Our farrier, Rich Boyle, came out today to trim the horses' hooves. Rich comes every 6 to 8 weeks, and it takes about five and a half hours to do the Rolling Dog Ranch herd of 24 blind horses and 6 sighted ones. In this photo Rich is working on our Belgian draft horse Rooster. This enormous (2000 pounds!) sweet fellow came to us from the National Park Service, which could no longer use him because of a degenerative back problem.
We took regular horse halters out to the pasture by mistake, and they won't fit these big boys, so Alayne simply looped the lead rope around Rooster's neck. Rooster and his brother Beaver are so gentle and well-trained that we hardly need to use restraint on them. When I took this photo Alayne seemed to be looking "under the hood," for what I'm not sure!
(Click on photo for larger image.)
ye... he is cool...
Posted by: bob | November 30, 2006 at 07:11 AM
Glad to see a posting of Rooster!
What a gentle giant; he seems hardly any work at all.
He looks quite well; like a warriors horse.
Posted by: Leilani | October 18, 2006 at 08:27 AM
He is the most enormous beautiful horse I have seen!!!!!
I looove him!
Posted by: sarah | October 15, 2006 at 02:56 PM
Rooster is absolutely magnificent.
Posted by: Roz | October 14, 2006 at 09:20 AM
How nice to see Rooster again! I'd been wondering how he and his brother were doing. He looks very healthy and happy. He must love life at his new retirement ranch.
Posted by: Miranda | October 12, 2006 at 10:06 PM
Rooster is gorgeous! What a sweetheart he is. I hope he isn't in pain. That photo really shows his size well!
Hugs to Rooster & the rest,
ginger & Tobias
Posted by: ginger & Tobias (the greythound) | October 12, 2006 at 09:25 PM