When The Farrier Comes

Today our farrier, Rich Boyle from Simms, Montana, made his regularly scheduled visit to the ranch.  Rich comes about every 6 to 8 weeks to trim the horses' hooves. We had 13 horses who needed trimming, from our rambunctious 5-month old blind foal Destiny (now she was a handful!) to old, easy-going blind Shasta, who just had eye surgery last week.

The photo shows Rich trimming Laddie, a recent arrival, out in one of our pastures this afternoon.  The farrier's assistant (or so she thinks) is Marie, a mare who came from a ranch out along the Rocky Mountain Front. It was Rich, in fact, who first learned about Marie's plight and arranged for her to come to the sanctuary.  (Click on photos for larger image.)

Both Laddie and Marie are blind and are completely bonded with each other.  They spend their days together grazing in this pasture.   Marie always had 'relationship issues' with just about every horse we paired her with.  Until Laddie.  Now these two are inseparable, and they get very upset if they don't know where the other one is.

While we were out trimming horse hooves, we also were filling water tanks.  The big gray tank you see in the photo serves four of our blind horse pastures ... the fencelines meet at this central location so the horses can all drink from the same tank.  We fill the 200-gallon water tank in the truck at the hydrant by Lena's Barn (you can see the barn in the distance) and then drive out to fill up the tanks in the pastures.  (Some day we'd like to run a water line to this spot, but it's a long way and would cost a lot!)

If you noticed the haze in the photos ... well, this is still smoke from lingering forest fires in the region.  The fires aren't near us, but the smoke is everywhere.  Usually our skies are blue and clear and you can see for miles.  With a cold front  -- and much needed rain -- coming in this weekend, the smoke should clear soon.

Comments

[Karen SA/TX]

Must have been nice to have a normal day....it has been hectic lately. Nice idea on the water tank. Especially the fences, no sharp edges where the horses can make their way comfortable.