The day I left Oklahoma I could have been in shorts and a tank top but I had to shoe ponies so jeans it was. Safety sandals don't work as well as they claim anyway.
I got my diploma, sweaty in a t-shirt.
So much has happened at school.I spent a few days in Missouri with a certain cowboy.
"Are you taking my picture?"
Why yes, yes I am. Hold still the lighting isn't that good.
"Fine"
I spent a few days wandering around seeing the lovely country and rolling hills before traveling back home where the trees are still naked.
Back home it is so strange. I go away a few times a year usually for a few days or a week or so but never three months. I go away for a week and it's like new buildings go up overnight, people get married or move away. I am gone for three months and it's like time never touched this town. Everything in the barn is in it's place (minus a few barn cats), the horses were muddy and happy to see me. Indigo nickered her way over the moment I yelled out. It's like time stopped just for me to go to school and now has resumed in a tidal wave of people needing my help, horses needing to be ridden and job offers.
I plan on taking an apprenticeship. I have a few offers here in Canada and a couple in the US, some close, others far.
So far I have been trimming. I am going to pick up an anvil next week and can work in the local homestead's coal forge whenever. I inherited a bunch of useful hammers that were my grandfathers. I wish I would have known about their existence before school it would have saved me oh...$300 or so.
I trimmed Indigo's feet yesterday. She was trimmed wile I was gone but the winter was not kind on her feet and she was ouchy on them as I led her into the barn. When I left she had lovely, concave, healthy feet with big frogs. When I came home I found her soles had splatted, frog's had shrunk in size and the medial (inside) sides were sky high on her fronts and the lateral (outsides) were sky high on the hinds as well as the quarters on both front feet strait instead of nice and round. There was nothing level about them and lots of flares. However it was so nice to be able to take my hoof knife and nippers to a sole and not have to chip at a foot like it was made of granite (AKA: Oklahoma feet). They are going to take a few trims to correct. I am thinking the really wet winter was to blame for the soles and contraction. Only time will tell.
Everyone missed me. I have been getting call after call and e-mail after e-mail from everybody and their dog. Just when I think I am getting a vacation from school the real work starts. Anybody need a trim?
"Hey, whatcha doin' over there with that camera?"
"Are you taking my picture?"
Why yes, yes I am. Hold still the lighting isn't that good.
"Fine"
Back home it is so strange. I go away a few times a year usually for a few days or a week or so but never three months. I go away for a week and it's like new buildings go up overnight, people get married or move away. I am gone for three months and it's like time never touched this town. Everything in the barn is in it's place (minus a few barn cats), the horses were muddy and happy to see me. Indigo nickered her way over the moment I yelled out. It's like time stopped just for me to go to school and now has resumed in a tidal wave of people needing my help, horses needing to be ridden and job offers.
I plan on taking an apprenticeship. I have a few offers here in Canada and a couple in the US, some close, others far.
So far I have been trimming. I am going to pick up an anvil next week and can work in the local homestead's coal forge whenever. I inherited a bunch of useful hammers that were my grandfathers. I wish I would have known about their existence before school it would have saved me oh...$300 or so.
I trimmed Indigo's feet yesterday. She was trimmed wile I was gone but the winter was not kind on her feet and she was ouchy on them as I led her into the barn. When I left she had lovely, concave, healthy feet with big frogs. When I came home I found her soles had splatted, frog's had shrunk in size and the medial (inside) sides were sky high on her fronts and the lateral (outsides) were sky high on the hinds as well as the quarters on both front feet strait instead of nice and round. There was nothing level about them and lots of flares. However it was so nice to be able to take my hoof knife and nippers to a sole and not have to chip at a foot like it was made of granite (AKA: Oklahoma feet). They are going to take a few trims to correct. I am thinking the really wet winter was to blame for the soles and contraction. Only time will tell.
Everyone missed me. I have been getting call after call and e-mail after e-mail from everybody and their dog. Just when I think I am getting a vacation from school the real work starts. Anybody need a trim?
12 comments:
Hey! Welcome back! Get a little season shock when you came home? And just who is the "certain cowboy"?
1. Good on you for having work already! Dick has been trimming a lot of my camp horses and has a camp lined up to shoe this summer, using keg shoes and another farrier with 20 years of experience. He says to tell you that your first few horses alone will scare the ever living crap out of you.. But you can always take stuff off slowly, so use your rasp. You can't put it back on. ;)
Not like you need advice, Miss Graduate! Congrats.
2. Again, if you get the urge to come South again, we've got a spare bed that's all yours in Texas! Bring Indigo to meet our Indigo and get a load of the camp life. ;)
Glad to know you're home safe! Cute cowboy. Consider my spouse's eyebrows raised. But in a good way.
Congratulations on getting your certificate! Sounds as though you'll be pretty busy from here on out (like you weren't busy before, right? ;o)
Nice job Syd! Welcome home, mega congrats, and may you easily make the title "6 Figure Shoeing" by Doug Butler a mantra ;)
Congratulations!
Welcome home and congrats!!!!
If her frogs are shrunken and her heels contracted and it's been muddy and no one has been cleaning her feet while you've been gone I'd be thinking thrush, but I'm not an expert. What helped me was mixing salt and water in a spray bottle and spraying the bottoms of Chrome's feet, making sure to get in the grooves and his frogs looked better in a week. It was amazing. I hope you can get her comfortable, healthy and happy again soon.
Glad you're back! :)
LOVE the cowboy photos.
Welcome back Syd!
Nope, not thrush. She had her feet basically picked every day. It's a combination of going 8 weeks without a trim, wet weather and possibly something that was in a batch of hay.
Congrats!!! You did it!!!!!
Welcome home!
~Lisa
Okay cool. I hope you can get them back in shape quickly. :)
You are home! Way to go and Congrats..and that Missouri Cowboy is a bit of a hunk:)
Post a Comment