Ich kann es tun!
Kevin bumped Zeke, Talon, and Jasper to today. After I finished my three mornig lessons I got a message saying he was fighting with a horse and wouldn't be able to get my three. He had two down the road before mine.
In a fit of rage and frustration ... or maybe just annoyance ... I did Talon's feet. Not just tidying up here and there I did the WHOLE thing. This is the first time I have done all of a horse's feet all the way. I'm pretty proud of myself. It took me an hour to do, but I did it.
Keep in mind, Talon is not small.
Part of the reason I did't want to wait was I had just worked her across the way during a lesson and her feet were CLEAN and it was really easy to see what needed to be done to get her feet in better order. Strike while the iron is hot!
Chris had the idea that the stacker jump standards might work as an impromt-to hoof stand. I really need to get a hoof stand. Kevin said he might be able to make one for me, which would be awesome. Even though I'm annoyed with him.
The makeshift hoof stand helped a lot, especially doing the first pass with the nippers. I wore gloves while using the rasp, which is probably a good thing because there were a few times when I said to Chris "That would have been my hand!"
I didn't really do anything with her sole, but trimmed her wall down a good amount to just about meet it, pulled her bars WAY back, and cleaned up her frogs. Her frogs were looking like mushrooms from the pressure of them growing down and being laid over as she walked on them. I'm just so annoyed again. It's been almost eight weeks since her last trim because he bumped them a week and then another. Her last trim I ended up doing a lot of work a week after he did her because I was unhappy with the flares and overgrown bars and the lack of tidying of the frogs. I think I tidied her up for the first three weeks so she was pretty much only five weeks out from a trim and there was still a lot of hoof to get through.
When Kevin finally gets himself over here to finish them he gets to see if there's anything I missed or needed to be more aggressive on. I really attacked her flares in her quarters and gave her some air gap so the coronet above her quarters could relax somewhat and her wall would actually have some room to expand and not hit the ground and be pushed out sideways immediately.
I should have taken pictures. Depending on what time I get home tomorrow I may trim Jasper and then to Zeke on Friday or Saturday or I don't know, it depends on when Kevin manages to get himself out there. He did announce that he doesn't really want to do the big ones anymore. He would keep up on Ruby, but I needed to find someone else for the other three. After doing Talon myself I wonder how much of it is really him not making full use of tools. He doesn't like using a hoof stand because it's one more thing that the horse can fling around, but really, Talon wandered a little and did't stand stock still, but she wasn't BAD and even using my not-a-hoof-stand she didn't do anything stupid or dangerous.
I guess I need to make some calls. Chris wants to just go wholesale with another farrier, but I'm not sure. I don't want to jump into the fire from the frying pan because I know there are plenty of farriers and trimmers out there that don't do a good job. At all. If I had the time I would probably just start doing them all myself except for Ruby because shoeing is definitely beyond what I want to learn and get involved in.
I guess it's a good thing I've gotten pretty comfortable messing with feet this last year!
In a fit of rage and frustration ... or maybe just annoyance ... I did Talon's feet. Not just tidying up here and there I did the WHOLE thing. This is the first time I have done all of a horse's feet all the way. I'm pretty proud of myself. It took me an hour to do, but I did it.
Keep in mind, Talon is not small.
Part of the reason I did't want to wait was I had just worked her across the way during a lesson and her feet were CLEAN and it was really easy to see what needed to be done to get her feet in better order. Strike while the iron is hot!
Chris had the idea that the stacker jump standards might work as an impromt-to hoof stand. I really need to get a hoof stand. Kevin said he might be able to make one for me, which would be awesome. Even though I'm annoyed with him.
The makeshift hoof stand helped a lot, especially doing the first pass with the nippers. I wore gloves while using the rasp, which is probably a good thing because there were a few times when I said to Chris "That would have been my hand!"
I didn't really do anything with her sole, but trimmed her wall down a good amount to just about meet it, pulled her bars WAY back, and cleaned up her frogs. Her frogs were looking like mushrooms from the pressure of them growing down and being laid over as she walked on them. I'm just so annoyed again. It's been almost eight weeks since her last trim because he bumped them a week and then another. Her last trim I ended up doing a lot of work a week after he did her because I was unhappy with the flares and overgrown bars and the lack of tidying of the frogs. I think I tidied her up for the first three weeks so she was pretty much only five weeks out from a trim and there was still a lot of hoof to get through.
When Kevin finally gets himself over here to finish them he gets to see if there's anything I missed or needed to be more aggressive on. I really attacked her flares in her quarters and gave her some air gap so the coronet above her quarters could relax somewhat and her wall would actually have some room to expand and not hit the ground and be pushed out sideways immediately.
I should have taken pictures. Depending on what time I get home tomorrow I may trim Jasper and then to Zeke on Friday or Saturday or I don't know, it depends on when Kevin manages to get himself out there. He did announce that he doesn't really want to do the big ones anymore. He would keep up on Ruby, but I needed to find someone else for the other three. After doing Talon myself I wonder how much of it is really him not making full use of tools. He doesn't like using a hoof stand because it's one more thing that the horse can fling around, but really, Talon wandered a little and did't stand stock still, but she wasn't BAD and even using my not-a-hoof-stand she didn't do anything stupid or dangerous.
I guess I need to make some calls. Chris wants to just go wholesale with another farrier, but I'm not sure. I don't want to jump into the fire from the frying pan because I know there are plenty of farriers and trimmers out there that don't do a good job. At all. If I had the time I would probably just start doing them all myself except for Ruby because shoeing is definitely beyond what I want to learn and get involved in.
I guess it's a good thing I've gotten pretty comfortable messing with feet this last year!