Today I accomplished two things with the horses. I trailered Dixie over to the barn and let her get used to the place, and I did two miles trotting on Champ, posting with and without stirrups. My poor legs HURT!
The trailer is pretty nimble. I do actually know how to drive - and back - a trailer! I used to buy my hay as round rolls and pick up 1-3 at a time. One 4x5 round roll will fit in the bed of my truck, but if I was getting more than one I had to borrow a 16' flatbed utility trailer. I got really good at hooking that thing up by myself, driving it down narrow roads, and backing it into and out of weird spots. The wee little pink trailer? It's a breeze comparatively!
Mainly I hung out with K and watched the farrier trim everybody else's horses. I don't know enough about trimming to really criticize him, but I didn't like the way he carved out everybody's soles. Fake concavity is worse than no concavity!
FHOTD really annoyed me today. Yes, there are some horrible owner-trimmers out there. Yes, Strasser people give all barefoot people a really bad name. But trimming isn't rocket science, and I remain completely convinced that I'm as qualified to trim my horses as any farrier I've met down here.
But whatever. It's like feeding my dog raw food - I don't keep it a secret, but I don't tell everybody how I do it and it's the best way to do it and everybody else should too. I went to a lot of trouble to learn (and keep learning!) about canine nutrition and equine physiology, and I think I'm doing what's right for my animals. It's a lot of work and a lot of responsibility, and I don't think it's right wrangle anybody else into doing stuff my way.
And speaking of dogs - ffffffffff while I was hanging out with K, Cersei was eating all the hoof trimmings she could find. Apparently that was a vast number. And apparently she ate a lot of dirt too. She's been puking up really vile smelling dirtpuke all evening. The little mini steam cleaner has seen a lot of action tonight. Sigh. Of course if she's not better tomorrow, I'll take her to the vet, but I think she'll be fine in the morning.
Ah, dogs. The most disgusting of animals. Christina and I thought we could probably do good business if we rolled manure balls in hoof shavings and marketed them as dog treats. Hope Cersei is OK -- I also suspect that she will be by tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteNot surprised to hear that you are adept with a trailer. I can tow an 8' foot utility OK because I had to do it a lot in Uganda, but I have never been behind the wheel with a horse trailer out back.
Fugly pissed me off today too (it happens now and then) with that comment. I generally agree with her point that some barefooters go overboard and that some horses do better with shoes, but I completely disagree that owners should not trim their own horses. As you say, it is not rocket science. I'm sure that many people have screwed up, just like many farriers have screwed up even with their formal training. Some people are good at their jobs and some people suck at their jobs -- this is a universal truth.
beverit: drink up!
Hayya Funder!
ReplyDeleteI like the new looks of things around here. And..I kinda feel special too...you know why!Thanks.
I am very down in the mouth these days and am keeping my nose barely above the waterline...my stable owners are=!*xx'*@!!+!!!and I am the game at present. My mare is depressed and I am alarmed. So being on YOUR BR made my sleepless night just now!
Funny you mention no stirrups today...right b-4 I got up to see if this stupid computer would let me read from anyone's blog yet..I was thinkin' tomorrow I may do some of that myself.Last time I had a lesson with my sis without stirrups, she mainly wanted me not to "Grip" with my thighs.
I think it nimble you hook up the trailer...I drive my sissys 3 horse anywhere..but I leave it hooked up at the barn so I can go at a moments notice. Not mastered the hooking up yet...but admit, have not tried but twice.
I am too sensitive for FHOTD. I looked in once and it was so volitile there for anger/sarcassim(the day I went) don't need more of that!
As you know, I manage my mare's feet. So far so good.Realise I have not done the proper amount of research...but, when I get her done about every third time...I check up well with the farrier. So I am not too bothered. She travels well and does not forge..healthy soles and though the frogs are doing something I have not seen before...no smell or black ick...I clean them and spray Shriner's herbal on them every day.
Hope Cersei comes good soon!I have noticed dogs liking to eat all manner of muck!
plumove = please leave unscathed, or moving!
Oh puking dogs... my greyhound pukes whenever she feels like it, I think. Their stomachs are soooooooooo sensitive.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, wtf was up with FHOTD? Okay yeah, I get it, it's a huge topic of debate but seriously, the way it was made out to be was "well barefoot people are nuts, so I'm inviting barefoot people on here to comment so we can attack and trash them." I, personally, feel that I am qualified enough to trim my own horse's feet, and if the president of the of the American Hoof Association did a worse job on my horse than I did, well then there you go. Sheesh. I've seen some AWFUL trimmers and farriers and not very many good ones... really. And by that I mean, there is one person in the ENTIRE world I'd trust to trim my horse for me, and that's my first trimmer Sherry. That's it.
Oye...
I am so happy to see my peeps feel the same about Fugly. Today I unsubscribed. I used to learn something on her blog, and now I just learn about HOW LITTLE she actually knows on a topic. Since when did her blog go from "Conformation and Breeding Issues" to "How I Think You Should Keep your Horse, and I am Right and You are Wrong!"?
ReplyDeleteI mean, we all know that Brego couldn't do the things he does with sore feet. And we know I have an old TB who has sore feet. It's called Thinking About The Problem, not spewing extremist statements.
I live with my horse, obsessive over every stride, film them, study them at liberty. I know when Brego gets 15% more paddle than his conformation dictates it's because his toes are too long. I know where is break over should be for his legs. Some farrier who comes out and sees him 30 minutes every 8 weeks does not know him like I know him. Period.
Plus, at my last boarding barn EVERY HORSE trimmed by a certain farrier was lame and EVERY HORSE that was not was sound. So there are shitty farriers even though they have been trained by Virgins under a full moon or whatever nonsense Fugly thinks makes them qualified.
Her experience sounds impressive, but she stopped learning about a decade ago. What worked for her polo ponies does not work for everyone. And her Very Large Colt is a joke. He's as gross a QH as they come, but he's a perty QH so it's ok for Fugly to keep him a stud! But know one else can be qualified to make the same assessment of their stallion??
Man, I am done. I don't rant on my blog so I come here to rant on yours. Sorry, Funder. I think I just needed that.
Hey Funder!
ReplyDeleteWe read FUGS post too. For someone who has been "in horses for 41 years"... well.... all I can say is, it can be her little secret ;)
Both Dear Husband and I are trimmers. Dear Husband can shoe, too. He has not HAD to shoe in 7 years, but hey- what does he know, right?
It USED to be a good blog. It USED to be somewhere to LEARN something, and not just how to be a total beeeeotch. These days-- its not worth the time. I went because Mikey told me we needed to read it... and we all laughed over her statements.
While I DO think that her Strasser comment held water, the rest of it... wellll..... not so much.
Hope that your pup is better today and not puking so much! ;) Hoof cookie puke is pretty nasty.
Fugly has been this way for a while. I would look at the horses she thought were just a disgrace and shouldn't be breathing anymore, but the moment she found one for adoption, she seemed to look over every fault and it's 'such a great little mare'.
ReplyDeleteI started to turn away from the blog when she started talking about training. That's more of a joke then the feet thing... LOL.
Dressage,
ReplyDeleteI think I mentioned this before, but my favorite "Fugly-ism" was when she made fun of steeplechasers for not know how to ride because their didn't use George Morris-approved huntseat position. "Their stirrups are too short, they're leaning back, too much contact."
WTF??
Um, they're galloping fences not loping around some Eq course.
And yes, on the training.
Hey we all have opinions, and I am sure mine are wrong as well. But I don't have a cult following saying "ZOMG!!! Fugs, you are so right!!! That poor horse is SO ABUSED!!!"
Maybe that's what I am missing. A cult following which affirms everything I say... :)
I hear you, Funder. It seemed like she grouped all barefoot trimmers in with Stasser, whose methods make my trimmer breathe fire. While I like Strasser's work on why horses should be barefoot, I don't like her methods.
ReplyDeleteSo, I guess that this means that there isn't a competent farrier in the Mid-Atlantic since I have yet to see a shod horse without deformities in their feet. Maybe if you don't know what a healthy hoof looks like beforehand then you wouldn't know what is unhealthy.
I still maintain that I can't trim, though. To learn how, have my horse go through lameness issues when I try, and then be as sound as can be again after I beg Dawn to take over again tells me that I just don't have it in me. More power to the people that do. I totally agree that it's not rocket science, and the people who make it rocket science are those who seem to do more harm than good - ie: Gene's deformed foot. Use protractors and traditional methods and it goes sideways, use the easy peasy natural trim and he straightens up and the hoof looks as perfect as it is capable. Plus he's fully sound vs. not with traditional farriers.
Whew... that did feel good.
-Sara
PS- did I ever tell you what my former vet said when I told him that I was thinking of trying a raw diet with the cats? I think I did. That reaction of horror from the vet tech and the exasperated "don't believe everything you read on the internet" made me change vets.
ug, posting without stirrups! i haven't even ridden in months, so just the thought gives me cramps :-\ but good for you!
ReplyDeletei'm pretty good with a 2-horse or a gooseneck, but i can't, for some odd reason, back up my tiny manure spreader to save my life.
i'm glad you don't let fugly get you down. i stopped reading there a while ago because the blatant ignorance and bitching was just pissing me off. sure, i've got plenty of obnoxious opinions, but i generally shut up on subjects i know nothing about. so who appointed her the all-high priestess of horsedom, anyway? oh, that's right, she appointed herself.
ps - i tried raw with my dog too, but as a vegetarian with a weak stomach, i kept gagging and puking when i looked at it, so i had to stop :-\ i liked the theory, though.
Aw, i still like Fugly. Although i DO wish she would do more on conformation flaws, just because i learned more that way. :-)
ReplyDeletePosting without stirrups, haven't done that in quite some time, good for you.
ReplyDeleteI don't read Miss Know-It-All, I tried it a few times but it's a certain mindset you need to keep going there.
Anyway, hope your pup feels better soon, our dogs love the hoof stuff too. I try to keep them away because they always get sick from over indulging.
And i DO wish i had the know-how to trim my horses myself. I am jealous of Andrea and Gogo!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSerena, thanks! It's really very simple to do, once you get a feel and an eye for it. It actually seems to come very naturally to me... so much so that I'm looking into it as a career option. And it's also very easy for me to work on my own horse because I've been scrutinizing everything about her feet for the past 2.5 years, and have seen them at their best and at their worst, so I know exactly how they should be. My technique is steadily improving, and her feet look better every time I work on them.
ReplyDeleteAnd it really is quite simple, a barefoot trim, much more so than a regular pasture trim (the shoe-prep-without-adding-the-shoe kind)! I do touch-ups every two to three weeks... and it's sooooo much fun, seriously.
Oh Fugs.... we're not ALL Strasserites.... really, some of us are sane. And the other thing is.... some of our barefoot horses are actually DOING SOMETHING! Everyone posting on there was like "yeah mine are all barefoot... but they sit in a field and eat, so it's okay." Performance barefootedness is really just that.... barefoot horses PERFORMING! It CAN be done! And horses CAN jump and run and do fancy things without shoes, really! I promise!
I didn't agree with Fugly's barefoot post either. Ce'est la vie'. I don't read the comments unless its something I feel strongly about, or have something of value to add.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, its like a pack mentality, and I don't go for that.
I hope your dog is feeling better. We had a dog (Barney) that always yacked up hoof trimmings.
Oh god the dog. She puked all night last night and intermittently all day yesterday. It was really horrible. I dearly hope she's learned to not overindulge in hoof trimming dirt. I did keep a close eye on her the whole time, and she never got dehydrated and never ran a fever. She's finally perky today, so she's had some eggs and a bit of meat for breakfast.
ReplyDeleteDP, Sara, and WHP have wonderful trimmers and I'm jealous! If I knew of a good trimmer, I'd get some supervision. But this guy didn't seem to see or try to fix any of the minor issues the horses had, sigh. So I'll keep doing what I'm doing - learning and watching and trimming.
Yall are welcome to come rant here any time!
I just can't let this die.
ReplyDeleteI talked to my friend in Texas and asked how there can be so much ignorance about how/why a horse is sound (aka Fugly). She made a very astute point that if the horse is sore on BOTH front feet, it's not lame, it's just moving poorly.
Exhibit A.
Watching this horse makes me ill. The horse is so FUCKING uncomfortable and it's at a show and NO, WESTERN PLEASURE HORSES DON'T MOVE LIKE THAT.
The horse is shod. You think maybe there might be a problem here???
I would wager that 50% of the horse world would watch that horse and say he's not lame. So... we have no objective standard of soundness. The horse in the video is shod and "sound". My horse is barefoot and "sound". How can we ever know the correct hoof maintenance if we can't even agree on when a horse is sound???
Some farrier shod that horse, watched it move, and said "good enough". Dozens of people watch that horse at a show and say "good enough" or "serviceably sound". This is why we have so much ignorance.
Wow. Poor horse. At our local shows, the WP horses look funky at the jog and crippled at the lope, but not actually LAME at the jog. That horse really looks lame.
ReplyDeleteI must say, I don't think anything in the horse world looks worse than a padded canter. Everything about it is just SO WRONG, but of course that horse isn't lame and makes it through inspection just fine.