A farrier visit

It was one day less than nine weeks since the last farrier visit. The time before that it had been almost eleven weeks between visits and the farrier informed us she could have gone another few weeks without a trim. This time they needed doing though. Hooves grow at different speeds throughout the year; in the winter there is little growth but come the summer they need doing more regularly.

BG (Beautiful Girl) is barefoot, she doesn't have any shoes on and so all she needs the lower part of the hoof wall trimming to prevent splits and the hooves becoming over-grown. The old sole is taken of the bottom of the hoof and the frog cut back. This time the farrier also snipped off the chestnuts that grow on the inside of her front legs. These will drop off naturally in time, though our farrier prefers to cut them off when they get too large to stop them catching and ripping on something.

BG is not the easiest pony to catch. She will be perfect in her 'safe-zones' at mealtimes but try catching her when she doesn't want to be caught and you have no chance. She is afraid of head collars and lead ropes unless she is sure she is safe.
This time we had to fit the visit into a lunchtime break from work. Add to the fact it wasn't her normal mealtime; she doesn't like the farrier. So we need to get there before the farrier and they have a habit of turning up early.

Ever since the visit was arranged I have been panicking that BG would not let us catch her and there would be no trimmed hooves this week.

Then there was traffic leaving work. I was shaking when we got up the field, silly I know, especially as BG came in and had her head collar on perfectly. (Typical of horses; when you think they'll behave they don't, when you worry they won't they do). Though she did take her time meandering in from the field as she was on new grass.

My husband held her whilst I went to open the gate for the farrier. He said she heard her voice and her ears went back and she started snorting as she was nervous.
She stood perfectly for the farrier. She was nervous but did everything asked.

When BG came to live with me she had a crack in her near-fore. It hasn't gone away. I thought in December it has finally gone but the last remaining bit split up the hoof wall again.

This has never caused a problem, over winter we used hydrogen-peroxide to clean it out to ensure no infection got in there, but up until now it has been clean. This time the farrier said she had some seedy toe (infection) in there so she cut it all out. Poor BG now has a chunk missing out the front of her hoof - not that it bothers her.

The rest of the hooves were trimmed quite short too. This worries me a little. BG used to quite often go sore on her hooves a few days after the farrier has been and the ground is rock solid at the moment. Luckily she is a good weight so there is no excessive pressure from that on the hooves. We will have to wait and see....