It has rained a lot, 14 inches, for the past week. It seemed like it never stopped. Nice weather today with lots of mud.
Dale Moody, the farrier, came today. He put shoes on Magic and trimmed all the rest. Magic has a stone bruise, off front, and we all had trouble when Dale was putting the shoe on that foot. At one point I plainly saw Magic’s foot, with the shoe on and a nail sticking out, on Dale’s right shoulder blade. Dale was standing up at the time. Dale never quit, nobody got hurt, nobody got mad, and Magic has shoes on now. Tonight I took Magic some oats laced with bute. Hopefully the shoes will take the pressure off the bruise and in a few days he will be running and kicking. All the horses are a little tender-footed after the trim.
A stone bruise is a temporary thing. Magic will get over this. It is somewhat of a comfort to have been through this before. It take a horse quite a while to get acclimated to a new situation, particularly one that is so different from the one they are accustomed to. A barefoot, pasture life in the Ozarks is a lot different that life at the racetrack. I can see a lot of advantages but it does take some getting used to. It seems like Newt limped around for a year before his feet got to where they could take it.