It is a crazy, hectic time in my life.  Yesterday, Roland-the farrier- was due to return to get new shoes on Feather before her trip to Dev’s for training.  This trip to Dev’s was scheduled to coincide with Lauren and I going to Denver to start the packing process with my mom.  It will mean one less horse at home as Richard steps in as our puppy-kitty-horse sitter. 

For the first time in Feather’s short life, she got shod on all four feet.  It is time for her to start some serious showing, trailering and jumping and we want to support her with good feet.  She handled it pretty well.  Although she would occasionally attempt to collapse as Roland held up one hoof.  It was a pretty neat trick.  One I had not seen her do before. She would simply folds her legs under her and start to collapse to the ground.  Fortunately, she never made it down.  Afterwards, with her new shoes finally on, she laid down in her stall and just took a break.  It is hard to be a show horse-even one in training.

Dinner, new shoes, time for a rest.

And another first for us, after nine years of owning Mickey, we removed his back shoes as he will be on a limited work schedule for the next six weeks.  We probably could have taken off his front shoes as well but I was (am) still hopeful that he might be doing some work in the next six weeks and want to error on the positive side. He was not feeling as well last night.  He was more lethargic and coughing. His coughing drew our attention several times as Roland worked through his band of horses needing attention.

Kid continued his tradition of no shoes (barefoot) as fits his retirement status.  Then we came to Leo.  Roland asked Lauren what she was doing with him.  She said was still keeping him “legged-up” (another term from my daddy’s days) but since we are not putting him in the trailer with Feather (not taking a chance on freaking her out) and he cannot jump the big jumps (so not taking Mickey’s place) he was just kind of hanging out.  I said I would give him away to a good home and in the next instant everything changed.  Roland looked at both of us-stopped his shoeing and asked if we were serious.  I said-yes to the right home-I would give him away.

Roland said he had a guy in a nearby town that had just lost his horse and was looking for another.  Moments later I was talking to Keith on the phone about the possibility of Leo being their new horse.  They are out-of-town right now but will come see him tomorrow or when we get back from Denver.  Roland said Keith kept his horses barefoot and we went back and forth about if we should remove his shoes or not.  Finally, we compromised with front shoes only-in case it didn’t work out, we could still show Leo.

After Roland left I sent some Leo pictures to Keith and his wife.  I hope he is what they are looking for-which is a horse that pretty much hangs out in the pasture and gets ridden occasionally around the property.  Leo is an OTTB and I hope he is quiet enough for this man.  He is pretty good at the walk and trot but at the canter, he is a  big horse and can move quickly.  Roland described Leo as gentle-and I wouldn’t go that far but we will let them come see him and decide on their own.

I was reminded of nine years ago when I tried to convince Sarah and her mother that I would be a good home (mother) for Kid (or Twister as they called him then).  At the time I was seriously overweight and did not inspire a lot of confidence in someone looking to place a high-spirited barrel horse.  But that worked out okay and perhaps this will as well.

Today after seeing some pictures of Leo, they seem excited.  I asked if they had a pond.  They do!  They won’t have to worry about riding Leo in the summer because he will not come out of the pond.  I don’t know if this will work but if Leo could find a loving, lifetime home, especially near-by, it would be a wonderful event.

Gee, if Leo moves to a new home, it would leave a stall open and maybe Snowboy could come home.  Roland picked up quickly on that and said, “you know Dev is locking the door on that pony”.  So, maybe not yet, but soon, maybe, Jordyn will get her ‘Snowney the White Pony’ back home.