Doru is a heavy fellow at over 600kg (1,300lbs) and gets through shoes at quite a rate. Even welded borium doesn't seem to extend their life by much. So I've made up a set of shoes with low toe pieces and calkins made from 8mm (3/8") round bar welded on. I've applied welded borium below these sections so that (hopefully) they won't wear away too quickly. This small amount of extra height ought to protect the nail heads, which otherwise wear away on one side of the shoe or both, leading to premature shoe loss. At the same time, the shoes shold not be so raised as to impair Doru's gait. Now I shall see how this experiment progresses.
It's been raining on and off for days. Diane drew short straw guiding the trip that is out this week. The stream, previously almost empty, is running strongly with chocolatey water. The levels in the two wells ought to rise soon too. The one near the stream provides water for the horses, and its level closely follows that of the stream. The other, in the garden, is said by the locals "never to run dry". It follows the level of water in the aquifer more than watercourses. However, this has been a dry year, and we do use more water than the previous occupants (who drew water by hand rather than by pump). A project for next year may well be to build a large cistern to collect rain water for non-drinking uses. I expect that we will build a concrete tank, though I have my eye on an old railway tank car if I can buy one for scrap. There is even an old steam locomotive tender still sitting in a scrapyard in town. (I have the cast iron number plates from the locomotive here.)