Feb 08 - The Float!

Well the farrier came this morning. Half an hour early and took my play time away.. I was going to play for half an hour so he would be ready and happy to be handled by someone new. I played catching game, told the farrier I would be a few minutes and then threw in....I haven't seen this take more than 2 days and walked off laughing. He's young and he's getting used to me! I got caught in 2 minutes...I time it now! It's a lovely feeling We yo yoed through the gate...... interested farrier looking on....what's this ....he has a helper.......oh dear....I could see it from Star's eyes...I get my human and then I go with her and then....ooohhh there are two more there....male ones.....we had a little RB incident which was calmed by going backwards....boy does this work wonders with him!!! Then the farrier introduced himself all over again...Star was happy......Farriers side kick was a little too eager so I asked him to please give my horse a chance to meet him and say hi before he gets on......I asked what his qualifications were...why there were two of them and what he was going to do...all before they got close to Stars feet. I got a suitable explaination and then allowed them to get on with shoeing star. Well he stood there like a LBE...he even went to sleep.... Last time it took us some time to get him happy...me playing...farrier looking at me like I was from Mars.....now he can see the difference...he commented on how calm and relaxed star seemed. I found out too that another horse had hurt him, pulling back and wrenching his shoulder.....I said "Oh well not all horses are the same......what;s it like to shoe a Parelli horse in training and his comment was "I SHOULD BE DOING MORE PARELLI HORSES THEY ARE SO WELL BEHAVED!" I was so proud of star and of me...he trusted me enough to not be going RB at the slightest thing. Even the offsider who was helping started asking questions. It was great and we all enjoyed the experience and even better stars feet are back on the road to recovery. His feet were terrible and very thin...I do shoe him.....I have read about barefoot...one day we will get there...but for now we have shoes on and we are working on getting normal shape into his feet.....some farriers are so good at being bad they make a mess of horses feet and it takes months to get them right again.... I learn as well, my farrier teaches me and shows me whats going on with his feet, I ask lots of questions too so we all get something out of this. The moral of todays story is....from my eyes...if your horse catches you, is happy to be with you and accepts your leadership then everything else gets easier. I haven't been this happy around horses for years! This afternoon we are having another lesson with Christine...we are going to play some more with the float. Should be interesting. He tried to get in through the human door the other night! I had to laugh...I didn't have the float on the car....I opened the side access door so he could investigate...he gave me a look when I sent him as if to say...you want me to go in there? I didn't realise he was going to try! Up went the hoof and I watched in amazement....we then went off and played around and nearby the float....there was plenty of lip licking I can tell you. I can see he might even say this afternoon..."Would you just put the back down so I can get in this thing? I am sick of playing with it!"