Posted on 08/07/2007 7:33:14 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
What I think is that it’s a big bummer. Bay has lost one shoe ever between shoeings. Even when Mark was doing him, he didn’t pull shoes. We all have our crosses to bear, this one has (so far, knock on wood) not been mine.
If you think the quality of the set is good (do you?)... then I wonder if he’s not a horse who just needs to wear bell boots all the time?
Can you take video of him walking and trotting? I can freeze frame it and tell you if he’s landing toe or heel first. It’s really hard to tell in motion.
Sounds like a really nice party. It must be a lot cooler where you are to have had a fire. It’s so hot around here at night that the LAST thing you want to do is be standing around a fire of any kind. You wouldn’t have a dry thread on in about 30 seconds.
Niagara Falls sounds great. I’ve never been there, but one of these days I’m going. The casino trip sounds like fun too. Hopefully you’ll hit the big jackpot and win more money than you know what to do with.
I think this summer has been extremely hard on our horses hooves. We’ve both been having similar problems, but for different reasons. Mine is because it’s been dry, then wet. Yours is because it’s just been wet. With all the grass that you’ve had growing, Harley may have been growing hoof at a faster rate than he normally does so that may explain why his shoes are loosening up sooner than normal. If they’re loose, you may want to go ahead and see if the guy can come and give him a reset a week early because if he manages to step on one and jerk it off, it may take a big hunk of hoof wall with it and then you’ll be in a mess.
I don’t know how to do video:\
I haven’t ever posted pictures of his shoes, LOL....as long as things were going good I didn’t want other opinions that might give me something to worry about:).
I do plan on taking him immediately into the shop on the cement floor and taking some this time and have you all look at them.
I also forgot to mention, he has an interference mark on one of his front pasterns also???
The quality of the set...that’s what I think the problem is, he must have set them different this time, for there to be such a drastic change in the way the horse felt when I rode him. Before he was smooth as silk, this time, it’s like there is a jerk like when a horse catches their toe first, and you feel the jerk. Do you know what I’m talking about? It’s going to happen occasionally with all horses, but with Harley, just this shoeing cycle it seems to be happening at least 50% of the time. And he’s just not as smooth. That’s the only way I know to describe it.
I’m not really ready yet to “blame” the farrier, but I’m thinking that with Harley’s gigantic stride, he has to have his shoes put on “perfect” for there not to be problems.
Becky
I have thought of all that, and do understand that can all be the reasons.
It just seems incredible to me that he can’t go 6 weeks between shoeing:). Most everyone I know goes a lot longer then that.
I will talk to the guy and see if he thinks I need to shoe more often then 6 weeks, but if I do, I’m dam sure asking for a discount....good lord. At $85 a shoeing, I can’t hardly do it now, especially since I’m fixing to shoe Rocky too.
Becky
This is the kind of saddle I rode for years. I ride a western saddle now but my husband rides this one. It is a great and comfortable saddle.
If Harley’s got a big overstride and is forging then he might do well with some kind of square-toed shoe on the back, not necessarily an NB shoe, but something made similarly. And I say this because my trainer just told me that I need to get away from the square toed shoe on the back with Hope. She’s been a little trotty here lately so I asked him what I could do and he said that the short toe on the back was making her short stride and that a longer toe would lengthen her stride and smooth her out. So following that logic, if Harley’s stride is long, then shortening the breakover in the back might shorten it and keep him from hitting his front shoes. Does that make any sense to you, or am I interpreting that all wrong?
I feel your pain about the shoeing costs! Dang, it’s expensive!
Well, the first step is to find out if your camera even does video clips. I'll bet it does since it's so new. It should be in the owner's manual somewhere. Mine has a video button on it. You push it first and it switches the camera over from stills to video mode, then when you push the button that you normally push to take a picture, it starts the video instead. When you're ready to stop the video, you just push the same button you pushed to start it.
And if you do that for video... just keep them short... under 30 seconds, since your connection is slow. The bigger they are, the harder it will be to upload them.
Oh, yeah, my camera will take videos, I just don’t know how to post them.
And before you go into great lenghts explaining how:), I have a Mac computer, so it’s different.
I will look to see if I can figure it out someway tho.
Becky
This is that clearing out in the woods my neighbor planted and mows for deer hunting.
This is the trail he also keeps mowed going from one hunting spot to another.
And this is Grizzly drinking out of a nifty little portable water bowl Julia gave me,
Becky
Wow it sure is green there! It’s usually pretty dry by now right?
Yeah, even tho it has been several weeks now that we got any rain, everything is still very very green. Really nice:)
Ok, can you give me a link to a place to load videos. The site I use for pictures doesn’t have a video thing.
Becky
Wow, your trails sure are green and pretty. Ours have all dried back up again. Seems it’s back to the drought around here. That water bowl is cool! Grizzly sure looks like he’s appreciating it too.
Yeah, it really is nice out there this year. I think the trees have more leaves, and it seems shadier.
Grizzly has learned that I have that bowl, and whenever I stop now he comes and lays down and waits for me to get it out:). It folds up small and has a little plastic carrying case. Before I had to wait till I found a rock with a low spot that would hold water. If I ride by the creek there is plenty of water for him there, and he loves to get in and just lay or float around depending on the depth. He’s a funny fun dog:)
Becky
Hope and I...
Blade with his goofy little fake-mule-ears fly bonnet thingie. I was so embarassed for him... ;o)
BladeRider and Blade coming down a rocky spot...
Hope and I at a different spot...
Hope at our lunch break. She was so sweaty that she was positively glistening. Isn't that what all Southern girls do when it's hot? ;o)
Blade muddying up a nice little water hole in one of the creeks before deciding it was ready to drink out of...
Coming up out of it...
Blade does battle with the creepy CouchMonster that lives in the clearing...
Hope and I preparing to go over a log...
And our NotSoGraceful landing. We didn't part company, but it wasn't exactly pretty either. I don't think they have to worry about us winning any gold medals in cross country jumping for a while yet...
Cooling off with the sponge and string in a beaver pond...
And here's some photobucket links of some video of the ride down the creek that leads up to the big cliff overhang...Part 1... Part 2... Part 3...
Hope's (non)reaction to the sponge and string here. I thought she was going to eat it.
Blade and BladeRider doing a wonderful job of stepping over the log that I FUBAR-ed so badly here.
They showed us up so we had to go back and have another go at it. We still didn't step over, and it wasn't much prettier than the first time, but it was more fun this time.
Pinging Hair to trail pics at #217
Great video clips Frog! You can see Jake in the background of you going over the log backing way from it. We had to get quite a bit down the trail and out of sight before Jake (the tallest horse) would go over the log.
Hey Frog,
Ya’ll have no idea how much I appreciate your friendly support. You guys always seem to say the right thing.
I still don’t want to talk about it yet but in case you’re interested, this is where Tuffy is buried.
http://www.pinehillpet.com/
Mina is a riot. She’s a major coke freak. Can’t drink a coke around her and expect to keep it to yourself. I wish it wasn’t so hot and I would work with her a lot more than I am. Todays high is 105.
On the off chance I get to come to Becky’s in the fall I would probably bring Bud, he’s totally reliable.
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