My computer has been down for the last week or so, so here is some catching up. My barefoot expert and friend, D, has been kind enough to lend me her tools and advisory expertise on a few trims lately. In the last week and a half I hauled Blaze and then Desire down to her place and worked full trims on them myself, with her supervising. Desire's trim last Friday took me literally 3 1/2 hours but she needed a lot of work on all four feet and there were breaks for questions, and breaks for my back! She was mostly pretty good, though very wiggly and bendy at first which was exhausting. It's amazing what subtle shifts of their bodies can make working on their hooves totally uncomfortable!
Desire pre-trim, at D's
After ponying Joey out the other day it was Sheza's turn. She joined Desire and I and we did a 4 mile out-and-back with a few short, steep hills. Sheza trots nicely while ponying now and is quite game for the challenge. She had to trot to keep up to mom's power walk and sometimes trotted when she didn't need to but she mostly stayed in line pretty well. I did watch her carefully though, because she gives very telltale signs before she does something Naughty! Her ears kind of flop sideways, she flashes the whites of her eyes, and if you don't stop her then, she does something totally ridiculous. Like try to bite me, or her mother, or spook sideways, or something else random. If I caught it at the eye-white rolling and gave her an "EH EH" she wouldn't bother escalating, and Desire was just wiggly enough about ponying her that I always knew if Sheza went even a step out of line. 
Impressive trimming, but it sounds exhausting! I'm sure you'll get faster, and how cool to have a great mentor.
ReplyDeleteSheeza is way too tall to be a "baby" any more, wow!
I'll definitely get faster, especially as my back gets stronger!
DeleteUmm.... Sheeza big filly alright. Look at that girl, almost as tall as her mom. I wish I understood safe ponying. I see endurance riders doing it with their young ones all the time and never have a baby to practice with.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean, you wish you "understood" it? I got tons of practice ponying as a trail guide, when you could be ponying anything from a 6 yr old to a nervous adult, and you may or may not be riding a reliable horse. So I am pretty handy at it, but have also had my catastrophes with it--but never with my own horses, just in the trail guide/rodeo days, Lol.
ReplyDeleteI find the calming presence of another horse is good for both me and the ponied animal, instead of us both being out, tense, alone. I am comfortable riding my saddle horses and that calm translates as well as the other horse's presence, of course.