don't give a carrot before the farrier comes
Heather Fair
nicely. Despite some minor surface cracks she says their feet are in good
condition and reflect their overall health. I learned, however, that until
I get (mine and) Destiny's act in gear 100%, he gets no carrots until AFTER
the farrier is done with him. Little snot stood perfectlly still on his
FEET but kept nosing me and searching for a second carrot in my pocket. I
was trying to concentrate on the farrier and her safety but I knew that if
1) I let Destiny get away with this and 2) I left him nose me nough that he
lost his balance and had to take a step we'd both be in trouble. We came
off ok but I can tell you I'll be working with the little bugger this week
on this stuff. All in all he's damn good for a partially trained (I guess
he qualifies) pasture ornament. Can't wait to start riding him seriously
with a trainer/instructor, though. <sigh>
Heather Fair
Wasilla, Alaska
where the winds have settled some but we still have night gusts up to 50MPH
hoofinitnorth.com
Heather Fair
mention that I had her show me the "emergency" farrier techniques to keep
their toes rounded back when we run a week long in our trim cycles for
whatever reason (as we did this past time). She also gave me an old rasp. I
was AMAZED to hear that she only gets about 20 trims out of each rasp-even
less if the horses' feet are particularly tough/hard. !!!!
Heather Fair
Wasilla, Alaska
hoofinitnorth.com
Claudia Wheatley
<hoofingitnorth@nospam!hotmailnospam!.com> wrote:
> Heh, had the farrier out on Saturday and she cleaned up the boys feet
> nicely. Despite some minor surface cracks she says their feet are in
> good
> condition and reflect their overall health. I learned, however, that
> until
> I get (mine and) Destiny's act in gear 100%, he gets no carrots until
> AFTER
> the farrier is done with him. Little snot stood perfectlly still on his
> FEET but kept nosing me and searching for a second carrot in my pocket.
> I
> was trying to concentrate on the farrier and her safety but I knew that
> if
> 1) I let Destiny get away with this and 2) I left him nose me nough that
> he
> lost his balance and had to take a step we'd both be in trouble. We came
> off ok but I can tell you I'll be working with the little bugger this
> week
> on this stuff.
What a coincidence. The new farrier came out today, and in order to
persuade Jack to leave his nice warm sunny paddock, I bribed him with a
bite of carrot. But I had plenty of time to convince him that there
wouldn't be any more treats before the farrier arrived.
I've been worrying about Jack's feet because of existing cracks and the
fact that they seem to be chipping even with shoes on. But the farrier
was pleased with his progess (he talked over Jack's history with my old
farrier and took a quick look at him about a month ago) and says he's
doing fine. Off came the borium and on went standard-issue shoes. Hope
we don't get any more ice this spring!
The farrier was delighted with Roy and said if every horse had feet that
nice, his job would be a lot easier. No chips, no cracks, solid as a
rock.
Here's an interesting thing, though: Jack hasn't been trimmed since the
first week in December, and Roy hasn't been done since OCTOBER; but the
farrier barely took 1/2" off either of them. This happened last winter,
which made sense because we had no snow and the hard, abrasive ground
keep their feet worn down. But this year we had plenty of snow. The
farrier theorized that the deeply cold weather kept the snow hard and
abrasive, and the low low temps caused their systems to concentrate on
keeping warm, leaving little energy for growing hoof. He also said
hooves tend to grow slower as horses age; Roy is 18 this year, so that
makes sense, too.
All in all, it was a good morning!
C
Claudia Wheatley, Ithaca, NY
"Government is the entertainment division of the
military industrial complex." --Frank Zappa
Heather Fair
"Claudia Wheatley" <ca...@cornell.edu> wrote in message
news:caw43-D62F78....@newsstand.cit.cornell.edu...
snip>>> Here's an interesting thing, though: Jack hasn't been trimmed since
the
> first week in December, and Roy hasn't been done since OCTOBER; but the
> farrier barely took 1/2" off either of them. This happened last winter,
> which made sense because we had no snow and the hard, abrasive ground
> keep their feet worn down. But this year we had plenty of snow. The
> farrier theorized that the deeply cold weather kept the snow hard and
> abrasive, and the low low temps caused their systems to concentrate on
> keeping warm, leaving little energy for growing hoof. He also said
> hooves tend to grow slower as horses age; Roy is 18 this year, so that
Yep, this year our winter was unusually warm and the boys had TONS of
growth. But the hard ground kept them worn a bit. I could follow the
growth on Revvy easily because he had a small soft spot from a minor injury
that was growing down the hoof. So even though he was wearing well and his
feet didn't look terribly long (until about 10 days ago), I could see the
growth. It was 9 weeks this time from last trim (we were scheduled for 8
but farrier had to reschedule at last minute last week). She took about 1"
off Destiny's toes (remember I posted that he was getting suddenly long in
the toes and his heels had started to chip) and about 3/4" off Revvy. WOW.
Dogs were very happy to have the trimmings and the horses didn't know what
had happened to their feet. They looked so weird walking around for about
1/2 a day after their trims - as if they were afraid of tripping on their
(now non-existent) long toes. Poor guys!
LisaX4156
>keeping warm, leaving little energy for growing hoof. He also said
>hooves tend to grow slower as horses age; Roy is 18 this year
Age really has nothing to do with it.. At least in my years of owning older
horses it never has.
Before my Morgan/Arab gelding died 2½ years ago, at age 23, he had the
strongest feet in the world. He also had fast growing hooves, growing sometimes
over an inch in a month. I once had him go a year without a trim. When a trim
was done on him, he didn't need anything done, but shaping. Nothing was cut off
as he had excellent feet. He didn't need a trim, but my shoer saw him just
standing there, watching us trim my mares feet, so he took his rasp and rasped
his feet. I told him he ddin't need to be done, and he said that I was right.
He didn't charge me for trimming him. I told him how long it had been since
he'd been trimmed and he's all " wow, really? I've never seen a horse go this
long before without a trim, and having perfect feet" He was then 21 yrs old.
Weather does play a part in growing though. They grow slower in winter for
obvious reasons and pick up again in the spring..
It all has to do with diet and genetics (and weather).... Ok I had to share my
story :-)
Lisa
CMSQ...@webtv.net
Not to dig up bad memories, but, what happened to him? My "old fart"
will be 30 in August, and, to this day, has feet that amazes my farrier.
I'm guessing geneticd makeup. He's a tough old bird (the horse, that is,
well, the farrier too). <G>
Candy
Texas rider
in warm weather.
CG
LisaX4156
>will be 30 in August, and, to this day, has feet that amazes my farrier.
>I'm guessing geneticd makeup. He's a tough old bird (the horse, that is,
>well, the farrier too). <G>
Right now, if I had to guess, I think he died from cushings. But I'm not
exactly sure. I didn't know any diseases n stuff like I do now, 2 yrs ago.
I've learned so much in the last 2 years on diet, diseases, health, ect. since
then, It's wonderful.
Anyways.. He was on an alfalfa diet. He stopped eating alfalfa stems, and ate
only the leaves. He was also on 10 lbs of Equine Senior, so it's not like he
was starved. I believe he got his winter coat very early that year, when it
was still very hot out, almost in the middle of summer. He started losing
weight. I thought it was his age.
Well.. I called the vet out because he wasn't eating the alfalfa stems, so I
thought it was his teeth. His teeth hadn't been done in a few years, so it was
time anyways. My QH mare needed xrays for a severe founder, so she had to come
out anyhow.
Well.. The day my vet showed up, on Oct. 1st 2000, my gelding was found dead in
the pasture :-( I went out to feed that morning and thought he was sleeping,
but my mare was standing over him. He had died sometime during the night.
The way I had found him indicated a heart attack. He was partially on the
fence, with his neck on his side, like he was itching his ribs. So he literally
dropped dead.
My mare was depressed, always standing over him while we waited for the
rendering truck to come. It's like she was protecting him. SHe also kept
nudging him to get up to go eat. She missed a few meals waiting for him to get
up. It was very sad to watch her do that. I don't have another pasture so I
could'n't put her into to seperate them.
So while the vet was here the rendering truck also came that day. When the
rendering truck took him, my mare came back to an empty pasture, after being
xrayed. She started calling out for him. She did that for a couple days,
frantic to find her best friend.
I miss him.. I want another morgan/arab. He was so gentle he would never hurt a
fly. My daughter learned to ride him. I had owned him for 15 years. I loved
him.. he was a wonderful horse. I don't think I'll ever come across another
horse like him again.
Lisa :-)