Barefoot

Is that apple for us?

Today Charlie's new farrier came out, and I decided after much deliberation to pull his shoes for the first time ever. Charlie has really good feet - and not just for a Thoroughbred - and since I'm not riding nearly as much as I thought I would this winter, I figured why pay to keep the shoes on? If I did, I'd need to spend the money for snow pads anyway. So here's to braving things barefoot for a little while!

It was actually probably a good thing Dave didn't have to nail shoes back on. Charlie was kind of a nut. The appointment was a last minute "I can fit you in now" kind of thing, so I only got about 20 min of groundwork in before the farrier arrived. Enough to take the edge off, but not enough to wear Charlie out so he wouldn't think monsters were out to get him when he caught a glimpse of the caretaker's kid as he went running off across the snowy lawn. That set him off. Charlie darted and spun and fell in the snow and generally got himself all worked up....aaand then the farrier pulled in. <sigh> He really wasn't awful, but it definitely was not the stellar first impression I would have liked.

Shoes and "Spring Cleaning"

Yesterday I got to the barn to discover that Charlie had lost his second shoe in the last week. Nice. I was really trying to stretch his next farrier visit out to the first week of June, which would be 6 weeks (in the winter he could go 8-9 between shoeings), but apparently Charlie had other ideas. Luckily my farrier was already coming out today to shoe another horse in the barn so it was no trouble to add Charlie to his schedule. 

I was still able to ride him lightly outside yesterday since the footing is nice and soft out there, but today it was pouring and the indoor is way to hard for a shoeless foot. So that meant after doing my normal Wednesday barn chores Charlie underwent a little "spring cleaning" instead (er, sheath cleaning). Dan was both intrigued and disgusted, Charlie didn't enjoy it but he did let me clean most everything without complaint. Fun things I can now look forward to as a gelding owner!