Some farriers came hunting...!

...and according to some friends of mine, their comments and language as they saw my truck pull in to the meet were quite colourful - along the lines of "Oh no, not one of those {insert colloquialism of your choice} shoeless people!"

We had 3 horses out, as did the farriers - and in fact although they clocked us straightaway, I didn't realise they were farriers till much later on.

The problem for them was that it was one of those mornings which start FAST and don't really let up - so there they were, in country they didn't know at 6am going like bats out of hell up hill and down dale - and one of them later admitted that he hadn't ridden since February :-0

After an hour they looked a bit shell-shocked and a couple of their horses had lost shoes (!). They were very game, and carried on till the finish, but had to be revived with tea and bacon butties provided by us regulars at the end.

Comment of the day from one of them: "At least when you lose a shoe they go a bit slower" - erm, not quite - he managed to ignore the fact that all 3 of us with barefoot horses were waiting for them, shutting gates behind them, then overtaking them and catching up the rest of the field while they brought up the rear ;-)