Lucy Found a New Home

Tamara Cisek, my trimmer friend extraordinaire, took Lucy home with her! Their personalities are a perfect fit! Tamara is an advanced Parelli student, and Lucy and her worked wonderfully together. I am so happy that all of the foundatation work that Lucy has will be put to good work. Tamara was looking for her next all round super horse, and Lucy has that in her to be versitile and fun. Good luck Tamara and Lucy!! A happy end for the Mustang Makeover Finalist! This was the best home she could ever want.

What I've Been Up Too

So Princess, my 22 year old mare, and I have done 2 limited distance rides this year - a 30 miler at the Rides of March, and a 25 miler at the Nevada Derby. I have a blast riding her. She goes so fast, I love it. Her trot is huge, she is steady, and fun to ride. At Nevada Derby I sponsored my 9 year old student on her first ride with her 25 year old horse. We had so much fun! I love the energy of younger people. So in the moment, not worried about what ifs....

Only problem - Princess is skinny right now and I have a hard time putting weight on her. I hope the hay bags help. I started Cocosoya Oil too and more alfalfa, beet pulp, and senior feed. What would help is to pull her out into her own pasture and free choice her there. But the problem is she really needs other horses for her mental and emotional fitness. She doesn't like being alone. So I put her in a stall for a couple hours a day, enough to get her alfalfa and bucket finished, then out she goes with the herd. Let me know if you have any suggestions. All my other horses are fat, so none of them would do well on unlimited hay....

Boots - Rides of March I rode in Gloves, worked well, got a little gaiter rub, and then Nevada Derby rode in Renegades. Perfect, no rubbing. This horse is so sensitive that the Renegades work best and don't rub.

Feather - she doesn't like to go fast and I don't think I'll be doing endurance any more with her. She is a mountain horse, loves to camp, eat grass, and climb rocks and all the Sierra stuff, but fast endurance rides - not her thing.

Luigi, my 5 year old, will be a great horse. I will be riding him next year at rides, multidays and such. So you probably won't see me around much this year with endurance, but maybe next year.

Hay Bags

I have always wanted to "free choice" hay feed my horses, but when I open a bale of hay and set it out, the horses always lay down in it and use it as a potty. So I get a lot of waste, and a lot of hay gorging. So Tamara Cisek, trimmer extraordinaire from Southern CA, came over last week and brought with her a very fine mesh hay net. We filled it full with hay, and the horses took a long tim to eat through it because the holes were so small. No waste, no pottying, and the horses were engaged with it all day and night. They were also only getting small mouthfulls, not gorging themselves. Horses in the wild would just take small bites, chew well, and move to the next area. You can hang the hay bags low so the horse is not eating high. The mesh is so small, that hooves won't get stuck. And they are cheap - $10 a bag. You can put 3 flakes or so in each bag. You only have to fill them once a day if you have enough. I bought 6 and will put them all over my property. People say this is a good way to slow down an obese horse to take weight off, and a fast way to put on weight for a skinny horse, like Princess. So well see how it goes. Also works well for goats, which I have plenty of.

Here is a link to a good place to buy the bags: http://www.smithbrothers.com/product.asp?pn=X3-27286

EasyBoot Gloves and the Fit Kit

I have my fit kit for the Easyboot Gloves and my horses are ready to roll in their correctly fitted boots. Of course the trails are very slick from all of the rain, so haven't had a chance to go out yet with the new boots. The Fit Kit was so helpful. When I measured my horses' hooves, the size that I measured the hoof would fit into was too big. So I put the fit kit shells on and was able to figure out what size works best for each hoof. Interesting, and convenient, all 4 of my riding horses wear a 1.5 on their front hooves. I put a 1 on their back hooves, which looked good on everyone, but I also tried a 0.5, and that looked even better on 2 of the horses. It is so nice to have the shells to try on, and the half sizes really give you a tight, flush, correct fit to the hoof. I am anxious to ride in these more and see if the gaiters rub or not on the pasterns. From my initial test, I really liked this boot, and was blown away with the simplicity, traction, and flushness. They seem to be performing well in long distance events.

Booting and Shoe Removal Clinic

On February 7 and March 15, I am holding a Booting and Shoe Removal Clinic in Greenwood, CA starting at 9:00 am. It is an introduction to booting, you will have a chance to learn how to fit each boot on the market correctly. There is a boot fitting "lab" in which you will have to correctly fit hoof boots on 4 horses.

Also, I am looking for a live "demo" horse that would like his shoes removed for free. It is easier to teach shoe removal if we actually do it!!

Contact me if you are interested in the clinic, open to the public, this is a very unique opportunity to learn how to correctly boot a horse.

Cost - $175 to PHCP Members, $200 all others.

Slowly Getting Back To Trimming

I am slowly starting to trim again. I am trying to stick to one or two horses a day. That seems to be comfortable for my back. I am also fitting hoof boots for non-trimming customers now. I carry all of the Easycare boots and Renegades and some of the Cavallos/Delta boots. Also I am consulting on horse's whose owners do their own trimming or if you are thinking about going barefoot but not sure.... Email me if I can help you out!

Testing New Hoof Boots

I have been playing with the Easyboot Gloves and love them! I truly believe this IS the hoofboot of our dreams - well - if your horse is comfortable in gaiters. Which 3 of mine aren't and out of 4 riding horses, not great odds.... gaiters still cause some rubs on the thinner skinned horses, like my Arabians. But the boot itself is so slick, easy to put on, has great traction, fits like a glove, is very flush to the hoof, and stays on (this is huge)! I can't wait to get more sizes so that I can try them on Feather, I think she'll really like them.