Around the homestead

When I'm riding Blue two or three times a week, he hardly needs his hooves trimmed at all. In fact, only the two front ones where they tend to grow long in one spot need attention, and Cliff can usually handle that. For the past few months, though, I haven't been on my horse often enough to wear his feet down. So Randy, my farrier, came to visit yesterday. I'm so glad I stopped having shoes put on my horse: It saves a lot of money and hassle to keep him barefoot. $35 for a trim, as opposed to $85 for shoeing.

After an afternoon of rain (another half-inch in the rain gauge), I noticed the sun was shining brightly outside yesterday and figured there might be a rainbow to the east. So I grabbed my camera and headed out.

Indeed there was, a nice, full one, a rainbow too big for me to capture in one photo.

Notice how the coffee tree is illuminated by the setting sun. Even though I know rainbows are a natural phenomenon, I still get a feeling I'm seeing something magical when I witness one.

For any farmer-type people who might read this blog, here's the business end of my recently-acquired Jersey heifer, Bonnie. Although she isn't real heavy with calf, when I look at her backside and udder, I wonder if she'll really wait until late June to have her calf.


Cliff rigged it up so the ladies can get in this pen where they can bed down in the stall without horses bothering them. They opt to spend most nights in there. It's their choice.

Time for the farrier

Blue lost a shoe on his one white foot (a back one) last week, so I called my farrier, Randy. When I looked at my checkbook, I saw it had been eight weeks since his last visit, which is really pushing the limit. I took this picture the day Blue lost the shoe; it looked much better today, since my riding him on gravel had the effect of trimming it. I noticed Blue didn't seem tender-footed at all, the five times I rode him with a missing shoe. When I told the farrier about this, he said horses carry 80% of their weight on their front feet, and lots of people only shoe the front feet.

"OK," I said. "Unless you think he needs a shoe on that white foot when you look at it, let's do that."

Randy takes off the old shoe from one foot, trims the hoof, and puts the shoe back on. Cliff was busy, so I had to try and take pictures while holding Blue. This is an under-the-belly shot.

Notice, like all real cowboys, Randy wears Wranglers. I don't see how farriers keep from having constant backaches.
He places the shoe on a hard surface and pounds it with a hammer to get it to fit the hoof properly.

After taking the shoe off, he uses a rasp, or file, to smooth out the edges of the hoof; he uses it again on the outside of the hoof after nailing the shoe on.

Since we were leaving the back feet bare, all he had to do was clip off the extra part of the hooves where they had grown, and then file them smooth. This picture, by the way, is a front foot.

He's clinching the nails here.

80$ later, Blue is ready to be ridden. Seems a little pricey since only two shoes were put back on, but I'm not going to mess with a good farrier. Besides, how many people could stay bent over like that for so long?

Hopefully I won't have to call Randy back until mid-September, and then I'll probably leave the shoes off all around.

drugged horse

Tude, one of the horses boarded here, doesn't take kindly to being shod. So his owner gives him a gentle shot to calm him down for the procedure.

Today, after Tude had his new shoes, Adam gave him some grain. Tude ate the grain, then promptly went to sleep with his nose in the bucket.

Because a still shot didn't seem to do it justice, I took a brief video:

Shoes for Blue

Over the past fall and winter, I had great success leaving Blue barefoot. As I rode, his feet toughened up; it worked out great for both of us. Even gravel didn't seem to hurt his feet.

Unfortunately, during the past month or so, his feet were wearing away drastically, and he was getting very tender-footed.

So yesterday I called Randy, my farrier, and had him put shoes on Blue to the tune of $85..

The past two summers it seems Blue's feet refused to grow. The shoes would fall off, but there was no new hoof to nail them back onto for a re-set; so Randy would have to do the best he could. Before long, Blue's feet would more or less crumble from all the nail-holes; then I'd have to simply ride him unshod at home in the pasture.

We'll see if this summer is a repeat of the previous two.

To shoe, or not to shoe?

Mankind has been putting shoes on horses for longer than you would imagine. That's my farrier, Randy, shoeing Blue. That's me holding onto Blue's lead rope and peeking over his shoulder.

I've considered it a necessity, with all the horses I've owned, to keep them shod if they are being ridden on any un-natural surface such as gravel or asphalt. I've let them go bare-foot through the winter when they weren't being ridden as much. The times I'd take them out on gravel roads unshod, they'd limp with almost every step.

And then I've always remembered the time, years ago, when Cliff's sister rode a pony on gravel so much that his hooves were worn down to nubs.

Paying the farrier is one of the major expenses of horse-keeping... $80 every six to eight weeks. Some horses seem to have a knack for losing shoes, which makes it more costly. I don't blame the farrier for the fee he asks, because shoeing a horse is a back-breaking job. And lots of horses aren't so easy to deal with.

The past two summers, my Blue has had a problem with shoes. His feet don't seem to grow fast, and when it was time to re-set the shoes, the nails had to be driven so close to where the preceding ones had been, it made the wall of his hooves weak, and they chipped and broke until the farrier eventually had to patch them with a cement-like substance; finally, I asked him to remove the shoes entirely, and I began feeding my horse supplements and unflavored gelatin, hoping to strengthen his hooves.

More and more, I was finding articles like this one on the Internet. And this one. In fact, just type "barefoot horse" or "shod horses" into Google, and you come up with dozens of people advocating no shoes, and very few voices heard from the other side of the coin.

It sounded good, but what about the way the horses limp when taken onto gravel unshod? They're obviously in pain.

I have a blogging buddy who is quite knowledgeable about horses, and I asked her about this. She told me that a horse's hooves will "toughen up" in about two months, just like a person's feet will when they go barefoot for awhile.

So I decided to test the theory. At first Blue would limp every time he'd hit gravel, and I'd do my best to keep him in the grassy areas beside the road. I do a great deal of my riding on farm ground down on the Missouri River bottom, so once I got there, we were home free anyway.

As time went on, the gravel affected Blue's stride less and less. Yesterday I rode for almost three hours, mostly on gravel roads, and he didn't limp or give to the rocks even once.

His feet look nicely trimmed, thanks to the wear they get. I notice his front feet have a strange wear pattern that might need attention, but I think perhaps Cliff and I could take care of that ourselves.

We'll see. It would be nice if I never had to pay a farrier again.