3.13.09

It's been a busy week: Our farrier came out Monday to the gaited horses, and came back Tuesday to put shoes back on Nelson and to trim the babies ("my" baby did beautifully, thankyouverymuch, however, the other filly is quite funny when mildly sedated!). Duke already has plates on, and since I'm not going to River Ridge I don't see the point in putting his show shoes on him right now.



Tuesday was nevertheless a busy day for the Big Guy - after much deliberation and a lot of currying, I decided to go ahead and body-clip Duke. Poor boy is completely nekkid now! I have to go back and do some re-touching tomorrow when it's warmer, but hopefully his coat will be quite nice by Heartland Classic in early May.



The downside of body-clipping a grey horse is that when the hair is clipped away, you can see all the new dents and dings he has somehow managed to accumulate under the camouflage of a winter coat, and they somehow manage to look so much worse than they would on a chestnut! I can't wait until he gets sleeker, because then I can stop cringing at his various scrapes - I like my boy to look pretty!



Duke also had a visit from the Vet to have his teeth floated, and I rode him for the first time today. He was so much more responsive to the bit! I'm actually going to have to consciously adjust to it, it's that much of a noticeable difference. He was great, the only exception being when he stopped to stare when the neighbors child started screaming bloody murder - and who can blame him, it freaked me out too!