Fancy Feet

Jack had new shoes put on last week. He has classic flat Thoroughbred feet, so he gets pads put on his front feet in the summer when the ground is hard and dry. He used to get the plastic cut to fit pads, but Nancy, our amazing farrier, has been trying pour-in pads the past few times.

Here is Jack warding off the pesky flies with his fly mask on. I still think it's adorable how all the Stoneybrook horses have their names across their forehead. It's like a bunch of little kids with name tags on. He's sticking out his tongue at the camera!

To do the pour-in pad, Nancy fits his shoe, then trims a piece of mesh to the outline of his hoof. She nails the shoe on with the mesh sandwiched between his hoof and the shoe. Then she squirted in the goo (I don't know what the actual noun for the stuff is!) so it fills the space under the mesh. You can see a piece of clear plastic over the whole mess to hold the goo in while it dries. It sets in just a few minutes. I wish I had taken a few more pictures of the steps... maybe next time, but that may not be until next year!

Once Nancy is done, I usually put Tuff Stuff on his nice, neat feet to seal the nail holes. This is what I tell Jack: "You have Fancy Feet, now!" He does not have great feet, but we are trying to keep them as nice as possible!

Now we're ready to ride! It was an easy, short ride in the indoor on the soft footing. The pads needed to cure completely, so we couldn't do any really hard work. Lucky Jack!

Oh, and Jill (if you read this), you would not believe how much everyone still raves about my market basket that you gave me! I still get comments on how cute and handy it is, and I love it! Perfect for toting all my stuff to the barn. Thanks!

Oops, this was posted by Heidi. Somehow the computer was already logged in as Dave. Oh well!