If Blaze were a human teenager, I could have accurately said that he was acting his age on our ride this morning.
OHMYGOSH. But I don't wanna. Are we there yet? OMG, I'm going to be dramatic now. Since he is a horse teenager, I foolishly expect more out of him. Coz you know, he's been around for 15 years, seen many things and places, has "worked" in many disciplines, gone hundreds if not thousands of trail miles--and those last three are only in the last 3 years, since I bought him. Still, I think we all know our horses often don't give a fig (or an apple) what we expect of them, and in keeping with such, Blaze treated me to a full fledged Green-and-Balky ride this a.m.
I had been avoiding taking Blaze off the property recently as I didn't want Joey spazzing about on his bad foot, but since Joey was running laps around his paddock for breakfast this morning I concluded he was sound enough to be left on his own.
Out into the neighborhood
OHMYGOSH DONKEY
He did the usual stop, spin, stare at the approaching donkey. But then the herd of creep little sheep started running toward the fence line too and Blaze
about lost his shit. Closest he has ever been to completely going nuts and bolting, which I only let escalate to shrinking and back pedaling with his nose to the stars, before smacking his neck and getting him to move forward. I had to snap him out of it a few more times and he got so ridiculous at the cows running down from the neighbor's top fields for morning breakfast (bad timing there!) that I actually dismounted and led him through it. He froze stock still, neck like stone, quivering, and I could feel his heart hammering under me! I said THAT'S IT and got off.
Looking all serene--bullshit I say!
Hand walking Mr. Spooky Pants
He mellowed out some after we passed the cows but it wasn't til 3 miles in that he really relaxed at all, despite his cool gaze in photos!
Turning around at the water crossing, nice to wade in and lots of great grass for the horses.
Shiny boots!
Yum
OH THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE BACK, says Joey
*************
These are Blaze's left front and right front, respectively. Please feel free to say any and everything about them, any readers who maintain their own hooves. My camera literally died and shut off as a snapped the right front, so these are the only hoof shots I got today.
See how on the left front the frog kinda collapses down into the grooves? Pretty separated white line at the quarters?
Left Front
Found this shot of his left front after the trimmer worked on it this summer..
His right front hoof is FUNKY. It has the higher heel, always has, which is kinda smushed/collapsed on the right side, as referring to the ride side of the photo, below. Also there is an old quarter crack on the left side, as referring to the photo below, hard to see coz the darn cement is almost the same color as the hoof at that point. He just has a weird heel on hoof and it looks like the toes grow forward narrowly from it..I am too amateur yet to talk about all this correctly or fix it myself, probably, but I am playing around every day and I appreciate any insight from hoof saavy readers.
Right Front
So I cant figure out how to email you.
ReplyDeleteI was just going to follow up on my post about Falcon and his issues.
His feet issues may have started at some point when I Ieft him in Virginia and he wasn't trimmed for a very long time. He tends to be on the flat footed side. I had him trimmed after his arrival in Ca and after the 2nd or 3rd trimming he was looking pretty decent. I would like to contact you via email... oriellea@msn.com is mine...and I can give you the rest of the story.
: ) Kim
Just emailed you! :)
DeleteWhat a silly boy, I love how he can look so calm but is truly being an idiot. I know that feeling!
ReplyDeleteAs for the feet...damn, it's so hard to figure it all out! The white line does look a bit stretched in the quarters, is there a flare? When Major gets like that it's because he's a little long, but every horse is so different. The sulcus looks a bit deep, does the crack go deeper? Hard to tell from the surface if it's just dirt or maybe a little thrushy. I'm constantly battling that. The right is a little funky, but if it works for him, I've read enough about not making the feet picture-perfect, but for how they work on the horse (love the Rockley Farm blog for info)
Well of course when he was being an idiot I was busy staying on and cursing myself for not putting a bit in his mouth! Lol. He doesn't collect a single bit in that S Hack but so prefers it to the trail, I gave him too much credit putting it on though as he hadn't been out in a while!
DeleteMy trimmer just offered to oversee me trimming him if I haul down to her, so I think I will next week after I get back from the ride. :) I would love to do it with guidance at least once!
Hard to tell from just these shots, but my personal revelation with my horses' hooves is the flaring and it sort of looks like there might be the most minor of flaring on both of Blaze's (the right side of both photos)? I realized that minor flaring is why my mare's hooves have the tiniest of cracks. The way she loads her hooves she tends to flare medially on the fronts and laterally on the hinds (my colt is opposite). I've been so slow to modify and be bolder with my trimming techniques, so I'm just noticing the minor stuff on mine.
ReplyDeleteCentral sulcus doesn't look too bad at all to me, but here in the east we have a much bigger issue with thrush with all our rain and wet it seems.