While I was in Missoula today taking blind Goldie in for her chemotherapy and running errands, Alayne got these shots of our farrier, Rich Boyle, hard at work here at the ranch. Cindy was holding the horses for Rich. We schedule Rich to come out and trim the horses' hooves every six to eight weeks.
In these photos he's working on Patches, one of our sighted horses. She had come to us from an animal abuse court case in Montana several years ago. Because of lameness issues, she can't be ridden. She is predisposed to foundering, which can make her ouchy on her feet, so from time to time Rich puts shoes on her. In the shot above he is pulling the shoe off her front foot, and in this next one he is now trimming her hoof:
Patches can be something of a brat, as she is demonstrating in the following photo. Notice how she is leaning her right flank on Rich?
That's a lot of weight pressing on him! She is not doing this because she has a hard time standing on three legs … she is doing this because, well, she can and she knows it makes it difficult for him. (Did I mention she's a brat?) Rich finally had to set her foot down and start over, but not before Cindy worked on improving Patches' manners!
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