Sunday Sunday

A Beautiful Day

But I needed a nap in the afternoon, so I took about an hour's worth and then went out to ride a little.

I had Tucker's feet taped up and him all saddled, when who should appear in the driveway, but my farrier, Scott.  So, off went the tack and the tape and in short order, Tucker was ready to be shod. 

When Scott trimmed his feet, he found evidence of brusing in the sole, near the toe, so that explains Tucker's being sore.  With the shoes on, he was still a little tentative, but definitely better than barefoot.  I think it's going to take a bit of time for him to get back to 100%, but so far, so good. 

Scott said if there is no improvement in a few days or if, by some chance, Tuck gets worse, I need to call him right away.  Meantime, it's just a matter of waiting it out until his feet recover on their own. 

Interesting note here.  Scott has attended a number of forums on hoof care lately, many of which have had a lot of barefoot people there.  The last one he went to, one of the speakers was pretty straightforward about when horses can go barefoot and which cannot.  He said if the hoof grows one quarter to one half inch in a month, then no shoes are probably going to be OK, but if the growth is less than that, than shoes are on.  Tuck does not grow a lot of foot, and Chance does.  Seems to be a pretty good indication right there. 

At any rate, Scott just left, so it's going on 6 PM.  I fed the Boys and it looks as if I have given up on riding for the day.  Tucker did get about 5 minutes of lungeing after the shoeing so we could watch him go.  I guess that counts for something.

Sunday was definitely a "sun" day, though.  Spring temperatures topping off around 70F, and just a nice day.   Wouldn't it be nice if this kind of weather lingered?