Work with Booker

We've been taking a few weeks off from running and riding since it's been so hot.  We've done a little work in the arena in the mean time and have been just trying to get to the bottom of all of Booker's ins and outs.  Seems perhaps his saddle doesn't fit him quite right or at the very least doesn't fit me so when I ride him it's quite unbalanced.  We've also figured out that we really want to get him going and  (more importantly) stopping in a regular snaffle over the winter.  That coupled with his still slightly sore front end and small arena will make for some work getting him in shape.  But we'll keep chugging away, he's going to be a great horse.  Thinking also a chiropractor visit might be beneficial as well.

His wound is healing up nicely.  Still doing a couple cleanings a week just to make sure we keep things on track.  We've done a little work desensitizing him and have some more ideas for stuff to do with him on that.  And N and I attended a shoot on Labor day and spoke with some mounted shooters about getting started in the sport.  This week we actually have a lesson scheduled where we'll bring Booker and see how he does with the gunfire.  We'll also do some shooting practice, riding practice, and shooting and riding practice.  We'll borrow one of their horses as well.  It'll be interesting to see how Booker does not only with the gunfire but just with going to a different arena.  Hoping we can convince him that he's not a game horse any more and he can just be calm until told otherwise.

Stay tuned!

Haji joins the vacation

Saturday we went out to see the horses and take Daniel and cousin Chloe for a little ride around the driveway.  One thing is for sure, brother-in-law's pasture is too huge!  Took me forever to find Cody and then when I did find him he was across the creek.  Rather than walking all the way back to the dry spot I jumped on bareback and convinced him to take me through the creek back to the gate. It was slow going but he went in with out much fight.  The kids didn't ride long, it was hot and we had to be at a birthday party so it was just a few loops.  Plus Cody was soooooo slow.  He's clearly embracing this retirement thing.

So there was a little change of plans for the weekend.  Originally we were going to bring Cody and Axel back to town so that  they'd all be in one place when the farrier came on Thursday.  But the farrier doesn't have any other work in the area so he wanted to push it another week.  I think with all the dry weather their hooves aren't growing too fast so it should be fine.  Haji has been doing really well gaining weight and Cody and Axel have gotten some huge grass bellies from the pasture they are on, so I decided maybe Haji could use some company.  We'll keep a close eye on his weight but I thought he could use some more grazing and some companionship.  I decided it would take just as much if not more time to trailer him than it would to walk him the mile down the road.  So Haji and I went for a little walk to meet up with Cody and Axel.  Of the three horses, Haji, the oldest, walks the fastest, so it was a quick trip.  And as usual, Haji is a saint of a horse.

I'm thinking maybe Haji liked being on his own.  He wasn't too sure about Cody and Axel when they came running to see him. I hope they settle in quick when they figure out they know each other.  When I was there Haji hadn't seen the goats yet so I didn't get to see that interaction.  He did see the cows but didn't get too close yet.  There was a lot of running around with tail flagged like a proper Arabian.  He looked pretty impressive, boy can still move!

So the farrier will just come out a week late and go to where the horses are.  Hopefully we can figure something out as far as fetching them quickly so he doesn't have to go all over the place to find them in the pasture.  I'm hoping for some rain to help the grass grow in town so when we put them back in a few weeks they'll have a bit more grass and we can put off round bales for a while longer.

Vacationing

We're running out of grass at our place where the horses are.  So we're trying to squeak out a few more weeks without having to get a round bale out there.  I drove Cody and Axel down the street to stay at my brother-in-law's place for a couple weeks.  He's got a large property fenced in where he had 50 goats cleaning up the weeds.  He's also got his brother-in-law's 5 calves out there.  And now my two "big" horses.  Hehe.

The boys were a little on their toes when they got off the trailer and saw all the goats.  The goats weren't too interested in them though.  Cody visited with a calf nose to nose and Axel gave one his usual welcome of a nice kick (darn that Axel).  When they discovered they could move the goats pretty easily they started chasing them around a bit.  I'm waiting for the reports of napping horses and goats playing king of the mountain on them.  We had only been there for a few minutes and the boys had found the waterers and had a roll, so it looks like a good vacation home.  I went to check on them a couple hours later before we left and they were across the creek behind the grove standing in the wind.

So Haji is staying at our place alone for a couple weeks where he'll try and eat up the remaining grass and also have his meals in peace for a while.  Though I've been told the three are getting along well and they aren't chasing him away from his meals as much.  Haji might enjoy the vacation location, maybe he'll have to go join them at some point.

We'll have to move them back to town before the farrier is due so he doesn't have to run all over to trim my guys' feet.  I bought a round bale feeder this weekend and I just ordered a hay net from ChinchChix.com so I should be ready for round bales pretty quick here.

Another adventure!

Okay so we're trying another adventure with Booker.  Cowboy mounted shooting!  So far we've only just started getting our feet wet.  Booker's injury has given us a chance to get him used to a lot of things he wasn't appreciating before (like a hose and flyspray). And he seems to be learning really fast.  So last week we put him in the arena and smacked a couple 2x4s together to see what he'd do.  It was the only thing I could think of that would imitate gunfire without actually shooting a gun.  Obviously it's not as loud as gunfire but I think it was a decent test.  And of course he passed.  Twitched his ears a few times and that was about it.  He wasn't too happy when the scary noise was happening toward his left flank but the most he ever did then was take a couple steps on the forehand to move and see what we were doing.

So I ordered some cap guns from Amazon.  Partly to practice with the noise and partly to just practice handling a gun while riding.  I'd rather drop a 20 dollar cap gun in the dirt than a 500+ dollar Colt.  Plus I don't imagine the barn owners would look too kindly on us running around shooting off guns (without inviting them first of course).  So we fired the cap gun from the ground and Booker looked at us like we were crazy (we might be).

Of course the cap gun isn't very loud but it's a new sound so we fired all around him on both sides etc and he really didn't care one bit.  So N got on and fired a bit on both sides of his head and toward his rear etc and he really didn't care once again.

So we set up some poles to mimic an actual shooting course.  That got him a little excited.  But recall he was a game horse for a little while so he thinks poles/barrels/etc mean GOGOGOGO!  So he got the tiniest bit hot going through the poles with the cap gun but nothing scary or horrible.  When we finished off the last round in the cap gun N rode him at the walk and trot through the poles to just make sure he knew slow and calm were A-OK with us.

The pictures are pretty bad but it's just a bit too dark in the arena to photo a moving horse with my phone ;)  Anyway, I haven't given it a go yet but I know I'll need practice riding one handed and firing with the other hand.  And N is left handed so she needs to figure out how to shoot right handed and ride with her left hand.  We have some work to do.  Not to mention fashioning some sort of makeshift holster for our awesome cap guns to practice drawing.

And Booker, we'll have to see what he thinks of balloons and popping balloons. And maybe find some blanks for our .22s to get some louder noises going on (after we talk to the barn owners of course and not in the arena - ouch).  When we get all that figured out then maybe Booker will have to attend a shoot or a practice shoot just to get exposed to real .45 gun fire.  Hopefully we can get into a beginners clinic this coming spring or something.  

More Ride and Run (Ride and Tie)

We're still going once or twice a week over lunch and running and riding a couple miles.  Booker seems to enjoy it well enough.  In fact when I went to fetch him on Tuesday he came up to me in the pasture.  First time he's done that, usually he thinks about running away ;)

And not only are we trying to do a little improv ride and tie, I'm doing it in my Vibram FiveFingers.  Go figure.  It's very weird riding horse in them though.  Hopefully as fall rolls around and it cools down a bit we'll start running after work so we'll have more time and go further than just a mile and back.

Long distance horse-keeping

Well we're still trucking along.  This past weekend I went to get more horse feed only to find out the farm store hadn't restocked yet.  We're good til this coming weekend so I called today and bought some over the phone and someone will go pick it up for the boys.  We also went to a little threshing party and since their oats were kind of green they need to get them fed ASAP, so I guess I'll have a few bags of oats for the boys as well.

Other than that, there was nothing too terribly interesting to report.  I had planned on cleaning out the silo shed but we spent all day playing with a threshing machine so that didn't happen - maybe next time.  I have big plans for the existing shelves and cabinets as well as adding some saddle racks.  I ordered some zip up saddle covers so my saddles aren't exposed to the elements once we put everything away.  Can't decide if I'm worried about theft or not yet.  I suppose with them being fed twice a day someone is out there quite often to check on things.  I'll have to take some inventory photos for future reference just in case.

Haji is doing well and gaining weight, slowly but surely.  Cody and Axel are more attached at the hip than ever but they hang out with Haji as well so that's nice.  The three of them are usually not out of eyesight of each other.

Second Ride Out on the Farm

Another weekend out at the farm so during naptime I snuck out to see the boys and go for a ride.  Cody was much calmer about me removing him from the paddock this week.  Might have something to do with the fact that Haji and Axel stood on the other side of the fence right next to him while I tacked up.  It was slow going for most of the ride away from the barn.  I decided to go down to my inlaw's farm a mile down the highway.  Once we got past a few blocks of paved crossings, it was ditch the whole way.  Cody wasn't super thrilled but he plodded along, only turning for home a few times, and those time he was pretty calm about it.  None of his old spinning and trying to bolt for home.  We have a few little spurts of canter but not too much.

When we got to the farm everyone was either napping or out doing stuff so we headed towards my trailer to grab all the fly masks.  When Cody saw the trailer he thought this horrible trail ride was over and made a bee-line straight for it.  Heh poor guy.  My next ride to the farm I think I might go out in the pasture with the cows and walk around, start getting them used to horses a bit.

The walk home was in a whole new walk gear.  A really nice gear at that.  Wish we could get that kind of walk all the time!  But he was calm and it was a nice ride overall.

The flies were horrible so I threw the fly masks on everyone fully expecting to never see them again.  They're all in pretty poor shape so it wouldn't be the end of the world.  Surprisingly when I went to feed Saturday everyone was still wearing them.  I took them off overnight and then Sunday it was raining so I left them off.  When we had gone Saturday morning to feed Haji didn't come up to the barn.  Fearing the worst we went on a search to find the old man.  Turns out he was hanging out on the other side of the grove between the trees and fenceline.  Cody and Axel must have left him there and he couldn't figure his way out.  He followed me like a puppy through the down branches and back to the barn.

Sunday we drove by and all three of the horses were standing at the fence line.  Really makes the grove look huge when there's a horse standing there.

Our First Ride and Tie Training Session

Last week Thursday we met out at the barn to go for a little run/ride.  Our plan is to do this at least once a week.  There aren't any actual Ride and Tie races in Minnesota that we've found so we're just going to Ride and Run for now.  I started out running and N rode Booker and we went down to the town hall, not quite a mile.  Then we swapped and ran back to the barn.  I have to say that was a long mile. I hadn't run for quite some time so it was a toughy and then add on the fact that we were talking while we did it.  I was still hurting on Monday.

Booker even had a hard time keeping up at the end.  He's been out of work for several weeks now so we were all in the same boat on this one.  Interestingly enough both of us had a much faster and more stable pace on this run.  Booker for the most part trotted the whole ride so we were pacing with him I guess.

So that's our latest adventure.  We're still planning on picking up a couple single action .45s and doing some mounted shooting, but I think we need to spend the winter working on some desensitization and various things.

New Farrier

I took Friday off of work for our first new farrier appointment.  Thursday I almost had a heart attack as he texted and asked to reschedule (OMG no! It's a 3 hour drive, rescheduling is not good) for 5pm Friday instead of the morning.  Whew!  That would work just fine.  So while Daniel napped on Friday I met the farrier down at the boy's paddock.  His usual vehicle was in the shop so he was running a barebones operation.  I grabbed Haji first since his feet looked the worse.  Though over the few weeks he's been in Canby he's worn down the flares so they weren't as bad as they used to be.  I was surprised at how pushy he was!  What happened to our calm therapy horse?  Guess the old man needs some more ground work in his retirement to keep him nice and polite.

So all three boys had their feet done.  Cody needed his shoes reset but he apparently hadn't grown too much toe as the farrier didn't need to do any trimming, just some rasping after he reset the shoes.  Not the same shoes as before and he didn't shape them quite as intricately as our old farrier but I think they look okay.  This new farrier was really fast.  Granted the boys had worn their feet down pretty well so I'm sure that helped.  I think his work was a little less "pretty" than I'm used to but I think it'll work just fine.

We scheduled the next visit for 7 weeks out since 6 weeks + some pavement might be too quick.  The good news is that the farrier said he'd be just fine with fetching horses himself and trimming with me not being there (which is good since he'll be back on a Thursday).  He said he has a few clients he hasn't even met before.  Apparently this is fairly normal in these smaller farm towns.  He's a roper and teaches roping so I think he can handle the old men just fine.  I could always see if A could go down and help but just in case he can't it's nice to know this guy is okay with handling it on his own.  Works best for him I'm sure because he can show up whenever he can make it since he drives 90 minutes to get there.

So as you'll see in the one photo, Haji has some wounds on his legs.  I first noticed them on Friday, not sure when they showed up, seemed fairly fresh at that point.  Since they are so symmetrical and he re-opened them a few times over the weekend, I don't think he's falling down.  I think a wound from falling would be more uneven and less likely to recur several times.  Some research on the interwebs leads me to think he's just scraping them up by laying down.  Bedsores of sorts.  Since he's underweight and notoriously reacts poorly to bug bites, he probably has thinner skin than most.  So I smothered him in Swat all weekend to help keep the flies off.  Maybe Haji needs some legwarmers or knee pads.

The boys seem to have gotten their routine down pretty quickly.  After I feed in the morning they go and line up at the gate to the side yard.  We've only let them out there one weekend before but they were ready to go again.  Probably this next trip out we'll fence in a bit more (ran out of wire last time) and electrify the whole side yard so they can be turned out there more than just on the weekends if A wants.  The grass in the main yard is getting eaten down so it's nice to have another option for them to graze.

Since the boys like to chase Haji away from his food they usually get locked in the yard while Haji stays in the paddock to eat.  They do not approve of this arrangement.  But Haji has to eat so much more food and takes longer and needs to finish his food so that's how it'll have to go at least until they decide to leave him alone (yeah right).

Overall though, all 3 boys are getting along well.  The neighbors said they enjoy watching them.  They said at first Haji was kind of odd man out but every day they would get to be closer and closer friends.  Last weekend every time I went to see them they were all standing near each other and Haji was happily grazing.  Granted I didn't see him real often at his temporary home but when I was there it seemed like he stood pretty far off from the other horses or didn't graze as much.

And he's definitely gaining weight.  Slowly (which is good) but it's coming.  We're still trying to figure out the best way to get him to gain without having to feed him a billion pounds of food.  I might get a bag of beet pulp this week just to see if we mix it with feed if he'll eat it, he wasn't thrilled with beet pulp last time so I dunno (and it's kind of a pain since it needs to be soaked in water).  Who knows.  We're feeding about 12lbs of Nutrena Senior grain and MVP Pro-Weight supplement right now but I'm trying to get the farm store in town to carry Triple Crown Senior which has more fat and fiber.

So yeah, while it's hard to be so far away and be able to manage everything, I think things are going okay in our little long-distance horse-keeping adventure.

Booker Report (get it?)

So last we left Booker he had done a number on his leg and we were out cleaning and treating it nearly every day.  The up side of all this was 1. Booker eats antibiotic powder on top his feed with no issues (other than pushing you over to get into a stall to eat) 2. Booker learned to stand tied while being treated 3. Booker learned to tolerate fly spray 4. Booker has started to learn to tolerate the hose.  So I guess there's a silver lining.

So it was looking like maybe we were getting some proud flesh so we had consulted several sources to decide what to do.  We spent a few days scrubbing it.  And now I think we're trying Wonderdust (as I was out of Underwoods).  So the above photo was the proud flesh.  The below photo is after scrubbing it for two days.

It kind of looks like the proud flesh is better in this photo.  So who knows.  Hopefully the Wonderdust eats some of the proud flesh and we don't have to have it debrided.  We really don't want to have to wrap this and want to continue treating it as an open wound.

Otherwise the guy is doing well.  Not lame at all, oh wait, he threw a shoe last week.  So right after we decided to get back to work he changed the plans on that.  Farrier isn't due out for a week yet.  Luckily I found the shoe in the pasture Friday.  Luckily it was too danged hot last week to matter.

Hopefully things will settle down a bit and we'll get back to working on some "walk" on the lunge and some bending.

Here was our list of goals:

1. standing for fly spray
2. lunging at speeds other than a trot
3. standing still with a rider... he seems to stand still when you are on the ground next to him.  And stands pretty good for mounting.... but geez, once you are on, he just wants to walk!
4.  more trailering practice so a second person isn't needed to stand behind him with a whip

And I'm adding 5. bending

The boy's new home

Was finally back to the farm this weekend.  I think it had been two weeks since I had seen the boys. But they are doing well.  Looks like Cody and Axel might have dropped a tiny bit of weight, I'm going to blame it on the heat from last week.  Cuz they are getting a tiny bit of grain right now that they weren't before and they have plenty of grass.  So who knows.  It's not drastic but after two weeks of not seeing them they looked a tiny bit ribby.  At this point they look fit, if they lost more then I'd be concerned.  Axel could stand to bit on the lean side with his arthritis, the last thing he needs is extra weight.

Haji is looking a little better.  Slowly but surely I guess.  The hubby thought he seemed peppier, more energy.  It's a little tough keeping Cody and Axel from chasing him off from his grain but it sounds like A, Cody and Axel's previous owner who is feeding for me, is making frequent trips to visit them and feed them. Sounds like he is actually making more frequent visits than the two feedings, so I guess he's enjoying having them around again.  All the horses nicker like mad when someone comes up, it's pretty funny.  We fenced off more of the yard for them to graze on weekends when we're around and so we don't have to mow as much :) At this rate the whole property will be fenced in.

Saturday I went out to get the new fence ready and feed and stuff while Daniel was napping.  And I ended up saddling up Cody.  He was very unhappy that I tied him up to tack and he was away from his buddies.  I did a couple circles on the lead and then got on and he was much better.  We rode around the "pasture" for a while, I figured better to stay in the fence line and feel him out.  Trotted a bit and then tried to explore some of their paths through the grove but Cody was not terribly willing to go away from his friends.  Decided he was calm enough so we went outside of the fence and rode around in the unfenced part of the yard.  Even cantered a bunch and he was calm and not spazzy.  I then pushed him a bit further and we walked down to the stop sign, still our property but out of sight of the other horses.  He was slow as he usually is leaving but nothing more than that.  Maybe I'll ride down to the farm next time.  Or maybe I'll get A to get on Axel and we'll go around somewhere.

Friday is new farrier day, so that'll be interesting and kind of nerve racking.  Will he show up?  Will he be good?  Will the boys behave?  Etc etc.

Leave it to a horse

A few days after having left the horses at their new home I went out to do some ground work with Booker.  Now that my guys are too far away to ride during the week I'll be "leasing" Booker.  After chasing him around the pasture for 10-15 minutes, I finally caught him and noticed this:

Of course, first day out and he's got himself a big old chunk of skin missing from this leg. Since his leg was messed up I went right to the tree to tie him and get the hose.  He stood fine that whole time.  Drug the hose out there and took off the sprayer thinking that'd be too scary and just the regular water coming out of the hose would be better. But he didn't like it anyway and started to pull back.  I put the hose down and he stopped pulling for a second but then started again until he broke the halter and took off.

He ran around to the drive way and then down to the gate to the pasture. When he saw me coming of course he took off again.  I went around the other way and he went back down to the gate. He tried to get into the trees but it must have been too thick.  I was able to get to the gate and open it while he went and stood a bit off.  I was then able to herd him back into the pasture which is where I think he wanted to be anyways.

I needed to get the remaining pieces of rope off him so I decided he didn't get out of work that easy and got the regular halter.  This time I was able to catch him easily.  Maybe because he had that rope on his neck still?  I took him to the hose just to see if it was the hose or being tied that was his issue.  He didn't even want the hose on his front feet so we worked at that for a while.  He was better being held but still would pull back so we had a few times where I made him back up all over the place at high speeds.  Didn't really "fix" anything though.

Took him into the arena, shut the barn door just in case and got a bucket of water.  He stood better for that (not tied) but when the water would hit the wound he'd walk/run away, probably didn't feel good.  Even with getting some water on it I wasn't getting it clean enough.

I decided to work on something so I got the fly spray and we worked on that.  Still with the pulling back so we did some more backing and I made a lot of "shhhing" noises to imitate the spray.  Finally he just stopped and let me spray him. Not sure if he gave up, or if I won or what?  But I gave him lots of praise and sprayed a bit before I lost my chance.

So it's looking like Mr. Booker needs some lessons in not pulling back, fly spray, hose, needles, and who knows what else.

I ended up calling the vet to come out that night.  I couldn't get it clean enough and we figured the flap of skin would need to be trimmed off.  So I armed the vet with the warning that Booker did not do well with needles last time (granted those were needles in his feet - I don't blame him).  He was able to get the needle in with little trouble and Booker was drooling soon enough.  Thank goodness he doped up easily ;)

The vet cleaned it up and gave him some Novocaine and trimmed off the skin and also gave him some morphine.  And as long as the guy was feeling good we also floated his teeth, saved a call charge and drugs since he was ready to go.  So the vet said clean every day, spray with Aluspray, and give him antibiotics.  Could be 4-6 weeks that we'd have to keep up the cleaning and spraying.

The day after I went out and the barn owner helped me clean him up. We weren't sure how he'd do un-drugged and we didn't want to tie him so it was a two man job.  I held him and she cleaned him up with a bucket of water and a rag.  And he did really well. I had to shank him a few times with the halter but other than that he stood really well.  He even stood for the Aluspray and some fly spray.  To top it off, he ate his meds in some grain.  Was thinking we'd have to make a paste out of it and put it in a syringe.

So Nancy has handled subsequent cleanings and he's doing really well with it and we think it's healing nicely as you can see from the photos.  And I think he's getting the added bonus of learning to not pull back, at least with this situation.  She's been working on flyspray as well.  Still haven't tackled the tying issue but that's a bit more tricky.

He's a little pushy going into the barn right now, he looks forward to his grain/meds.  But that should go away when his meds are done in a couple days.  Of course it might be harder to get him in to clean his leg with no treats ;)  And we're loving the Aluspray.  Something we're definitely going to have around the barn for cuts and scrapes and things.  It sticks really well and keeps the bugs out.

Another New Chapter

Well the horses have moved!  A couple weeks ago I loaded up the trailer with most of my horse stuff from the tack room and then on Friday we put the horses in the trailer and said good bye. I can't say that I didn't tear up a bit walking the boys out of their pasture for the last time.

Both boys loaded like champs. Rediscovered that Axel likes to paw while in the trailer. But other than that it was an uneventful 3+ hours on the road for home.  Took the boys out of the trailer and showed the around their new home.  The first few days they were confined to the barn yard while we were still running wire for the rest of the "pasture."  There was quite a bit of waist high grass in the barn yard so we hoped they would help that out a bit.  When we'd drive by later we couldn't even see the horses the grass was so tall.

The boys seemed to think the grass was just fine.  They found a spot where the lane starts that they could stand and catch a really nice breeze and they discovered a spot where the bugs were at a minimum near the water tank.  The line to the automatic waterer leaks so we had to put in a water tank with a float instead but it's pretty easy to fill, just turn on the pump for the well and let it run while you are feeding.  The float stops the water so it doesn't overflow and you can just turn off the pump when you leave.

On Saturday afternoon I decided it was time to drive down and get Haji and bring him home as well.  And my husband let me drive the truck and trailer down and back by myself.  Guess he's decided I'm an okay driver after all (as long as I don't have to park backwards).  So I successfully made it down to Luverne to get the old man. He seemed pretty excited to see what the trailer was all about.  Though he balked a little walking up to it, he did finally jump right in.  After I closed the divider he realized he might be leaving and had a few parting words to say to his buddies.  They ended up running down the pasture next to us as we drove down the driveway.  For some horses that sure gave Haji a hard time they didn't want to see him go.

Haji and I made it back to town unscathed and in one piece.  The boys ran him around a little bit when he first got off the trailer but after that they all calmed down and went to work on the long grass.

On Sunday we finished the fencing and turned the horses out in the rest of the yard.  Cody and Axel ran around a bit but Haji was a lot more reserved.  So far as I know, they haven't spent too much time exploring the place.  They have about 5 acres, some wooded, some yard, and some longer grass.  When I stopped on the 4th of July Cody and Axel were in the yard by the garden and Haji was in the barn yard.

They've already gone through all the feed I had bought so I had to call in and get more.  Guess I'm going to have to buy in a little more bulk if I'm not going to be out there every weekend to check on things.  Kind of an added complication of being so far away from the horses but we'll have to make do.  Cody and Axel's old owner has been feeding and making sure Haji gets his 10+ pounds of wet feed so I'm hoping he'll start fattening up soon.  I'd really like the horse chores to be as easy as possible but right now Haji is at least 100 lbs under weight so he needs to eat as much as possible.

My next complication will be getting a farrier out hopefully on the weekend while I'm there to trim everyone and shoe Cody.  Hopefully we can pull shoes this fall and he'll be barefoot for the winter and do well and not need shoes in the spring.  Maybe I can learn to trim and save some hassle in that department.   I wonder if there's a weekend crash course in hoof trimming?

This blog is going to quickly turn in to "long distance horse keeping."

Last few days - a photo post

Tried to take some photos of the boys in their current herd/pasture before we move them "home" on Friday.  A certain black horse was not participating.  Booker snuck into quite a few photos as well.