Change in the weather

I took Scout to the playday. He loved it. Since then it's been wet and cold, how refreshing. We are all enjoying this cooler weather. We have been playing in the paddock. Farrier came yesterday and remarked how calm Star was. I played with him for 5 minutes before he arrived. Made all the difference. So have the regular leg massages he gets. He is quite un-fussed about his feet which is a huge difference from November last year where he would try and literally run away if you even looked at his feet! He stood for the farrier, picked up the foot that the farrier was looking at for him! Star was a star. I even taught the farrier how to ask for feet by using the chestnut and said that was how I would like him to pick my horses feet up in the future. The tendon squeeze is not nice at all. Scout was good too, he had a trim. I watched with amusement as he leaned on the farrier a bit. My farrier travels with a friend and they work together. They are both very good, young, motivated guys who are actively learning and keeping up with all the new techniques. He showed me some scary photos of a horse he was asked to see who had been trimmed by a bare foot trimmer, the horse had huge long heels, had dropped onto his pasterns almost because of it. His hoof wall had collapsed and was not functioning as a hoof at all. Now I am all for them not having shoes and will see if Star is capable of going barefoot but I can't see myself using someone who leaves feet to grow like that. I think the art of hoof trimming is just that. It's knowing the Bio-mechanics of the horse, the muscles, how they work, the shoulder action, the foot development itself. The horse doesn't travel the distances it used to on the hoof these days so surely this must be taken into account? My two areas of research at the moment, is the horse and the hoof and also saddles and saddle fit. I have had some very informative emails sent to me so far on saddles. I want to continue on with my riding and get back into competing in dressage and have just ordered Karen Rolfe' s new book and DVD. It's for sale on her site at a special price at the moment so I gave myself an ealry birthday pressie! So glad that the girls had a good ride, something I would love to do is show a different way of being with horses to my girlfriends daughter. She is pony mad but has been taught the pony club way. I have my doubts that her heart is in horses but that's only my opinion. Going for a ride in the forest is something I want to do. Ideally when Bruce can ride and we can go riding together. We talked about getting a 3 horse float so we can take Jazz with us as well. We shall see. I have a pedestal now...it's a bit high cause I made a mistake with the measurements but it's in the areana, it's bright red and so far it's not been used. I hope this weekend to introduce both the horses to it. I am thinking about having both boys in the arena at the same time. One playing with me and one watching....will let you know how I get on. Toodle pip Ps. I am off to see my NH partner from 10 years ago. An arab mare called Tara. She is living with a wonderful mother and daughter about 70kms away from me. I am getting excited at the prospect of seeing her again. She is and always will be held in my heart as a wonderful partner.