Well there you go...

Well, I thought that Saturday would be boring with planting seeds, moving some rocks, and perhaps mowing the yard. None of that was going to happen.

My Peruvian Paso Mule, Siera, looked gimpy and didn't want to lead at all when I groomed her early in the morning. Her walk was off or she refused to walk which is odd for her since she is very good on a lead rope.

I noticed yesterday that she'd spent time standing quietly or laying down. I checked for colic and her gut sounds were perfect as well as her vitals.

I texted Danny who has taken over doing the farrier work for us. His dad used to come with Danny when Danny was apprenticing with him. Danny has done farrier and blacksmith work since he was able to pick up the tools.

He learned from a very skilled AFA Certified Journeyman Farrier, his father. He can make specialized shoes right out of the back of his truck and pretty much diagnose leg/foot issues faster than a vet. He and his father are recommended by vets quite often in our area.

So my text went to him and he said he'd come out in a few hours.

One thing for sure, in the 4 weeks since her last trim she'd 'Toed out' meaning her toes grew fast and long [which is typical for her]...but never this fast! So she was walking rather stiffly and ouchy. 

Danny saw that right away and worked on her hooves. He felt a bit of swelling in her lower legs and I commented that she hadn't been moving much for the past few days. Maybe she was 'stocking up' from standing and not moving.

Well, we hoped so.

Here is Danny trimming and also doing a hoof test for any possible abscesses. None were found and nothing was 'ouchy' in her feet.

One thing to recall about mules especially Siera. When some mules have an owie, they get overly dramatic.

Let's face it, this gal is The Diva of Mules.

 

Just as we finished up with her, the 'kid' who purchased the 1992 Toyota 4X4 straight truck showed up with a buddy. They had come to claim their prize.

His hunting buddy came along to help and they borrowed Frank's [plow guy] trailer to put the little truck on and haul it.

I cannot say this enough. This generation of hardworking farm men [in their 20's] are so polite. I keep hearing how entitled and rotten this generation is and so far I haven't met one in my community. Let's say this is the way they have been to my face. These young guys are mechanics and farmers, they work hard and play hard.

Matthew's friend took a look at our old Country Clipper and offered me $100 for it. I started to laugh and replied that, no it was not for sale. He really admired it.

I never got Matthew's friend's name, but we enjoyed some time talking about hunting dogs. He has a Blue English pup, a Plott, and a Black and Tan hound. He showed me some of the training videos he has done with them. Ohhh, how I miss the sounds of hounds. I almost asked him if I could come over and see his hounds, but held my tongue. Old crazy lady!

Below is a screenshot from the security camera in the shed. Matthew is using a come-a-long to bring the Toyota onto the tipping platform. Once loaded and tied into place, they pulled out of the shed.

I'm glad that Matthew is experienced in hauling. He pulled out and backed up the driveway to the field where he could turn the whole mess around and head up the driveway.

One more piece of 'stuff' gone!

As for the shed? I'm almost ready for a dumpster to be delivered. But now that I am looking around at the equipment and tools I have left, it would be a good idea to organize everything first.

I may even look into learning how to make some shelving for putting things up instead of piled in buckets.

Could be a summer job for me when I am not doing anything else.

Hopefully the rest of the weekend goes quietly. No rest for a farm lady.

Hooves, Hay, and Life

The first couple of days of this week were crazy busy. I mucked right through it because I have to take care of business.

Below is a photo [cell phone] shot of our yearly hay supply. I am so thankful for our hay guy saying he has no problem delivering and stacking our hay for us. 

The skid steer is on the right side of the picture. 

This was our old round pen inside the large shed.

I have a father son team who like to come out together to do our mules. This is Danny working with  Sundance. 

The farriers took time to come up to the porch and visit with Rich for a while. We've worked with these guys for quite a few years. Danny has assisted his dad ever since he could hold a hoof rasp.

Both guys do custom blacksmith work and farrier at the same time. Often our veterinarian refers hoof and leg problems to these guys because they are so knowledgeable.
 

I am behind on removing burrs from the mules' tails this year. Sunshine sports a burr tail. I'll get to it sooner than later. Show Sheen and Hair conditioner work really quite well. It takes a lot of time though.

My new hat. This is safer than a Harris/Walz hat to wear in my area. It takes a moment or few to figure out what it says. 

I think I finally turned a corner. I spoke to a nurse and she recommended taking probiotics and avoiding acidic foods for a while. I had probiotics and I made bland food for myself for supper.

This morning was the first time since September 1st that I didn't wake up with nausea and a splitting headache. I am crossing my fingers on this and hope it continues.

One day at a time.

Hot Shoeing

The morning started with a phone call from our farrier.

"Say Val said she'd like to see some hots hoeing, well I'm going to be at Linda's and will be hot shoeing Thunder, would you guys like to come over?"

Indeed we did! To watch Dan work is like watching art in motion. He'd probably blush at that description.

We arrived and Linda told her border collies to sit in her 'Mule'. Her cattle dogs are incredible and they were our audience.

The horse to be hot shoed for a Wagon Train was Thunder. He would need shoes to navigate blacktop and gravel roads.
I'm not going to get into the the discussion of shoes vs. no shoes. In our area if you ride often on gravel roads and our rocky trails, shoes are pretty much a must.

First Dan trims the feet.

Here is his portable forge. Hot? Yes it is hot!

Here he puts the hot shoe against Thunder's hoof.
NO, it does not hurt the horse.
Thunder never even had a reaction.
We however were warned that it would be stinky.

The purpose simply for hot shoeing is to create a smooth surface between the hoof and the shoe. It seals the horn tubules and as Dan told me makes the shoe lie nice and flat against the trimmed foot.
[Imagine putting on a pair of shoes that are lumpy and bumpy against the bottom of your foot. You'd get sore feet in a hurry right?]

Dan finishes up the first foot and moves around the horse repeating the process and custom fits his hand made shoes to each foot.

While doing endurance my mule's feet were cold shoed. After watching and understanding the process of hot shoeing, I'd never do cold shoeing again.

Dan makes his own shoes and that would seem to be a lot of extra work. However he takes a lot of pride and care with each shoe.

Dan is also a certified farrier. He understands the anatomy and physiology of the horse. I suppose I could list his credentials if I knew them all.

He does know feet and he does know horses, mules, and donkeys.

Dan can tell exactly how he has to adjust the shoe to fit properly when using hot shoeing method.

Here he determines where he has to make adjustments ...

And then he goes to his anvil and custom fits the shoe.
After a bit more work, the shoe goes on.

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert at hooves, horses, and shoes, or trimming. However I do know that taking care of the equine foot is so very important.

I like watching Dan work and I really like how he explains things as he goes along. Sometimes I have to stop him as I don't quite get all of the terminology and jargon that goes along with a farrier/blacksmith job.

I do know that my small herd of animals are much better off in having him take care of their feet now. He helped get Siera back on her 'feet'. So far she has been the only one we've ever had a with an issue.
Since Dan came to our farm as our farrier, things have gone quite smoothly.

Last but not least.
Our entertainment while we were visiting.

Sully, the mini donkey.

New Farrier, visit two!

Okay he is not a New Farrier.  Let me rephrase that, he is a Certified Journeyman Farrier.
This means he holds the highest certification by the American Farriers Association. I only know that because I looked it up.

I know that titles don't always mean everything, but I've watched a few farriers in my life and know the difference between those who just do the job and those who Do The Job with knowledge.

This fellow Dan, does it with care and knowledge and he doesn't do a rush job. He points out any health issues that he sees concerning the hoof and if he has a concern with an animal's overall health he will mention it also.
Some folks would probably prefer that a farrier not point these things out, but I don't mind.  
We are just getting to know each other.  
He may see something we have overlooked or he may see something that we are already addressing. 

Siera's frogs are recovering very rapidly.  Exercise is her best medicine right now Dan says.  Well that is fine with me!  
I can see it now.  

Me: "Honey, I am going riding."
Hubby: "Jeeze again?"
Me: "Well Dan said Siera needs exercise to recover!"
Hubby: "Darn that Dan!"

Here is Dan in action.  Sorry Dan, I was not trying for a rear end shot, but wanted to get a shot of the two of you guys talking.

Dan trims Sunshine, the older red molly mule.  The lighting for photos was terrible, but I was more interested watching Dan work than taking photos. However one day I'd like to see him make a shoe!

Sunshine and Sundance were in the round pen with two of our donkeys.  The red heads were sort of being naughty so I thought I'd step in and give them something to do.

Sunshine trots past the Mule Monster while Sundance decides to halt and give it the evil mule eye.

Sundance finally decides that she should smell it and then walk on it.  After that, it was something to jump, step on, tromp, and take a bite out of...just in case it decided to turn back into a Mule Monster.

I didn't get a shot of it, but the donkeys were rather unimpressed with the whole thing.  Emma gave it a stare and willed it to lay there and be submissive while she walked by it.  Princess walked over it without a care.

So the day really was a good one for us.  I got to make the red heads work, and the donkeys too.
Plus we had excellent trim jobs.

I am looking forward to doing some more work with the red mules.  And of course...I have to exercise Siera.

Happy Easter.

New Farrier Visits!

Siera's left front foot before and after trim.

To our new farrier's credit, he was not finished when I took the second photo. He had some more work to do as well as quite a bit of rasping to shape and not have the toe so 'sharp' looking.

I got so involved in listening to his description of his plan on being able to help Siera grow frogs back that I didn't take any more shots.

I will state here that I am no foot expert and I won't pretend to be.  I rely on the expert work of the farrier I work with.  The farrier we had for the past 10 or so years seemed to do a fine job.  At times, he seemed in a hurry, cut, rasp, drop the foot and on to another.  If he was not trimming up to par, it seemed most of our animals were still getting along.

Except Siera.  Gaited Peruvian Paso Mule.  Over the summer, her feet did get neglected and when trimmed it was a quick shot deal.  I was busy with my husband's cancer treatment to pay much attention.
That is until suddenly Siera was standing on three legs and barely making it to the hay pile.

I immediately realized there was a problem.  As far as we could tell it could have been an abscess and thrush.  Although that was confusing as it had been so incredibly dry.
When I cleaned her feet the frogs were a mess.  Old farrier rarely trimmed off the rough pieces saying they'd just wear off.  Deep in her frog there was a putrid grey nasty goo.
Infection of some sort.  Her frogs were disappearing on her left side.  I packed antibiotic cream into her affected areas and made duct tape shoes.  I did this off and on for two weeks.

The old farrier came by and did a trim.  I was perplexed, wasn't her frog supposed to impact the ground as well as the heel?  "Well," said old farrier, "it is the best I can do right now."

Let's just say old farrier ended up leaving us.

We were so happy to accidentally run across this farrier who is a Certified Farrier, not a fellow who picked it up so he could make some money.

Dan and his son Danny both work as a team.  They make their own shoes and other products.  Dan knows his stuff.
I was impressed at the amount of time he took to explain Siera's plan of recovery.  
He also told me to ride her lightly in the snowy pasture to promote growth, which exercise would do. Yippee!


Dan was not looking for new clients but when Rich told him it was "The Wife's Mule." Dan exclaimed that he would proclaim that as an "Emergency!" and he and his son came over as soon as they were done at the neighbor's place.

He can now safely schedule a whole day on our ridge.  My neighbor, us, and another lady I know about 1.5 miles from our place.

I plan on being here when we returns and I will ask if I can take a lot more photos.  He actually likes it when clients do that.
The man certainly knows his hooves.

Color me happy.