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 

Superwoman

I think it's safe to say that Daatje thinks she's superwoman with these shoes on all four hooves.  :)  The hunt at Rest and Be Thankful Farm last Saturday was outstanding!  I had more horse under me than ever before.  She had power like never before, traction like never before.  And best of all, the shoes stayed on tight through everything!

Saddled and ready

The hunt was just under 8  miles and covered some of the most beautiful farmland and woodlands to be found in southern Maine.

Cows!

Hacking down the gravel drive

 

At stirrup cup

Whee!

Cooling off after the hunt.

 

I think it's safe to form an opinion about the shoes.  They are everything I had hoped they'd be, offering the right kind of protection, simple to apply, stay put......the last judgement will come with how long they wear and the next setting will determine that.  We're on week 4.  A couple more weeks and I'll pull them to trim and reset.  I plan on taking photos of the shoes after 12 weeks side by side with a brand new set, to give an indication of how they wear over a 12 week period.

The next hunt for us is August 31st all the way up north in Tamworth, NH.  Full of scenic vistas at the foot of the White Mountains, Red Horse Hill Farm is usually well worth the trip!  Here's to more fabulous hunting weather.....

Washers

So the other day I stopped at home depot to pick up some washers to place under the nail heads of the rear most nails on her front shoes.  If you recall, during the hunter pace on the 17th of August one of the rear nails on her left front shoe pulled through the polyurethane when it was stepped on by the hind in deep footing.

The manufacturer recommends 8mm washers bent in half like a taco, but when I got to the store and saw how big the 8mm washers really were, I couldn't imagine the nail heads not slipping through them, even if they were bent.  I opted to go for the 5mm washers and not bend them.  I'm using Delta Combo 5 City Head Slims and the 5mm washers were a perfect fit.  I had to dremmel out the nail channel in the shoes to accomodate Daatje's white line so the 5mm fit fine flat.

Pulling out the exsisting nails was not easy.  They were quite secure!  That made me feel pretty good about the shoes staying power.  If they're that hard to get off on purpose, they won't be too easy to pull off by accident.

So, I re-installed the rear nails using the same holes and set the washers under the nail heads.  The alteration looked something like this.

New rear nail with 5mm washer.  Right front.

New rear nails with washers, left front.

 She's been stomping around on this set of Ground Control Shoes for nearly 3 weeks now.  They are showing appropriate wear for being under an 1100 lb horse who's in work, I think.  Still plenty of thickness.  I plan on resetting them at 6 weeks and hope to get a full 12 weeks out of them before replacing them with a new set.

We should be well prepared for the hunt in Lyman, ME on Saturday.  The weather is supposed to be fantastic.  I'm really looking forward to it!  Will of course, be back with a hunt report/photos. :)

Pony Car

Up until last Saturday, my husband and I have been a 2 car household.  He works close to home, and for gas $$ sake, takes my truck to work.  I take our little 2008 Cobalt (my commute is 60 miles a day).  My truck isn't getting any younger.  It's a 2001 model Silverado with 119K miles on it.  I really want to preserve it for towing the horse trailer and de-commision it as a daily driver back and forth to work so it'll last a little longer.  (buying a new truck would be so expensive!)

So, I started searching for a third vehicle to use as a commuter car.  Last week, I found a nice used 1998 Ford Mustang GT with 90K miles on it, one owner, Texas car.  My husband doesn't really care what he drives (not into cars at all) and has zero interest in driving a standard transmission, so he's taking over the Cobalt as his commuter vehicle and I get to drive the Mustang GT!!! :D  Whoo-hoo!

Fun times, fun times.  Without further ado.......the Pony Car. :)

My "new to me" Mustang GT

Hunter Pace Weekend

Last Saturday we attended the Conservation Benefit Hunter Pace hosted by my hunt club.  Part of the proceeds are donated to a local land conservancy, which is awesome, and the rest is used to take care of our pack of hounds, which is essential! :)

Perfect weather, great turnout and a fun course through the woods and fields surrounding the Stingy River in Raymond, NH made for an incredibly awesome weekend.

At Stirrup Cup

Look at all the trailers!  We're the bright red truck in the middle of the photo.

On the trail by the river.

So this was another real test of the Ground Control Shoes, on all four hooves this time.  Putting them on her hinds was a smart move.  The difference in her pushing power (most notibly at the canter) is outta control.  Definitely makes her job easier and therefore more enjoyable for both of us. 

The footing in the fields was boggy.  I was concerned about the rear most nails on the front shoes.  If she stepped on the front shoe with her hind foot, it was likely the nail(s) could pull through the polyurethane shoe.  (the manufacturer recommends using 8mm washers, bent like a taco, on the rear most nails on the front shoes to prevent this from happening)

Sure enough, upon inspection when we returned, the rear most nail on the outside of the left front shoe had been pulled through the shoe.  The nail was still neatly in her hoof.  I brought my shoeing kit and was easily able to remove the offending nail and replace it with another for the time being.  I did not have any 8mm washers, but before the foxhunt on this Saturday, 8/24, I will be sure to pull out the rear most nails in the fronts and replace them with ones set through the washers.

Aside from that little hiccup, (which would have been a non-issue if I had used washers as recommended) the shoes, the protection they offer her, and how she moves in them, are stellar.  We are starting our 3rd week on the fronts and I still have nothing but good things to say.