Dollar Has Gone Barefoot!!

Today Dollar is going barefoot!! Yes!! Ever since I've started reading the Eventing-A-Gogo blog, I have been contemplating going barefoot with Dollar seeing as he is getting old and really has no use for them anymore. I mean, he's not showing all the time now and there's no need to be throwing money away on his feet, when they are such low maintenance.

So I headed down to my parents place today, went to pasture to grab Dollar, bring him home and start cleaning him up. I really need to work on his tail more. It's so full of knots and everything, it really does need a good combing out. I attemtped that today, but even sprayed with Konk, he was not standing still (it didn't help that we were outside either. He always has to move). So I combed out his mane and left his tail alone. He was just swishing it way too much for mne to be able to do anything to it. At this time Keith had called me and said that he was ready to be picked up from work. I reminded him that I was at my parents place, waiting for the farrier. He didn't sound too happy. *Sigh* 

What was supposed to be a 3:00 appointment turned out to be a 3:30 appointment. Yes I know, farriers and vets are always late. I'm just a punctualisist, so I'm always early or on time and it irks me when other people aren't. So Bonnie showed up around 3:30, got all her stuff ready and Dollar was the first one up. I told her that we're pulling Dollar's shoes and he is going permanetly barefoot. She actually agreed with me that he should. So she pulled off all his shoes, fixed up that one that he took a chunk out of and trimmed him all up. And his feet look way better!

Front Left

Back Left

Back Right

Front Right

Front feet

Back feet

While we were trimming up Dollar, Mom decided to hop up onto Hunter, Sam's barrel racing Percheron. Even she agreed that he was very tall (he comes in around 19 hands) and Sam took her around for a little walk to let her feel what he moves like. Mom just looked at Sam afterwards and told her that she was crazy to be riding him. Lol.

Mom on Hunter

Once Dollar was all done, I brought him back to pasture and let him get re-adjusted to his new feet. He hasn't been barefoot since he was 5, so he'll be getting some days off to get used to them again. He was pretty good on the way back to pasture, didn't see him limping or anything associatted with newly bare feet, so we'll just have to hope for the best and make sure that everything's going smoothly. Hell probably get off until next week Wednesday (that's the next time I can make it down here. Stupid work), so hopefully his feet will re-adjust.

Oh, and if anybody has any suggestions on how to toughen up his feet now that they're not protected by shoes, feel free to send them my way. Always looking for new stuff for him.