New Shoes!

FINALLY after many attempts Black has a new pair of shoes. Yes, you read that right – shoes! Barefoot is great and I will continue to keep the rest of my horses bare for as long as I can however looking at what I have to work with I decided shoes were the better option for “us”. If Black was younger I would have probably pursued the barefoot path a little more but like I told Randy, “with my luck by the time we get a good hoof on her she’ll be dead”.

I did opt to stay away from the metal shoes and had Randy put on Ground Control Shoes. They are a lightweight polyurethane shoe with a rolled toe and frog support. He also added pads with a bit of dental impression in them to help give support to her hoof.

We loaded up the trailers (yes trailers) last night and headed to the arena. I took the kids so they could ride Black. Chase and Shari ran her all over the place and she looked as though she was moving very well.

MIL and DH went along as well. I’m not sure why but MIL and DH switched horses mid ride. MIL looked like she was having a pretty tough time w/Bell. I tried to ignore things as much as possible.

When we got home I took Black out to the road – the “real” test. I was a bit discouraged when she started short striding but then she started moving out. I think she anticipated pain but then decided “hey, this doesn’t hurt”. I still think I’ll need to boot her backs on the road but if this works the way I anticipate it to then I will be having Randy shoe her backs next time as well.

I did change Cat's bandage last night and she finally got to be hand-walked. It looked like the bandage had rubbed her leg a bit (I'm no expert at wrapping legs) but the leg looked good for the most part. MIL thought she looked like she was moving well but I still think she's favoring her leg. I guess it is to be expected and hopefully with increased movement she'll do better.