Pedicure Time

The horses' feet were REALLY long when we got them back on Friday.  Their feet do fine while out on the mountain, but Ida had moved them to "fat pasture", where the ground is nice and soft.  Makes for comfy standing around, but lousy hooves.  We were lucky enough to get ahold of our farrier to come out and trim them up.

Estes used to be a real pain in the arse to trim and shoe.  Used to be that they'd have to drug her to shoe her.  We did the math and the last time she was drugged to be shod was in 2003; we ran the livery in 2004 and she mostly behaved herself while getting shod.  And by that I mean that she only kicked the farrier once or twice and bit him once.  Because of that history, I'm always a little anxious when she gets trimmed, even though we haven't had any problems with her since we took her barefoot.  Do you think that she was trying to tell us something about the shoes?  Now that she's completely barefoot, she hasn't had any issues with the farrier.  (Mr Mrs Mom - before you object - she asked nicely for her foot back before she broke yours.)

Our farrier whipped Estee out in no time, despite the fact that she had easily an inch that had to come off of each.  You could see her sigh with relief when he finished her club foot and she could touch the ground again instead of tippy-toeing around on her high heels.

I do feel sorry for our poor farrier, as the Mustangs' hooves are hard as rock.  By the time he was halfway finished with Jesse, he'd completely dulled his rasp, so Mom loaned him ours.  While he was working on Jess, I grabbed the bareback pad and Estes' new headstall and went for a quick walk-about.  Usually I don't use the bareback pad, but she's a disgusting hairball right now and I was in my only clean pair of jeans.

It felt so good to be up on my own horse again, even for only ten minutes.  I tried working on my seat, with the leg position I'd been practicing on M in my lessons.  Yeah.  Hmmm.  She wasn't a fan.  When I ride bareback, I usually just let my legs dangle, so there's not much calf contact.  That she's okay with. 

This "new fangled" seat (as she thinks of it, I'm sure) increases the calf contact and she's not happy about it.  She got jiggy and snorty, but as soon as I let my legs dangle like I normally ride, she settled right down.  The settling down thing was really important today, as I had fallen down the stairs right before I left the house and jacked up my upper back.  The Estes Two Step did not feel good on my back, so having her move quietly was important.  We worked on standing still; she's a rather impatient horse, so standing still is not easy for her.

Even though it was a very short ride - just around the block and the cabins - it was wonderful to be back up on my baby girl.  I even think she kinda missed me.  I've been getting all kinds of cuddles from her - and she's not a cuddler. 

I can't wait until I can go for a real ride on her, not just around the block.

Sigh.

No matter, it's just wonderful to have them home.