Hey, guys, I'm a real farrier now!
Apr. 26th, 2009 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
summer_jackel...I've been kicked in the ass by a horse I was trimming for the very first time. ;)
The nag in question was Bella, an older Arab with a painful history of neglect and abuse who my mom took in a few years ago, above my strident objections. Despite my attempts to remain hard-hearted towards her (we didn't need a starving rescue then, we don't need a faded-ly beautiful but still beat-up extra horse now, and since she's boarding at the same farm as Dancer, and mom moved north, guess who's feeding her...) she and I have recently begun to bond. She needed a trim, I need experience, so I went to work.
I know that the beast can be kind of a spectacular kicker, especially on her blind side...poor thing's right eye is pretty much gone thanks, I learned only last week, to a sickening incidence of human cruelty. She was very well behaved for her forefeet. When I realized that she was intending to kick For Reals while I was on her right hind, I scurried as best I could, but she still managed to get me in the meaty part of my rump. The bitch kicks hard!
I sat down until I was no longer seeing stars and threatening to black out (from a blow on the butt! See, hard kick, I'm not exaggerating!), centered, gave her the hairy eyeball and took her foot again. I won't say she was perfectly behaved, but there was no more kicking, and she now has four lovely evenly filed little hoofies. They have some odd ridges that make me suspect founder somewhere in her past, or perhaps it's just years of malnutrition, though thankfully she's sound. I did what I could, and hey, all my horses and my mom's horses (plus a farrier school horse and a few cadaver legs): trimmed nicely. I am about to take on a half dozenmoose retired Warmbloods at the ranch where I board Bey and Equinox; wish me luck.
But hey, I survived my first kick. For some absurd reason, I feel so much more farrierlike now.
Unrelated to horses or my aching hindquarter, have a blurry but too cute not to post birdy luuuuuuuv picture. Kaya says "oh yeah. You have about a year to stop preening my face."
Osbick Bird now has a big new-to-us cage, which isn't perfect but came to me at very much the right (almost free) price. He's much happier in it. Oz will now step onto my forearm from the dowel. He's calming down a lot; we have progressed to him being allowed to perch on my bare skin, and thus far it remains unbitten. (he did nibble my elbow out of curiosity at one point, which was pretty darn cute). I think that watching me handle the other two (he's out of quarantine now) has helped mellow him. The old "share your toast with the other birds and pretend to guard it jealously, then reluctantly offer some to target bird when he shows interest" trick worked; he took a bite the other morning. Awwwwwwwwww birdies.
The nag in question was Bella, an older Arab with a painful history of neglect and abuse who my mom took in a few years ago, above my strident objections. Despite my attempts to remain hard-hearted towards her (we didn't need a starving rescue then, we don't need a faded-ly beautiful but still beat-up extra horse now, and since she's boarding at the same farm as Dancer, and mom moved north, guess who's feeding her...) she and I have recently begun to bond. She needed a trim, I need experience, so I went to work.
I know that the beast can be kind of a spectacular kicker, especially on her blind side...poor thing's right eye is pretty much gone thanks, I learned only last week, to a sickening incidence of human cruelty. She was very well behaved for her forefeet. When I realized that she was intending to kick For Reals while I was on her right hind, I scurried as best I could, but she still managed to get me in the meaty part of my rump.
I sat down until I was no longer seeing stars and threatening to black out (from a blow on the butt! See, hard kick, I'm not exaggerating!), centered, gave her the hairy eyeball and took her foot again. I won't say she was perfectly behaved, but there was no more kicking, and she now has four lovely evenly filed little hoofies. They have some odd ridges that make me suspect founder somewhere in her past, or perhaps it's just years of malnutrition, though thankfully she's sound. I did what I could, and hey, all my horses and my mom's horses (plus a farrier school horse and a few cadaver legs): trimmed nicely. I am about to take on a half dozen
But hey, I survived my first kick. For some absurd reason, I feel so much more farrierlike now.
Unrelated to horses or my aching hindquarter, have a blurry but too cute not to post birdy luuuuuuuv picture. Kaya says "oh yeah. You have about a year to stop preening my face."
Osbick Bird now has a big new-to-us cage, which isn't perfect but came to me at very much the right (almost free) price. He's much happier in it. Oz will now step onto my forearm from the dowel. He's calming down a lot; we have progressed to him being allowed to perch on my bare skin, and thus far it remains unbitten. (he did nibble my elbow out of curiosity at one point, which was pretty darn cute). I think that watching me handle the other two (he's out of quarantine now) has helped mellow him. The old "share your toast with the other birds and pretend to guard it jealously, then reluctantly offer some to target bird when he shows interest" trick worked; he took a bite the other morning. Awwwwwwwwww birdies.
