Trimming and trailering

Both Doru and Brena had their feet trimmed today.

The work was done up at the field since I expected the barn to be busy with horse show activities. I was wrong: the barn was merely sleepy as a collection fo young woemn who had been up for much of the night waited for energy drinks to kick in. But it was pleasant up at the field in the sun.

The girls had one scare during the night. A hunter, who is a friend of the farmer, went by. It wasn't the gun that alarmed them so much as the fact that he has a shaved head and the image of a brain tattooed onto his exposed scalp.

The trimmer is getting married next month. She wonders how fearsome tan lines will combine with a strapless dress.

That one's beyond my wisdom. However I gather that her hairdresser will try to make straight locks as full and curly as possible.

We men have life easy.

The horses have excellent feet. Doru's are hard as ever and nicely shaped. Brena's feet are even harder. Her hinds were low on their outsides at each previous trim. But now they have grown out level. I won't need to boot her hinds with wedge pads. I am happy, and relieved.

The only odd thing is the bruising that is growing out. That seems to be a relic of concussion last summer when she was working shod in Italy. However, bruises notwithstanding, she is absolutely sound even on hard stony ground.

After trimming I led Brena down to an awakening yard and my trailer already hitched to my truck.

Brena has not been particularly forthcoming about loading. Therefore I was surprised and delighted when she walked straight on without a qualm, settling down to devour a net of hay.

It was but a short drive to the feet of the hills. She travelled beautifully and left the trailer calmly backwards on request.

We had a good ride. Perhaps it's inevitable that the first few minutes of any ride with Brena will be a little lively and involve much staring at distant objects. Yet she isn't going to run off. I can keep her on a loose rein. My calmness quietens her. So much in life, in and out of work, comes down to leadership.

Brena is curious and observant. But that is not the same thing as flightiness.

She feeds off my emotional state, whether I am agitated or calm. The key is to get on her calm at the start of a ride. That means not drinking a lot of coffee in the morning. It means mental effort to focus on quietness. It means looking away from things that are commonplace but which I imagine might alarm Brena. Leadership is hard.

I guess that she and I are growing closer.

During less than half an hour in the trailer Brena defacated twice and staled. That reminded me that I need to treat the trailer's wooden floor with preservative - another job that will be a pleasure because it will be for my horse and I.

Comments

[funder]

(Yes, I'm still getting caught up!)

Dixie gets quite a bit of bruising like Brena's. I used to worry, but now I've decided (tentatively) that it's normal and we only see it on white hooves. She's never tender and never abscesses, just has large pale-pink bruises on her walls periodically. Sole bruises worry me more than wall bruises.

[White Horse Pilgrim]

Yes, maybe this is normal. Horses do give us so much to worry about. Brena has such hard feet that she seems to be able to walk across almost anything without harm.