The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 11

[CindyDawg]

She didn't get my heel but the area where your tendon is. I cut Sarah Lee some slack this time, though. I had the lead rope and was walking her thru horses and cutting in and out of deep, soft mud ruts. I may have stepped back, into her, navigating.

[MissTargets]

Good Morning and Happy Friday.

Lots of this today.

[cjshapi]

Good morning. No windows in my dept so not sure if it's sunny here. We've got to haul hay tomorrow and it's supposed to be 22 and possible snow. Blech! At least we were able to find hay and it's good quality at a very reasonable price.

[Beaker]

Good Morning! Completely by accidents, a person from my barn sat with me on the train today, so we had a nice chat about the cold weather and thus lack of riding time.

[HairOfTheDog]

Good for you with your sun... We won't be seeing that any time this week, I don't think :~)

[FrogInABlender]

Cyn's heels still look like they should have been trimmed further back. The ends of the heels should be even with the widest part of the frog, so judging by that picture, they could've been rasped back another quarter to half an inch. Another indication that the heels are still a bit long is the way her bars are hooking in towards the back of the heels. She's still got black areas in front of them, which generally means that you should dig down deeper right there with the hoof knife in search of the live sole. When you find live sole, then you can rasp down to that level. It looks like he got down to the live sole in the center part of her foot and even got down a little too much at the toe, as evidenced by the flat spot there, but that's what most farrier's do when they're getting ready to set a shoe.

In the picture I marked up below, the green dots are where I think the heels should end. The yellow dots are where they actually do end. The red line at the quarters is where I think she's got some separation issues, and the red line at the bars is where they could have been pared down to get to the live sole. The blue line is how her bars should be shaped if her feet were in perfect condition. I would also have beveled her hoof wall to a 45* angle from the widest part of her foot forward to the toe. Doing that and maintaining that bevel will stop that separation in the quarters and allow it to grow out. The bevel actually makes the ground press IN on the hoof wall rather than pushing it OUT.

So there's my arm-chair quarterback assessment

I'll go over to the other forum to look at Bay's after pictures and see what the REAL farriers had to say about them.

[HairOfTheDog]

Interesting Frog :~) Good lines!

He actually did a lot more rasping with her than he usually does, during the riding season he has to sortof look for something he can get to. Now, with it so soft out, she had a lot more growth.

I don't know what to tell him about doing anything different with either one of them. I think he sortof just does what he does, but it's interesting to see the analysis so I can better judge good from bad.

[FrogInABlender]

Yeah, I can understand where you're coming from on trying to tell a farrier what to do. I think they generally just get offended. I think you just have to find somebody who trims like you like rather than try to change your existing farrier's methods. So I think Patty's suggestion about checking the NB site or contacting Mission Farrier School is a really good idea. There's just GOT to be somebody in your area that practices NB methods as close as you are to that school. Their website is http://www.missionfarrierschool.com/ and I'll bet they could give you some recommendations.

[HairOfTheDog]

I thought I'd seen a website once that listed the farriers that had been through the training.... I was hoping Patty would post it.

[FrogInABlender]

Hey, here's the link to the list of NB farriers, and there's actually TWO of them in Olympia! And they're women! So that should be great. IMHO, Women are generally more open to discussing things with you.

http://www.hopeforsoundness.com/techsupport/search/farrier/enterfsearch.html

[HairOfTheDog]

Thanks! They're new... last time I looked there weren't any close on the list.

What to do...

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Good morning. Cold and dreary here, but we didn't get the sleet they had predicted.

Hair: Hmmmm...I'm done trying to be a farrier:), there are soooooo many things to consider, I can't get my brain around them. Seems to me you address one area, and you get problems somewhere else. I get very tense when trying to deal with it anymore. The only thing I'd say about your horses feet, is if they aren't broke don't fix it:). Good luck.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

I get very tense when trying to deal with it anymore.

Heh... me too.

How are things there?

[FrogInABlender]

The last time I looked they didn't even have that contacts page at all, you just had to e-mail them to get a name. But even though those girls names may be new to the list, they're in bold, which means that they have received positive feedback about them from people who they have recommended them to. So THAT'S a good thing.

[FrogInABlender]

...The only thing I'd say about your horses feet, is if they aren't broke don't fix it...

Well, the only problem with that is that by the time it IS broke, you often CAN'T fix it. So there's something to be said about a little preventative maintenance. Just my 2 cents. :o)

[FrogInABlender]

Ok, I'm off my shoe box now so you can come back. ;o)

[HairOfTheDog]

I guess I was wrong when I said we wouldn't see the sun all week... it's stopped raining and it's mild out... I think I'm going to go take horse blankets off in a bit.

We're into that unpredictable time of year... if you don't like the weather wait 15 minutes :~)

[Beaker]

We're into that unpredictable time of year... if you don't like the weather wait 15 minutes :~)

Our weather is usually like that too, but this past week we've had an arctic cold front come through. Nasty bitter cold. It hasn't gotten above 20 during the day, and in the mornings it's a toasty 11.

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't know if our warm is going to last, we could still get one more cold snap or I'd be bringing home grass seed and flowers :~)

Well, I'm going to go work on my drainage...

[FrogInABlender]

I'm ready for a little mild weather myself. It's been down in the teens and 20s here at night for the last week or so. Tomorrow morning I'm planning on taking little Goose to visit Dr. Knife, then I'm going to load up Hope and Bob and go out to my cousin's for a short ride. She's been wanting to take Hope for a month or so and ride her so we're going to do a little "get acquainted" ride first. She can ride her 3 or 4 times a week, by herself, and I think that would be good for her, so it sounded like a win/win to me. After that, she (or her son) may decide they want to buy her, but if not, that's just that much more trail experience that she's got on her.