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.

Farriery

It's that time of the month again: I needed to get Charlie's feet done....Desperately....Wednesday marked 6 weeks since his last shoeing and while in the winter Charlie could go 8 or 9, this was really starting to push his limits and his unshod back feet were really starting to flake away. Being in a new barn meant I was looking for a new farrier, though, since I'm no longer in the same area as before. Luckily Kate and Maddy both had highly recommended their own farrier so I decided to give him a try.

What a wonderful guy! Now, I didn't not like my old farrier, who actually really did a nice job with Charlie, but this guy was amazing! I was super impressed by the way he had me trot Charlie out a few times mid-process to make sure he was making the proper adjustments. That's the first time I've had a farrier ask me to do that. To me it really showed that he was customizing the job to Charlie's particular needs. In addition, he took the time to massage and stretch Charlie and show me how to do certain stretches and exercises to loosen the tight areas of his back and hips. I'd been doing some stretches with him before but after seeing how easily the farrier was able to release Charlie's tension with a few simple maneuvers, and how much differently Charlie moved afterward, I will definitely be adding in the exercises he showed me and try to do them much more frequently.

Charlie seemed to really like him too (or at least his buzzed hair) :)

I'm too sexy for my shoes

Kisses for the farrier :)