From Shoes to Boots ( Nutmeg )

This is Nutmeg's off side front hoof before I took his shoes off. I have been shoeing him for a couple of years now and he has quite good feet. He goes well in shoes and no reason really to change anything. But the owners Murray and Karen were very interested to see the results by changing to Renegade boots. Having listened to me tell how successful my wife's horse has gone in Renegade boots over the last year of Endurance riding.

So off come the shoes and here is the same hoof after a quick trim. Murray will give him a light trim at three weeks and then I will go back at the six week mark and re trim and fit the boots

Hoof capsule fitted and now just waiting on the arrival of the boots. Nutmeg's size is a #2

Murray and Karen are going to use the

sport orange boots mainly because until they are confident that they wont lose them they will be easier to find. Their horses are mainly used as stock horses on extremely steep hill country. The only way they can do their stock work in winter is on horse back so this will be a great test. The tracks get so muddy that the 4X4 bike often cant get through.

During summer they use their horses for pure pleasure doing many trail rides with friends.

They plan to have two horses in boots this winter. Nutmeg and Frank. The rest will remain shod. All of their horses have very good feet so this will be very interesting.

Murray breaks in all of their horses and has always got at least one being broken at any time.

Check out the Renegade web site on my Links

Riding Lessons

On Thursday Terry came and gave me riding lessons on Echo. I was to have had them on Legend but unfortunately he was lame. I am not normally one to go for lessons but as Legend has only just been broken in I felt it was very important to try and get it right for the sake of the horse.

I am sure Terry found dealing with me quite hard but at least I didn't argue with him. ( his major dislike ) My wife took these pics and I have to say I look a lot better than I thought I would. I have only ever had lessons once before in my life.

I found riding Echo very useful as he has been doing this stuff already and knows what to do so long as I give him all the right aids.

My thanks to Terry. Next time it will be with Legend.

Before and After

Before and after photos of a badly broken hoof. You could take this hoof in both hands and the hoof would bend in your hands.
The horse was quite lame. After about a week he was running around like a two year old. I hate to say it but this was just a case of neglect

Shearing Time

One of our ewes loosing it's clothing.

Not very nice but something we have to do twice a year. These pic's are of Colin our shearer. I don't know how a shearer can do this all day. One sheep would kill me. Such hard work. Colin did about 350 on this day and tomorrow he will do the balance of the lambs.

Marvae Gai Legend

And this is the second of our new boys ( Legend ) We bought him from Taranaki as an unbroken 4 year old about 2 months ago now.

We took him straight to Ken's place to be broken in. Ken got him going and rode him doing stock work and riding him through swamp etc.
At the end of this time I went over there and put a set of shoes on him ready for a 3 day trek.
The trek leaving from our place had about 30 horses and did 10 hrs on the 1st day and another 10hrs on the 2nd day and a further 6hrs on the last day. Ridden by Ken and left at our place after the last day. He was very light on condition and got nick named on the trek
" Bony Em ".

After returning back here we have been feeding him up and these pic's are after being here two weeks. Just before I took these pic's I had taken him out for the 1st ride and I have to say I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo pleased with Ken's work. He is awesome. Hasn't put a hoof wrong. He has the best nature. I didn't ride him long. Just long enough to remind him what he is meant to be doing.

Sharm El Sheikh

This is Echo. ( Official reg name Sharm El Sheikh.)
Echo was born in Australia ( we'll try not to hold that against him ) and exported to new Zealand as a yearling. He was sold to a young girl who used him for pony club and show jumping. We bought him about a month ago as a 9 year old.

At this point he has only been riding in the arena and for short ( up to 1 hour ) rides down the road and up the back of the farm.
Until a week ago he has been on his own with the older horses in the paddock next to him so he has spent a lot of time hanging out over the fence. He has quite fallen in love with Hoki Poki but is not allowed in with them yet. He has a most wonderful tail.

Two New Horses

We have now two new horses. Both are pure bred Arabians. The grey is ( paddock name ) Echo and the bay is Legend. Both are Geldings and hopefully will be Endurance horses. I will write more about these two boys shortly

Tahi as a baby

To anyone who was watching what happened to Tahi I am sorry. It has been soooooooooo long since I have done any blogging. I will try to make it up.

I am also sorry to have to say we finally lost her. She was diagnosed as having Uvitis and the question was what caused that. We were managing her blindness quite well but after a while she also lost her hearing which led us to think she had a brain tumour. This became quite dangerous. Going into the paddock with a horse the could not see or hear. She almost kicked me twice, upended herself in the river, and ran into a power pole . So in the end the best thing to do was to have her put down. I am still struggling with the loss.

To end the blogs on Ta I have scanned a couple of old pictures of her as a baby with her mother Hoke Poki. Ta was something very special. On the morning she was born 16th December her mother came running up to the fence and calling out. Running back to Ta then back to the fence again. She took us to see her baby. She was born jet back with white socks and a white blaze. Quite different to the more recent pics. She was named Tahi because she was the 1st animal that we had anything to do with born after buying this property. From that day on she was always there, a real peoples horse.

Over the years we have done a lot together, Trekking, Endurance Riding ( up to 80km ) Ta never had the attitude of her mother so never made a great Endurance horse but she was still the best horse in the world to me.

Tahi Is Blind

I don't know what is wrong but my horse Tahi is blind.
She is running into fences and can't see to find her feed bowel. I have had to hold the bin under her nose so she can get her food. Unfortunately we are very short of grass because of the very wet winter following the summer drought. She just sticks close to another horse to find her way about. The vet is coming out tomorrow at 9.00 and in the meantime we are just keeping her safe.
Needless to say I am extremely worried. The vet says she is very concerned and thinks it may be serious

Kingfisher

I couldn't resist this Pic.
This kingfisher was just sitting outside our back door and I thought it was so beautiful. It allowed me to get up real close and take this photo.

XSES1V

And this is my new wagon.
The registration plate ( that come with it is XSES1V )
This is the most amazing wagon for my work that I could have ever have hoped for.
It is an older (1990 ) Nissan Safari that has been modified,
extended in length and made into a double cab Ute ( pick up truck ) It has all the bells and whistles and is just wonderful for country roads. Overall it is about a metre longer than the standard Safari. I am making a canopy for the back and this will complete the most perfect shoeing rig

An Interesting Article

Thanks to Bindy here is an interesting article on the horses hoof
Check it out. http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/features/109-fossils.shtml sure makes interesting reading. Thanks Bindy

Clearmonts Redman

This is my old boy ( Gelding ) Redman.
Redman is 28 years old and has been the best horse anyone could ever ask for. I have had the pleasure of him being with us for about 15years and he will be with me till the day he dies. I will never part with him.
All our other horses are mares and he sure looks after them. ( or thinks he does ) He certainly is not the boss. Redman thinks he is still two and still gets ridden occasionally. In this photo he didn't like the flash.

Waiwhenua Tahi

This is my horse 'Waiwhenua Tahi'
Tahi is an Appaloosa Arab cross.
Born 16th December 1995.
Tahi is a mare (female )and is about 14.2hh. Tahi is a Maori word that means #1 and Waiwhenua breaks down Wai Whenua Wai means water and Whenua means Land. Waiwhenua is the name of our farm and Tahi was the 1st animal that we had anything to do with that was born on this place after we bought it.
She has the most wonderful nature and moves like a dream.
We call her 'Ta'. Ta was born jet black with white socks and a white blaze but she changed colour on a regular basis until she ended up like this. She has been this colouring for some time now so we think this is what we get.
Ta was out of a mare 'Hokey Pokey'. by an Appaloosa Stallion of unknown breeding. Hokey very much chose her own mate but we did play a part in getting them together.
I will post a photo of her at some time but they certainly don't look alike although you certainly can see the likeness. Ta is big boned and quite solid where as Hokey is quite fine and apart from lots of colour looks all Arab. Hokey is now retired from a quite successful career in Endurance Riding ( long distance horse racing ) whereas Ta has always been quite lazy and never really had the same competitive spirit. She and I did however successfully complete a few 80km rides but not competitively. We mostly now just enjoy a quite and leisurely time together.

Laminitis

Yesterday I had to attend to five Welsh mountain ponies with Laminitis. We have had about 8 days of sunshine after a very long wet spell and the grass is growing like crazy. The owner said they had only been moved onto fresh pasture about two days ago and bingo they are all in a bad way so please keep an eye on your horses and ponies

Newspaper Fame!

This is me shoeing Marie TeHuia's thoroughbred (Bart) outside the Aria Church in Piopio. This photo was featured in the Waitomo News last Tuesday. Even before I'd seen the paper in the morning I'd received three phone calls from potential clients!

My first blog post.

This is my first blog post. I am just posting to see what happens. My son Timothy is helping me set up a blog/journal so that I can keep people up to date on my horseshoeing activities!