June 13, 2013
Yesterday I did some ground work with Linus. He has not gotten a lot of attention for the past week and a half while I prepared and attended the Mounted Games Mid-Atlantic #2 Competition in Centre Hall, PA.
He is happy to wear his fly mask now, but he has been apprehensive about fly spray. But today, He took it like a champ. I also greased his nose up with some sunblock. He seemed to enjoy that, particularly wiping it back off all over me.
Next I decided to give his hooves some attention. To recap, Linus is afraid of men and apparently ferrier tools. I have already had two brief sessions with the rasp, getting him accustomed to it. So today I broke out the little emergency nail nippers I have. They are not exactly made for real hoof trimming. They are more for emergency work. But I figured I would give it a go and see how it went.
And it went surprisingly well. I was able to trim off some toe! Score. And then I used the rasp. He let me tuck his hooves between my knees, like a ferrier. I was so proud of him.
Just to be clear, I am no ferrier, nor do I claim to have any type of skill with hoof trimming at all. My expertise is limited to rasping out chips between trims. But all and all, I am pretty happy with both Linus and myself.
I think I will pick up a hoof knife and a better pair of nippers in the near future.
Simon wanted sunblock on his nose too
Sunblock got on more than just Linus’s pink nose.
He is standing a little awkwardly.
Blue Ridge Pony 