Getting a Hooficure

Abby and the rest of the herd got hooficures yesterday. Tim wanted to begin with the babies, and so he brought them up to the new barn and put them in the box stalls, all ready to go for when our farrier, Jess, arrived. (Tim has always done his own trimming, but last summer he had to have back surgery and he cannot do it any more.)

Except that the farrier was running late and Snickerdoodle and Sultanna became very restless - understandable since they spend all their time free and wandering pastures. Tim decided to turn them loose in the indoor arena and we had gotten Snickerdoodle in and had just haltered Sultanna when the farrier pulled up. Tim went outside to greet her with Sultanna in tow.

That was too much for Snickerdoodle who was pacing along the arena wall. He did a beautiful levade and then leapt over the wall!

When he went back on his haunches (shades of Abby when I first got her; read about that here) I knew what he was up to, and that I could not stop him, so I quickly turned and slid shut the outside door to prevent him from running loose outside. I grabbed Sultanna and Tim went haring back into the barn to chase down Snickerdoodle. It took him a while, but as that was happening, Sultanna became more and more agitated herself, so Tim decided to bring up Hokey and Abby and let the babies calm down out in the pasture for a while.

Hokey's behavior was a big contrast to that of the babies! (And he provides a good scale as to how high the arena wall is that Snickerdoodle jumped freestanding!)

 Hokey's an experienced, quiet, older gelding and he was very well behaved. (He's my favorite of Tim's horses.)

 Abby waited in the wings to go second.

 Tim held her (since I am post op and still under restrictions - I really should not have held Sultanna earlier, but it was an emergency, so what do you do?) and while Abby was wiggly initially, she soon settled and behaved herself.

 She played with Jess's pony tail a bit and her head came down as she relaxed more and more.

 In fact, she started to nod off which made Tim laugh!

Diablo was lined up to go after Abby. I wish I had been able to stay and watch her trimming as she needs special care. At one point in her life she foundered, and so her hooves have deep rings on them and tend to want to grow out and up.

 The farrier asked me to take some photos that she could use on her Facebook business page so I was trying to get an assortment. Not sure if she'll use this one that Tim photobombed. He's good at that - go here for another recent example.

I was intrigued by the farrier's stand - it had magnets to hold her tools so she didn't have to lay them on the ground.

After Abby was done, I had to leave as I had a post op appointment to get my stitches out and hopefully get my restrictions lifted. (Some were but I have to continue to "take it easy." Drat!!)