It was obvious right away that this was going to be another hot and humid summer day. I had no idea how much work I had to do at my second stop, which is a rough one on a good day. First stop. The first stop was a nice and easy full reset, meaning I … Read more
This is one of my oldest clients (as in I’ve been working for her for the longest) and the only one I still go to Kentucky for. I still go there because I can make the trip, work on as many I my body can stand and go home. I don’t have to bounce around … Read more
I hoped I would get away with a week off at my furthest and toughest stop this week, but I fully expected that something like this would happen. We tried. The barn staff is gone this week and we tried to double time last week so that I didn’t have to come this week, but … Read more
This is for a horse that has been diagnosed with navicular syndrome. I like to think of navicular syndrome as similar to carpal tunnel syndrome in humans. Its not cool. I’m not going to go into detail here about the pathology or the mechanical options farriers have here other than to say that this is … Read more
This week I had a few stops where the horses were out when I got to the barn. It happens, I’m not mad or anything, but it does cause hassles. I’m not mad because I have the best clients and this kind of thing rarely happens. When they inevitably ask that I don’t fire them … Read more
Boo has a chronic lameness. It appears to be navicular syndrome of some fashion. We have been working as a typical farrier, trainer and veterinarian team with this horse, experimenting on what we can do to make her feel better. The above shoe is what we were using. I have had a lot of success … Read more
These are the kinds of problems that can occasionally happen in late August around here but its only mid June now. We did have some pretty nice weather for a bit, but then it went straight to this crap you see below. The humidity is insane. I am drenched by 8am. That’s with all fans … Read more
Temperatures are all over the place these days. It’s been a little warm the last few days and today wasn’t even all that cold – but I was. Being around 30 deg F when I got up around 5am, I did go ahead and plug my truck in. Even at these relatively warm temperatures, the … Read more
It has been cold in the mornings lately, but this morning really stepped up the suck. Its 20 degrees and that is not optimum weather to get the tools out and shoe horses today. Luckily, we live in modern times and there are lots of options to help with this kind of problem. This year, … Read more
Yup. Sometimes you have to do it a couple of times to get things going smoothly again. Usually, when you have to reboot something multiple times, its old enough and troubled enough that you may want to consider getting a new one. In this case, I will ask that you do not replace me just … Read more