busy week catch-up on November Hill

Last Friday we had hoof trims. In spite of the mud lately, everyone's hooves are doing well. My husband has taken over learning the trimming process, as he is stronger than me and much better at manipulating the rasp and the hoof knife. I'm still learning what to look for, so I can stand there and point out to him what he already knows while he's doing the trims!

At this point he has completely taken over the donkey trims and is doing a good job. He's also doing touch-ups on Keil Bay and Cody about every two weeks, which is really making a difference since their hooves tend to grow really fast.

His next candidate will be the pony - who has pretty much perfect feet. We'll likely put him on the touch-up schedule along with the geldings, but will see how it goes once that gets started.

The trimmer will come every 6 weeks to do Salina, Cody, and Keil Bay, and to check the others and continue teaching. It's given us a lot more confidence and is a relief to know that small things can be corrected in between trims!

We've taken a slow approach to purchasing the tools. We started with a rasp and new hoof knife, a sharpener, and gloves. This trip the trimmer had a hoof stand a friend was selling at a great price, and we grabbed the opportunity to add that to our tools. No more using a landscaping timber!

On Saturday the chiropractor was here for Salina, Keil Bay, and Cody. They all had minimal issues, but all seemed appreciative of the work, especially Salina and Keil. Since they were getting 48 hours off with the chiro, and since all this timed with two really warm days, I went ahead and did their deworming on Sunday (I generally don't ride them on deworming days, and I also try hard to time the deworming when we're not having extreme weather or on the cusp of a big weather change).

Now, as soon as this rain/cooling front moves through, we'll be all set ride again. I spent yesterday getting pine pellets, peat moss, and stocking up on feed supplies, then getting the stalls topped off. We were just getting dried out from the last rain spell, but it's muddy again and they're all trying hard to be the muddiest horse on the property. It's way too warm to blanket them, even with single-weight turn-out sheets!

Spring bulbs are coming up already, and the tree bark chewing started. The herd completely girded a red oak this year, which forced us to scurry and wrap more trees in the front field in case they decide to look for another one. So far, so good.

It seems greener this winter than it usually is - we over-seeded the back field so that's looking nice, but even in front, the grass is still growing. So much for my theory that the chewing has to do with them missing the green stuff!