Great weekend!

I had the best weekend ever! First of all, I rode on BOTH days!!! Second, I had a blast! I had so much fun, I can't even describe it!

You know, I wanted to work with Dandy, get her to canter (or lope) circles... well, I worked on that, plus loping in general and transitions. Turns out my girl can do much more than I thought she could.

I am trying to teach her to lope from a stop and from a walk... she is accurate about 60% of the time... which is not bad, since we just started! Horses are so smart, we sometimes underestimate them, we shouldn't. Dandy has consistently loped a slow collected lope on a loose rein (very loose!) and held it for about two minutes. Her lope is slower than most trots and is SO comfortable, it's almost a sin. I plan to videotape it and put a piece on here soon! She is able to lope a half circle on a loose rein, but cannot hold herself to complete the circle. We have succesfully loped one circle, with reminders to keep loping and trotted quite a few of them. Her muscles aren't quite strong enough yet to constantly hold herself, but she is pretty good on a straight line! Also, I don't have to hold her back, she is totally on a loose rein. I can also change from a slow lope to a faster lope or a gallop by just touching her or making kissing noises. She will not runaway on me, unless I really push her. I did this both days with an hour trail ride on Sunday to warm her up... I know, they don't need an hour to warm up, I just got carried away! lol.

On a second note for the weekend. I have received my Easywalker horse shoes. I tried my hand at shoeing Peg in the front on Saturday, she was very patient. The shoes were fairly easy for me to put on. I think I did a pretty good job! I will post pictures and a video of her after the shoes are on soon.

Peg turned out to be very sound... and almost uncontrolable once the shoes were on. We took small video of her walking and trotting and she was being a handful, which is not her nature at all! So I decided to turn her out... well... I entered the pasture and I nearly got run over by Peg, she was in a hurry to try her shoes. So I undid her halter and as soon as it was off, ZOOM! she went flying, runing, cantering, trotting a beautiful extended trot... and pacing... yeah...she paces at liberty... Then she came back our way after cantering a tight circle and trotted by, then turning around and picking a race (a true Standardbred race!) with Pearl, who was unshod, but very sound in the pasture. They bucked and kicked at each other and pretty much goofed off for about 10 minutes... I have to say, I have NEVER seen Peg move the way she did... and a flat run... NEVER EVER would I imagine she would do that on her own! I was completely stunned. It seriously blew my mind. I watched them the whole time.

Sunday, we decided to put the shoes to the test! We went riding... my sister took Peg and I took Dandy (who is still unshod and doing fabulous!). We went on gravel roads, pavement, deep mud, creeks, branches and they held up to the challenge. After our ride, while I was playing with Dandy in the field, my sister was running poles with Peg and cantering around just as much as I was!!!! Peg could've never done that before! When we were done riding, after two hours, I checked the shoes and they held up great, nothing loose... so my "farrier" job held up! I'm no farrier, but I know the hoof pretty well after trimming for barefoot performance for 3 years, plus I read up a bunch on what to do and how and where to put what.

These shoes allow for the hoof to flex and they also have a mini heartbar that stimulates the frog when the hoof is weight baring. So I should see an improvement in hoof growth, quality and in the frog in a few weeks. I will keep updates if you are interested.

If you are interested in the Easywalker horseshoes, you can order some by contacting Mike Barriault at Easywalker Horseshoes Canada, tell him Emilie Valliere sent you! Here is his e-mail address: info@easywalkerhorseshoescanada.com You can read up about EasyWalkers on this website: http://www.easywalkerhorseshoes.com/

These shoes are extremely solid and the wear is equivalent to steel shoes, but they allow the hoof to flex like a natural barefoot hoof would. If your horse is not yet ready to go barefoot and that you don't want to put steel shoes on him, consider these, they are a great alternative and are a good compromise between barefoot and steel shoes. If the instructions are followed, the shoes will not come off no matter the level of work and will work to improve the hoof.