We are barefoot

I finally did it!!! Sante is now barefoot!!!

I did a trimming course about a month ago, which was the best thing I could have done for my horse! I had to wait for his current shoes to grow out, and i also had to compete the MS Ride before taking his shoes off.

It was 5 weeks today since he was last shod, I could have waited a few more weeks, but to be honest, the nails had started to tear, and i was risking losing a major part of his outter wall.

I think we did really well today.

When i was doing the trimming course i was kind of worried, I made sure i asked lots of questions, but even after the course i had this thought in the back of my mind "Do i REALLY know enough to do this myself?" And deep down I was a bit nervous about doing it myself.

So, I bribed one of my friends (who did the course with me) to oversee.

Its amazing, how when you think about something you have to do, you can run a million scenarios through your head and scare yourself to death.. Well, today, I just got into it.

There was a farrier there who kindly took the shoes off for me, When i told him I was trimming myself, he gave me the good advice "Less is more, If you're not sure, take less off! Simple rule of thumb"

Good advice!

Once I had him barefoot, i just picked up the first foot and started to analyze, cleaned it out, cleaned up the frog a little, cut back the toe (as best i could with a rasp) and put a bloody big bevel on his toe.

Being thoroughbred and having massive big cracks in his outer wall, I decided to keep the toe fairly short. I also filed out the splays that were starting to form.

I have taken "before" pictures, which i will post tomorrow. I didn't get to complete all 4 feet today, I got 2 and a half done, but Sante started to get a little fidgety (quite obviously he's not used to farriers taking more than half an hour, and i'd been going for about 2 hours?)

So tomorrow I'll complete the trim and take "after photos".

I plan on taking progress shots at each trimming, I'm really hoping that the cracks begin to grow out...

Its also really good for us, I fear that amid all our preperation for the MS Ride and the concentration on riding, Sante has ... lost interest.. our catching game has been a little lack luster in recent weeks.. He doesn't run away from me... but he doesn't come up to me either. So, i won't be riding him for the next few weeks, (he needs a little more growth, and also i need to give him time to adjust to the new posture etc), it is a perfect opportunity for us to fix our relationship.

Anyhoo... thats all from me!