Farrier

    
     I had the neatest opportunity yesterday. I was able to ride around and shadow my farrier on his rounds. It was a great experience and I learned a ton. The first place we went didn't have a horse. Nope, it was a donkey. I confess I didn't know farriers trimmed donkey's hooves. But apparently they do! The donkey was the one that gave us the most trouble that day. I had to hold it while the farrier worked on its feet. It was quite a rascal. The second stop we made was at a small farm that had one horse. The horse was a sweet chestnut, quarter horse mare. The funny thing about this stop was that the horse lived with a herd of sheep. (and a few cows) The sheep were the strangest things. And they were very loud. They made these weird noises that just made you want to laugh. But there was one baby lamb that was really cute. I wanted to pet it but it kept running away. After that we went to a small stable that had three horses. The first was an older quarter horse. Then they had a paso fino and an arabian. The arabian was a gorgeous horse. Here the farrier taught be how to age horses by looking at their teeth. I've always wanted to learn this but had never been able to figure out how. But now I could tell you whether a horse is under 5, under 10 over 10, or over 20. Pretty cool! After that stop we headed over to a place that had a couple of paint horses. We only trimmed one of them. The interesting thing about thing horse is that it had foundered. I was able to see the difference between a horse that had foundered and a horse that hadn't. Like I said I learned a ton! But the horses at that place were both really pretty.

 That was our last stop for clients. Then we headed back to the farriers house, and this is the neatest bit, he let me work on one of his horses. Yes, he actually taught me how to shoe a horse! I nailed a shoe on and everything. (with a lot of help and guidance of course) It was a super cool thing to be able to do. Random fact, but do you want to guess how old this horse is? This is the horse I worked on and his name is Ed.

 

He is 38 years old. Yes, you read that correctly! Thirty-eight! Crazy, I know. He is just a really well taken care of horse and he is just naturally healthy. Still that is the oldest horse I have ever seen. His pasture buddy is also pretty old coming in at 35.

But anyway, I really enjoyed my day hanging out with the farrier. I learned so much. I think everyone should do it!