Rocky’s Stories- New Shoes
Rocky’s Blogs – NEW SHOES!!!
Part 10. New Shoes, New Feet.
Today Mike came, my personal farrier! Mike always says Nana lets my feet get too long, ”too long between shoeing!” he says. Actually he is right, I can feel the pressure on my tendons (back of my lower legs) when my toes get too long, and my heels are sitting too flat on the ground.
Mike shod me ‘hot’ today, with a small ‘hot box’ This box heats up the shoes as they are getting shaped to fit my feet. Look at the smoke coming from the shoe straight out of the box. It was my first time being hot shod but I didn’t give a damn.
Mike puts heavy ‘road’ shoes on me as I have to go on the road a lot. Show jumping horses have lighter shoes so they can pick their feet up easier, I don’t have any trouble, Nana says I am like a spring board sometimes!.
In the photo you can see a stand for putting my foot on, this helps Mike’s back, some horses don’t like these, but I take them in my stride – a pun of course!
It is very important to get the shape of the foot exactly right. The pieces of foot which are cut off are very popular with dogs, they just love eating them, as long as the hoof hasn’t recently had oil brushed on.
See in the photos the different ways that Mike has to hold my feet, sometimes it is pretty uncomfortable, but to get new shoes, I just put up with it. I sometimes rest my head on his back, that’s why ‘he has a sore back, he says!
See in the photo the shoe straight from the hot box held against my foot, lots of smoke and burning smells! Actually my foot has no feel, like a fingernail. See how Mike has to hold the hot shoe with a steel tool thing.
A picture of my back foot with new shoes, lovely big nails, these provide grip on slippery grass, when the nail heads wear down, there is not so much grip. Race horses wear very light racing plates, made from aluminium, I would fly if I had those!
Last of all, Nana ‘dresses’ (that’s what it is called) my feet with oil, all the cleaned and scraped frog and soles of my feet (funny terms eh!) Lots of different products can be used, some have a very black look, really makes the feet look good for the ‘Dolly’ classes! Actually oiling the feet is like putting conditioner on your hands-very necessary.
Nana took a photo of her shoes, they have a hole in them, so they leak and they nearly fall off all the time because the elastic round the top has torn away, the important thing is – I have new shoes!
Rocky.
PS New shoes cost about $130 all up (so Nana says). I need these every 4 weeks or so, well the saying is ‘you can’t make an omelette without eggs’ so you can’t ride hours and hours every week without shoes.
