Friday 3 June 2011

New hooves and hot weather

It seems to be summer on Exmoor - suddenly the ground is drying out again and not only are all the horses out of rugs, I'm in a t-shirt and we've stopped lighting the woodburning stove - it must be nearly 20 C, so no laughing in Texas...
A new horse, Lenny, arrived on Tuesday in bar shoes and with a fairly typical history of lameness when he was brought back into work.  
 I'll post his footage soon but in the meantime here are some of his initial photos.
I suspect his hooves will soon be showing lots of changes.
New boy Lenny hadn't met other horses for quite a few months and found everything a bit overwhelming but he coped very well considering.  Initially he only met Felix and Charlie but over the next few days I introduced him to some of the others.  Here he is on day 3, wondering whether Felix wants some help keeping the girls in check...
Flynn and Harvey say: We told you so...
Charlie says: Does my bum look big? Surely not...

Meanwhile, our master has asked whether Felix and I will be sporting a bridle or going commando at the Point to Point on Saturday(!)  I haven't told F, and he won't be best pleased, but since we have to catch racehorses AND look the part, bridle may be de rigeur...

5 comments:

jenj said...

Lenny is quite a handsome-looking fellow... I hope he gets to feeling better soon.

20C, eh? You poor thing, you must be positively melting (snicker). It's been nearly 37C here all week, and apparently will be for the foreseeable future. I am currently wondering if my husband could take a sabbatical at, say U of Southampton. Say, every summer? :)

Andrea said...

LOL you know Nic, when this popped up on my Blogger dashboard before I even opened the post, I saw the first sentence about the heat and thought, "psh, in Texas it was 45C the other day...." then I saw your disclaimed and laughed!

Nic Barker said...

:-) Feeling for you guys - this is quite hot enough for me(!)...Jen - great idea, but why come all this way when there is no hunting... ;-)

clairesgarden said...

I would be concerned about your insurance coverage if you are not wearing a bridle or rope hackamore. perhaps you could have the bridle on the horse but leave the reins loose and just use your neck strap as you have been while riding bridleless.
even the specific natural horsemanship insurance says "This policy will not cover you on the public highway whilst riding with just a string for control unless it is also attached to a bridle or halter."
I wish I had such a good connection with my horse that I could ride like that.

Nic Barker said...

CG - I am sure you are right - I would be astonished if I were insured when I was on the road with no bridle :-)

Normally to be fair when I am on the road I do have a bridle on, but equally a small stretch of roadwork with no bridle on a quiet single track road isn't a big risk, TBH.