Mea Culpa

O.K. I've been remiss about blogging. It's been such a busy bunch of weeks that I didn't realize it had been 5 weeks since Ace's feet had been trimmed until I wrote a check to my farrier today. No wonder his left fore was so out of balance when the vet looked at him on Thursday. Bad Mommy.

I'll be moving Ace to my trainer's place this week. She had an opening at the location a few blocks away where she does most of her teaching. There's an 8 stall barn plus several pipe corrals. Ace is getting the newest pipe corral and we've made him a house at one end of the 12 x 24. He'll have a 12 x 12 partical enclosure (walls on 3 sides) to stay out of the wind and wet, and it will help keep his shavings from blowing away. He'll be able to watch everything, but there will be no territory wars over fences. Last week, he wound up was a very squishy swelling in his back right leg above the fetlock which I am sure was acquired kicking at the tyrannosaurus rex who recently moved in next to him.

There will also be plenty of little horse-loving girls to fuss over him while I'm not around. And he loves to be fussed over, around, and about.

I've been trying to find a tack shed. The one I have at the current barn is a plastic Suncast which is approximately 7 x 3 feet and 7 feet high on the exterior. It's just a bit too narrow, but I had no idea how expensive they were until I started shopping. I think I've found the one I'm going to buy. It's not perfect, but it will work. I'll just have to be better about stacking things and not forget that I've also got a Suncast bench seat for additional storage.

Tomorrow is Ace's birthday. He will be 12. He was just over a year old when I first saw him and it was three years later that I decided to buy him and bring him out to Los Angeles from New Mexico. I am so glad I did.

It Wasn't for Want of a Nail

I got to the barn to take my lesson on Monday and had gotten Ace all cleaned up except for his feet. I did his off-side first, since that was more convenient and then I went to his near side. I picked up his foot and my first thought was "what the hell has he done here" before I realized I wasn't looking at his back foot, but the front one which should have had a shoe and pad on. Then I really had a knot in my stomach.

He still had a couple of nails in the hoof wall and a chunk of hoof taken off the inside. At first I was afraid that I had missed him throwing a shoe when he was turned out on Sunday night, but then I found the shoe in his stall. When Gayle got there with some tools a few minutes later, we realized he must have caught the hoof in the rail to his neighbor and yanked. I'm really lucky he didn't do more damage, since the shoe hadn't been loose in any way and the other one was solidly in place. I also felt really lucky when I reached my farrier and discovered that he had just gotten back from Colorado, so he could come out on Tuesday morning to reshoe my boy. Since I had expected Tim to come out on Saturday or Sunday anyway, it only pushed up this month's shoes by a few days.

Tim is the second farrier I've had for Ace since I got him seven years ago. My original farrier, Mike, was great, but he got pissed off when the barn manager at the college threw one too many arbitrary rules at him. It went from me scheuling Mike's next visit at the beginning of the shoeing session to him telling me that he wouldn't be coming back again as he packed up his things.

It can be really hard to find a farrier. Horse owners don't want to share names, it seems, and out here farriers can pretty much pick and choose their clients. I think I'm a pretty good client: I'm there when feet are done, I've always got my checkbook, and the checks don't bounce.

Fortunately, about six months before Mike quit on me, What's My Line Live on Stage had a farrier as a contestant (the panel didn't guess his occupation.) So I got in touch with director Jim Newman and asked for contact information. The farrier had stuck in my mind because he identified himself as being from Binghamton, not far from where I'm from. It has turned out to be a really good match.

Tim was trained at Cornell University and is a big believer in keeping horses barefoot whenever possible. We did it with Ace for almost a year until he got another nasty bruise on that problem left front hoof with almost no heel. The vet insisted that shoes were in order, pads were up to Tim. So, we've gone to shoes with pads in front (he's always been barefoot on his back feet) and we haven't had a bruise since.

A horse is his feet, and I don't mind paying for the pedicure that keeps Ace in good shape. Thanks, Tim. I'll be lost if your acting career takes off.

Wind, Again

Over the past 16 months, I've lost more riding time to the wind than in the previous 8 years combined. At least, that's what it seems like. We had to cancel my lesson yesterday because of high winds in Chatsworth, and that was after waiting all day to find a different window than my 11:15 scheduled time. Gayle gave thought to canceling Friday evening as well, since she had to cancel most of the lessons during the day, but my barn isn't as bad as hers is sometimes, so Friday worked out.

I'm up earlier than I would be on a Sunday because my farrier called to say he could do Ace today if I had the time. Since Ace has really worn down one of his shoes over the past 6 weeks, I thought it was a good idea. Tim has been attempting to even out Ace's shoulders with a little corrective shoeing, and it seems to be having a small effect. If it works, it might help curb his habit of dropping that shoulder and spooking to the right. I've gotten a whole lot better at stopping the move as my seat and hands have improved, but he's amazingly fast.