Lena (??) loses a shoe

Bar losing shoes this time of year is a given--the thin walls of his Thoroughbred feet combined with wet-to-dry and back to wet conditions make keeping iron nailed on his feet a test of my patience and my farrier's skills. Luckily, the latter is in a much higher supply than the former.

But Lena has great feet--big with thick hoof walls. She hasn't lost a shoe in a really long time, and then it was because she stepped on it and pulled it off. So imagine my surprise when Steve walked down to the arena sans Lena as I stood talking to one of the other riders and he told me she had lost a shoe. He had looked for it in her paddock but hadn't found it and said her hoof looked fine, not torn up at all. Hm. Could this be related to her kicking habit? One was surely suspicious having recently witnessed her deliver several jarring bangs on the back wall of her shelter.

I drove Steve home and then went back to the barn because Mr. Bar needed more work after yesterday's antics, plus I was determined to find Lena's shoe and figure out what had happened.

The first thing I saw was a hole at the base of that wall she's kicking all the time, and there at the bottom of the hole was her shoe. It looked a lot like she got her foot stuck under the edge of the wall and ended up pulling that shoe right off her foot.


Then I checked her foot and, yes, there was a big ol' scrape above the coronary band. She didn't seem sore or lame on that leg, but we'll watch her to be sure. Mike, the most awesome farrier, said he would probably swing by tomorrow to tack a shoe back on her dainty foot.


Is it too much to hope for that this might teach her a lesson? She really wanted out, too, and I explained that having a flat in the back made her uneven so she was out of luck on that account. Double lesson? I suppose I'm dreaming.

Bar, on the other hand, has all his shoes and got another good physical AND mental workout today--one that included dealing with the terror of hearing (and not seeing, which is apparently worse than seeing and hearing) the hoof clatters of another horse getting loose and heading down the driveway. Bar was very, very concerned and was actually the one to give those of us in the arena the heads-up that something was amiss (literally in Bar's case, along with his tail). We alternated between letting him approach to get reassurance and going back to work as if nothing was wrong as things got back under control.

He and I also did some work in the middle of the arena with two other riders doing their thing around us and he did fairly well--even with horses trotting up from odd directions behind him, he stayed calm and focused on me. Colleen, the nice woman who has offered several times to work with us, did mention that perhaps my own emotions/anxieties affect Bar. Sigh. I know they do, I just haven't figured out how to mask that from him just yet. Or get over it so I don't have to do any masking. I may have to fake it until I make it for awhile.

At any rate, the day ended with a beautiful moonrise and alfalfa. Not too bad, but it surely would have been better if Steve and Lena had gotten a ride in.