Foxhunters Like it Dirty and Wet

Not really!  This is me hiding in my tackroom at about 9:30am last Saturday morning, hoping the rain shower would stop before I had to get the horse off the trailer and bridle.  I thought my bumber sticker was a bit ironic, and had to share. :)  The foxhunter flashing their mud covered teeth shows not a grin but a grimmace! Lol.

Luck was on our side though, because the rain did clear and the day turned into a beautiful one.

Ready to bridle

It was a great day for photographs, I took nearly 200!  Here's a pictoral account of the 9/14/13 hunt at Branch Hill Farm in Milton Mills, NH.......

A rare shot of the two of us, thanks to a thoughtful fellow hunter!

Calmly waiting to begin the task at hand

A serene pond passed by in the beginning

The hounds viewed under a whip horse's legs at a check by the pond.

The hounds at attention of the huntsman.

Another check in a golden field

Daatje's view of the check at the golden field.

The final run before the "fox" goes to ground.

The horse behind me, all four off the ground. :)

Reflecting on a great last run  of the day.

The fox.

Coming down off the hill.

Whip horse trotting off.

Another whip horse trotting off.

Very happy hound!

I love the look of adoration and pleasure on this hounds face as he walks with his huntsman.

 Ok, so after the last run of the day, our MFH wanted to head across the river to check out some trails that haven't been hunted in a while.  I went and I'm so glad I did, it was a ton of fun!

Pretty deep water.

See how deep!

Up to her chest!

Great way to cool the horses off after a fast hunt though. :)

Out we go to the other side.

Splash!

 When we got home, I let Daatje graze in the field while I put the equipment away.  She was quite happy with that. :)

 And here's a shot of one of her front shoes after the 9.5 mile run where we slogged through mud and crossed rivers. :)  They are holding up great!  I've just ordered another set of 4 in preparation for when these need to be replaced.  They are seriously "magic shoes".  Her confidence is sky high and because of that, she's faster on the runs with greater stamina.  Her willingness to jump is back and she's hitting her distances like a pro.  I have absolutely nothing but good things to say about the shoes and how my horse has responded to them. :D  Five Stars.

Still looking good and doing their job.

Next up is a hunt from the Kennels in Lee, NH on this coming Saturday followed by THE ultimate hunter pace in Sunday down in Westport, MA!  (oh boy!)

Always the Bridesmaid...

 ...never the bride.  Does that apply to photographers too? Lol!  This seems to be the only angle from which Daatje ever gets her picture taken!

Standing at a check, Yorkfield Hunt 9/7/13

Last Saturday's hunt was awesome.  The weather, perfect.  The fixture, a classic.  Yorkfield Farm is traditionally where Wentworth holds the Blessing of the Hounds, or opening meet of the formal season, so to be able to ride the territory ahead of time was a treat.


Hounds just out of the truck, waiting for the hunt to begin





Daatje was a machine.  To say she was a little strong would be a vast understatement!  It's probably a combination of me losing 20 lbs, (5'9" and 137 lbs baby, finally!), her shoes on all four and dialed in nutrition, but she feels amazing.  It makes our job of "Mounted Photographer" a bit more difficult, but we're managing. :)  Hard to keep the locomotive behind the field master with one hand on the reins and one hand on the camera!  Lol.  We're known for our "action shots" while in "action", so I hope she settles in as the season progresses, so we can live up to our reputation.

A friend of mine who hunts with us, and has recently acquired a new TB that she's whipping-in with was dying to have a nice action shot of him, so she asked me to be on the lookout.  I had not yet had the opportunity but was definitely keeping an eye......picture this; we're in an open field, the hounds are in full cry, the field is in full gallop.  I hear hoofbeats galloping far faster than the field, look to my left and see my friend and her whip horse absolutely flying up the hill in order to catch up to where she needs to be.  Here's my chance, what a sight they were!  My camera was in it's case, horse was hauling and I was working to stay behind the field master but all else be damned I was going to try to get that shot!



No time to zoom in, but I got it!  They looked fantastic as they motored past us.  Excitement over, I looked back and realized I had committed the ultimate sin in the hunt field, and passed my field master.  She was very gracious and even waived the customary bottle of booze that I now owed her. :)  I'll most likely get her one anyway. :)  Here are some more shots from Yorkfield....

 

Second Field :)



Happy Hound!

 

Hacking down North Road, back to Yorkfield

 

Good hounds.

 

Field of Daisies

 

Such a wonderful sight

The next hunt for us will be at Branch Hill Farm in Milton Mills, NH and the weather is supposed to be excellent.  (unlike today, which is positively soupy!)  'till then!

Resetting the fronts

Last night Daatje got her front shoes reset.  I was very interested to see what her hooves looked like after 6 weeks in the ground controls.  Were they improved?  Worse?  Daatje has felt 110% under saddle, so I was hopeful they'd look better than they did before we put them on.  I have photos just before the shoes and just after they were pulled, solar view of the right front.


 

The wall at her quarters was gone, broken out fairly high up the hoof.  She was very much on her sole and ever so slightly off bare, sound in boots with pads.  This hoof wore away just from her walking around her paddock.  I had not ridden much during the months of June and July and when I did, it was in her Easyboot Epics.  This got me thinking we'd better add some reliable protection before we start hunting or we'd be dead in the water.

 

Below is that same foot after 6 weeks in the Ground Control Shoes.  The shoe had just been removed, bars trimmed and dead sole pared away.  I had not yet trimmed the wall before I took the photo.  You can see the quarters are coming back, but it will take another 5-6 weeks before they are whole again, I think. 



All in all, I'm very pleased with how her hooves looked under the shoes.  There was no funk, no thrush, very little debris.  The shoes removed easily with my crease nail puller and were in good enough shape to reset.  Here are the fronts, just removed and cleaned up.

As you can see, there is still plenty of thickness left in the shoe.

By the time I had them back on, it was too dark for photos, but this morning, I brushed them off and took some to share.  I only used 6 nails per shoe this time instead of 8 and used washers under every nail.  (6mm in size, and bent like a taco)  I found, as the shoes were worn, that the un-washered nails sunk into the urethane material a little, causing the clinches to lift away from the hoof wall, resulting in the exposure of the sharp hook of the clinch.  The rear nails that were replaced with ones using washers had tight and smooth clinches right until the end, so I though it best to go with them on all nails.

Right front



Left front

In placing the nails, I made an effort to avoid the quarters that were most damaged from the barefoot wear.  The wall there has not yet grown down as strong wall so nailing into it would be counter productive, I think.  You can see in this shot where the quarters still need to grow down.

  

Here's a view from the heel and from the side of both fronts. 

Left front, heel view

Right front, heel view

Right front, side view

Left front, side view

I got a little happy with the "Tough Stuff" over the past 6 weeks.  See all those flakey layers in the photo?  That's it coming off!  I'll sand it a bit to clean up the appearance and perhaps I should switch to a different hoof dressing.  Lol.

 

Anyway, when I was through, I took her for a trot up and down the driveway and her cadence was strong and even, so she's comfortable and moving well after the reset.  We have a hunt tomorrow in Kensington, so I'll be back to report how things go!  (I know, I still haven't posted photos from Wednesday's hunt at Fine Nest, but if you'd like to see them, you can go to the Wentworth Hunt Photo Gallery.  :)

 

The hind shoes are only at 3 weeks, and her hinds were short to begin with, so I'm going to wait another three before resetting them.  They're not taking the beating the fronts are, either, so I may even get a third setting out of the hind shoes.  We'll see.  This is quite the experiment and so far, it's going well.  The horse is more comfortable and her hooves are improving in condition.



Approaching six weeks

Ground Control shoes at 2 weeks

Daatje is approaching six weeks on the front set of shoes (where does the time go?) and it's time for a re-set.  (Two weeks passed between putting on the fronts and putting on the hinds, so the hinds will be done in a few.)  Odd, yes, but that's how things worked out.  Probably better for me (and Daatje!) as I'm not sure I could do all four in one sitting in a timely fashion!  Not yet, anyway.

We hunted again yesterday (hooray for vacation days and week-day hunting!) at our rockiest fixture and Daatje was quite comfortable in all three gaits.  A few people lost shoes in the footing, but Daatje's stayed on without question.  Photos from the hunt and re-setting of the front shoes to follow! :D