Getting My Exercise

Apr
26

The farrier rescheduled for this morning, from a Saturday appointment, leaving me to round up the horses and donkeys on my own. Morgan, my cheerful helper, is at school. Doing this on my own would have been easier if 1) the horses weren’t fascinated with the grass in the yard while I was taking them through, and 2) the donkeys didn’t have to be taken through a field with goats and sheep. But after a good deal of running around (that would be me), it was accomplished!
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Everybody else in the front barn yard area had to be contained in the meantime.
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Chloe isn’t even supposed to be in the front barn yard, but showed up there this morning. She had to wait it out in the milking parlor until I had time to put her back where she belongs.
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I had shoes put on Shortcake’s and Zip’s front feet. The process was interesting to learn and watch. Horse shoes come in different sizes, but even once you have the right size, some adjustment is needed. This block and hammer are used to either pound the shoes to narrow them or widen them slightly for a perfect fit.
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The shoes are nailed on with special nails.
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The nails go through the hoof and are bent over on the other side.
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The ends are nipped off.
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Then the hooves are finished off to make sure everything fits smoothly over the shoe.
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And tightened down.
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I’m pretty sure everyone was happy when it was all over!
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And then all I had to was put everyone back….





Comments

  1. California Paintbrush says:

    Learned something new…horse shoe nails coming out the topside of hoofs! You certainly get your exericise!

  2. FarmGrammy says:

    Suzanne gal, you should wear one of those ankle things to count steps. Your number would be amazing. And half of it is probably at a dead run. :snoopy:

  3. Joell says:

    :purpleflower: :purpleflower: :purpleflower:
    Girls and new shoes, don’t they just go together?

  4. Mandys says:

    Wow I never knew all that about Horseshoes! I always just thought they were just nailed to the hoof and that was that, I never realized the nails went right through! Lucky they don’t feel it xD

  5. outbackfarm says:

    That was really interesting. I had no idea that nails are used in putting horseshoes on horses hooves. How I thought they’d stay on I don’t have a clue. I have never looked at a horse’s hooves to see how they are held on. It looks like it would hurt, but it doesn’t. So thank you for the horseshoeing lesson.

  6. whaledancer says:

    Wouldn’t it be nice if when we bought people shoes the final step was to individually fit them to our feet?

  7. Diane says:

    I also learned something new today. I knew horseshoes nails was sharp. But did not know they was long enough to go though the hoof like that. Wow. I wonder who thought to think that it would not hurt the horse to do that??

    That block is an anvil by the way. 🙂 And he has a nice one too. 🙂

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