...new shoes....

...after a winter of  being 'shoeless and idle'....
................................the boys had a pedicure today.

A  combination of Steve my farrier needing some time off and my own experimental side wondering how T&H would be shoeless during the unrideable months of winter, meant the boys have been without shoes since October.

Surprisingly, they were absolutely fine, I wouldn't want to add this as a permanent approach to my strategy, but as a well monitored experiment, it proved most interesting.

They have remained unridden and have been fine, a little sore on the rough concrete patch in my yard but sound on the flat.
 

Remember also, they have been in at night during this time too so have spent lots of time on soft ground woodchip and rubber floor,....and outside: actually very soft...rain soaked mud!





Steve arrived today, not in his usual van, but in his car kitted out for farriering. Tom and Henry were grazing (yes, we have grass), and brought themselves in from the field, walked over to Steve and Bob's your uncle. he said their feet were a very good shape and condition, phew!

....now I just have to tackle the mud....wonder how long that'll take me?

...my lips are sealed...

...you can't make me tell you...
.....but, i can share a few surveillance shots, undercover work pays off....







.....I'm saying nothing.....

...I can't say anything...

...I've been sworn to secrecy...
.........but it may be happening again!!!!!!

                      .................say no more, Mum's the word.

...mud...

...the snow has melted into a sloppy, slippy bath of mud...
...not to mention the heavens opening up for a great cosmic drenching shower that soaks everything including horses, and those of us with leaks in our wellies!

...the trick is to not be disheartened, I desperately want to harrow and reseed my top two fields, but it's far to mushy out there, and T&H have been using those fields that I would normally shut during winter, because they are the highest ground.  And to avoid them standing all day fetlock-deep in slush, I have had to allow the trashing of my best fields...BUT no mud fever!

The Lady in Black

...the dancing horse...
With a new pedicure for each adversary in the dance-off.


 
The black mare is a thoroughbred trained by Mario Luraschi, the equestrian stunt-master to the music of DJC2C's Down the Road.

 

..and here's how they did it...

THE DANCING HORSE:

The Black mare known as Lady in Black who stars in this ad for OPI nail polish, is clearly a very talented dressage horse.

I've not been able to find out anything about the horse only she seems to have a quite long back so possibly not a Trakehner.

 

 

 

 

 Any criticism about the ad and how it was filmed, just shows how little people understand about horses. And if they just stopped for a second, and watched some horses playing in their fields, free and naturally, they would see them doing all these moves without any human involvement at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

like dressage itself, the mounted type i mean, the clever bit is learning how to ask the horse to do these things on command.

You can see from the few behind-the-scenes shots I was able to find that the trainer, as i was trying to explain at work today, is likely just out of shot, asking the horse to perform certain moves.

 

This could be a new horse discipline, free-dressage?

 

 

 

 

...have you seen this...?

LADY IN BLACK:
Have you seen this incredible video?