Dewey had front shoes on, but his toes were long and heels low. He also grows hoof in a somewhat strange shape, his right front bows out towards the middle of his body, and his left front dips in from the side. None of these are big problems, just something to be aware of as we maintain his feet. The farrier is used to working on hooves with these types of issues because he is awesome and has so many years of education and experience. He had great recommendations: he thought that we should pull the shoes, trim just his toe so it's further back and leave his sole so he won't get sore, and lightly even out the odd growth with a rasp. We did this, and Dewey was moving better in the round pen already. It's wonderful to be able to let him go barefoot since we have such great footing in the round pen, arenas, pastures, and turnouts. With his toe back he is also much less likely to hit his legs with his hooves and that hoof shape minimizes interfering.
Dewey was mostly pretty good for the farrier, until the neighbor's llamas went out to pasture to play. Dewey was SIGNIFICANTLY concerned about the release of the camelids. After some time in the round pen watching them over the gate he decided maybe it wasn't an imminent crisis. Then he and I did some more liberty work with the mounting block. No problem at all. Then we went back up to the barn to tie at the horse trailer. I pulled his mane, trimmed his ear do-dads (the funny long hairs that hang out of the inside of ears), and gave him a thorough grooming. He love love loves the rubber curry comb with the wiggly teeth. I had to use my special sunscreen spray on him to reduce static during his brushing, but he was fine with me spraying the brushes.
Since he was being so quiet and reasonable, I thought I might try a saddle on him to get an idea of fit. I have a variety of tack available and several saddles that can accommodate a thoroughbred type back, and it turned out one of my old favorites fit him quite well. It's a Hartley jumping saddle, very close contact with no knee rolls and a forward flap. It works nicely for horses with long high withers. Dewey had to sniff everything thoroughly before I could put it on him. With only a little start as the white saddle pad flapped around him he was mostly good for saddling. I assumed he had been at least saddled over the course of his track training, and had a jockey aboard. He was ok until after the girth was fastened. I took a step away from him, and he tried to take a step forward. When he felt the girth under his belly holding the saddle on, he panicked and pulled backwards. Because he was in the tie ring that allows for this he merely pulled back until his rope had gone completely through the tie and he was loose, then he froze. He stood still, legs splayed out in every direction in case he needed to make a quick getaway, and cocked his head sideways to stare at me and whisper, "Kim, there is something on my back and it is grabbing my belly..." I approached him quietly and told him not to worry, that he would get used to it and the saddle means no harm. With some coaxing he followed me back to the trailer where I retied him and continued petting him. Once he was settled again I led him to the round pen, with only minimal nerves on his part caused by the girth and saddle.
In the round pen I had both dogs with me for moral support. They show the horses what to do and act as a calming influence, as well as being silly and desensitizing the horses when nothing more interesting is going on. I asked Dewey to go out on the lunge line. Since we have been free lunging this wasn't totally unfamiliar to him, but he was a little confused. The dogs and I clarified and he figured out what I wanted, he even got to walk, trot, and canter a little both ways. By then his brain was full and so we went back to the barn to untack. I put a little ointment on his bumps and scrapes, which are consequences of lip wrestling with his new friends over the fence, and then put him away for the day with his hay pile.
No comments:
Post a Comment