Thursday

A trim (and most excellent news)
It's been 12 weeks since I've had my fabulous farrier look at Farley's feet. So, it was with some trepidation that I brought Farley over this morning for him to trim.

I rasp Farley's feet every 2 weeks, making sure my last rasp when he looks at her is 2 weeks prior so he has enough hoof to work with if he needs to make any corrections.

The last time he looked at her (3 months ago) he admonished me for letting the toe run away from me on the RF and the heel get too long of the LF.

I've been a bit....unmotivated to trim ever since he looked at her last....I ran over my hoof stand. (Don't ask). But, I have been diligent about picking up her feet every 2-3 weeks and running a rasp over them, keeping in mind what he pointed out at the last trim, even if I haven't been doing my usual stellar job on the mustang roll. But I've been worried because.....

...they've looked pretty good. Too good - I haven't had to hardly do ANYTHING for 3 months - I was a bit worried I was missing something. After all, when we first started barefoot I had a LOT of work to do every 2 weeks on her hooves. But, everything looked good so I let it be.

Back to the farrier visit today.

He picks up her first hoof - RF.

Takes a couple of swipes with the rasp so he can see and pronounces it good. He looks at me and smiles. I beg him to look at her other feet. I'm weak at being able to notice and correct medial balances and I'm worried I've missed something.

He picks up the RH. Good

He picks up the LF. Good

He picks up the LH. Good

Can it be????????? Have I really been able to maintain my own horse's feet for 3 months????? Hallejuah!

The farrier seems impressed. He refuses my $$ and when I tell him "consider it well spent for your professional expertise" he says he would feel guilty for taking my $$, and so I give up.

I think he's impressed because each time he's given me feedback on my trimming, the next time he checks her, that issue is gone. The advice he gave me today was to leave more heel on the hinds so that the toe doesn't run away and it gives more support. He also took a couple swipes of the rasp on the inside half of each foot, so I know I need to keep an eye on that and perhaps take more off on the inside.

So needless to say I'm very happy. I've been walking on clouds all day. Of course.....there is a downside to all this.....

I had *hoped* that the RF wasn't really now closer to a size 2 renegade instead of a size 1....and was due to some sort of faulty trimming on my part. Now it looks like her fronts really are moving towards size 2 status......The LF has also gotten bigger, but as it has a tendancy to be clubbed, it's not quite as tight in the size 1 as the RF. Something to keep on eye on in the next couple of months. Maybe I'll need to pick up a pair of size 2's... (insert whiney Melinda - but I have tons of size 1s! and 0s! This is SO UNFAIR. :( I should be thrilled that her feet are getting so healthy, but darn it! boots are expensive!!!!!)

Convince Boyfriend to come watch me
Not happening. Not that I held out much hope for it to happen.....The important one is Tevis. It's a formality that I ask for these smaller races, but I DO expect you there the morning after Tevis. Are you listening???????

Load Horse Food
A big, fat YES. :) This was an easy one, but something I *always* put off until the last minute, so it's nice that everything is loaded one day early.

BTW - you may have noticed that no where do I "pack" my trailer. I live out of my trailer on a day-to-day basis because I board....which means I'm *always* packed and ready to go.

All that remains is to load up my horse and fill my truck with gas! And then off we go...and thus concludes this rather boring series of "preparing for a ride"

So what is the point of all these boring, diary-like posts?
I wanted to give everyone a taste of what happens (and what doens't happen) the week leading up to a ride. I usually formulate these detailed plans of when I will do different tasks and have really good intentions of doing a bunch of "extra stuff" - like vaulting practice, hand jogs, extra tack cleaning. And invariably, nothing goes to plan. I don't ride when I think I'll be able to ride, numerous things get cut out of the schedule, and I'm likely to say "Screw it All!" and take a nap instead of what I had originally planned for that day.

And it's OK!!!!

If you don't get EVERYTHING done that you thought you *should* the week before the ride, you are probably still going to be OK. A missed ride or a missed electrolyte dose is NOT going to determine the success or fail of the weekend ride. Reality is, your ride is going to depend on what you did 3-6 weeks before the race, not the last 1-2 weeks. Very little you do in the last week will make a difference as long as you have the essentials covered - plenty of rest for you and the horse, good nutrition, and NOT forgetting something essential.