New Barefoot Trimmer

I've been hunting for a new barefoot trimmer, my previous guy was good but I don't like how he handles Calvin, as I've mentioned before. He wants me to be there when Calvin gets done, which is always ideal as I want to know what's going on with his feet. Yet at the same time, I can't *always* be there because I have class, or work, or can't commute during that time or else face 3+ hours sitting in a car. This leads me to have to reschedule which often times makes Calvin overdue. Calvin was on a 6w trim schedule and I told my trimmer "he keeps stumbling in front." So he'd trim and then a few weeks into the trim, he'd stumble again.

What you can't see: gail force winds. Trying to keep Calvin distracted so he doesn't want to move.

I decided to try Ilona, another barefoot-only trimmer. She's a hilarious Polish woman who tells it like it is. I've found that people who also shoe horses aren't as good with bare feet. I'm sure there are competent farriers out there who do both, but I've been much more pleased with barefoot-only people. Ilona is no exception, she said she couldn't "shoe a horse to save her life" and decided to apprentice under another barefoot trimmer. The rest is history as they say. 

I warned her that Calvin is impatient. She assured me that impatience is no problem but she's not there to train him. I wouldn't expect her to train him, many people send their unruly horses to farriers and expect miracles. Calvin started very good, as he usually does. Then he started to get wiggly and didn't want to stand still. Ilona still said he was very good and "polite." I said "really? Polite?!" And she said yes, even though he's wiggly he doesn't do anything dangerous or mean. Her motto is "don't fight" the horse, after all if they want their foot away you can't really stop them. This is what I was looking for, someone who understands that gaining trust takes time. 

Pedicures! Ilona wants me to soak his hooves since it's summer now. Summer means rock hard hooves, soaking in water helps soften them up...like human fingernails. I don't have soaking boots, so I used his feed tray and plastic bags inside his Renegade hoof boots. 

The experience went really well and Calvin was very good. She said he was very polite again and gave him lots of horse cookies. She takes pictures and does a very thorough write up for her first time horses. If you're my facebook friend, you probably saw all the pictures already. The gist was that his toes were too long, heels contracted. So we're working to make them perfect :)

New Pasture Puffs

Calvin has two new roommates now! They are both palomino Quarter Horses, aren't they pretty? They belong to the barn manager, I guess they were therapeutic riding horses but eventually they weren't sound anymore, so now they're retired. I don't know their names yet, but the one in front is a gelding and the one behind is a mare.

Now we have 3 geldings and a mare, so much competition for the boys! I was curious to see how introducing new horses into the pasture would go. I heard that Calvin was pushing them around for a few days, but today when I finally was able to go out things seemed to be pretty calm! It was clear Calvin was in charge, he'd pin his ears and they'd hustle out of his way. I guess he's the big man in charge now, seems like just yesterday he was the one being pushed around!

It's hard to watch a herd establishing hierarchy because they don't do it nicely. It involves lots of teeth and hooves being thrown around. However, it typically takes around a week for herd order to be established and then things are back to normal. It was hard for me to watch at first when Calvin was the one being picked on, but now I realize that's just the way horses establish order. Obviously if the horses were in serious danger and didn't have access to food or water then we'd intervene, but they've adapted well. That's the good thing about him being a mustang, he's spent all 4 years of his life living with other horses learning social skills. So while he may look aggressive when trying to prove his status, I'm confident he won't continually bully like some anti-social horses tend to do. My suspicion was confirmed today when I saw them all sharing the same hay net.

I decided to give the pasture ponies a break and take Calvin out for a ride. We went on the trails today to change things up. He started by spooking at a mud puddle that we've walked through probably 10 times in the past, so I wasn't sure how the rest of the ride would go. However, Calvin was really well behaved, even staying calm despite distant gunshots and scary birds. A park ranger came up and asked me about whether gravel is bad for horses' feet. They are re-doing the equestrian trails in the park and there's gravel around from the construction. He probably asked the wrong person that question because I said,"oh I always try to find gravel to toughen his feet up!" But I did include "well, most people's horses have sensitive feet and they may try and avoid the gravel." He confirmed that some ladies complained about the gravel, pssh, that's what hoof boots are for! I guess I'm the only endurance rider around ;)

See that small dark spot on the concrete left of the dam? That's a heron and yes, it was terrifying to Calvers!

Fail Friday

All I can say is that I'm grateful technology wasn't as prevalent during my h/j days because I had so, so many "fails" that usually constituted me and/or the horse going through a jump instead of over it. Some are still on video somewhere, perhaps if my parents ever convert their old video camera to USB I'll upload my old horse show videos (hint hint!). Luckily my mom was around to capture this lovely Calvin move. This video was taken at the same time as my previous videos, but I figured it needed it's own post to really do it justice ;) Be sure to watch to the very end:

Canter Fail! And yes, that is my dad asking "what happened?" haha. 

So you may be asking, how did that happen? Well after much analysis of the video on my end, I've come to the conclusion that Calvin decided he wanted to bulge to the left mid-corner which caused him to swing his body over the fence. I could tell he was bulging and hence, I applied right rein, but he ignored it. I probably should have used my outside leg to reinforce him staying in the arena. However I somewhat assumed he would stay in the ring since I never walk him over that tiny fence, I guess that was wishful thinking. Maybe he's telling me that he wants to be a jumper? ;)

 Anyway, no harm done and lessons learned :)