the toe, and the thrush-y bits near the frog. Thrush is pretty much inevitable here in the winter. |
The plan was to put pads back on her in the Spring in time for the Cross-State Ride.
And then, of course, the World Ended, and the Cross-State (along with everything else) got cancelled.
So, here we are.
Same foot, July 2020. Shoe off, ready for a trim. This is 8 weeks of growth. |
Trimmed and ready for a new shoe |
But how does she go?
I'm glad you asked.
We are heading off soon for a few days of (socially distant) camping.
I'll post photos here when we come home!
I am not even a little bit surprised that a standie from Canada has good feet -- most of them do. Did she come from Greener Pastures?
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed, she's a Greener Pastures Girl!
Delete...and YES, excellent feet is one of the things I love most about the breed. Solid hooves, sensible brain!
DeleteI'm in Lake Stevens, & when my guys's feet gets squishy/thrushy/stinky, Pure Sole hoof mud is AMAZING.. I see a 180 turn over night on the condition of the squishiness. Not sure if you've tried it or not. :)
ReplyDeleteJamie