Living at Whit's End: The Farrier Visits on the First Warm Spring Day

It's been a long winter, but spring has finally sprung here in Maine. It was in the mid-70s here this weekend. Small green leaves have sprouted on my lilacs and the birch trees. My daffodils are up and blooming in the dooryard, the grass is turning green.... and the farrier came to trim our horses' hooves today. We love our farrier, Sandy. He does a great job, and is very patient with our creatures. Our horses, on the other hand, weren't wild about having their feet done this afternoon. They never are, really. We continue to try to work with them a lot to make this a better event, but it can still be a challenge the first time around after a long winter. (Whit keeps them in pretty good shape all winter, until the farrier makes it out again.)

I have mixed feelings about our horses' feet. Take Scooby, for example. This is our most reliable, low-key, steady workhorse. You can walk around behind him, or bend down to hitch up a wagon or logs to the singletree for him to pull, with absolutely no fear of being kicked or even stepped on or backed over. (In fact, we hitch Scooby up to the stock to pull it into the barn for the farrier to use.) Scoob stands patiently waiting for the click of your tongue, and off you go. And yet, this poor boy has an incredibly difficult time standing still in a stock for the farrier to trim his hooves. Sandy doesn't hurt him at all, and certainly makes him feel better by the time he's done! Scooby just doesn't like it, and Pat's not a whole lot better.

Look at the stock below. Scooby, who was first in this time, in all his 1600+ pounds of slightly overweight, winter glory did a tap dance (more than once) until he sheared off six #10 screws holding the 2x2 in. board which supported the 2x6 floor boards. See how the floor lists on the left side? (The photo is actually of Magnum getting his feet done. He's a good boy. He doesn't dance much.) Whit's repair list isn't getting any shorter.

Sandy noticed our sheep, which are both hard to miss, and for sale. He made an offer on two of them, which delighted Whit as we are trying to whittle down our flock some. We raise meat lambs, and although we shear our sheep every spring, we do not get much money for their fleece, at least not nearly enough to support them for the rest of the year, so we need to decrease our flock size.

This is what Sandy is driving today, his wife's car.

These are the sheep Sandy bought. I'm not sure what his wife is going to say about them in the back seat, but there you have it.

The spring day was so lovely, Whit hitched up the horses and we all went for a wagon ride later that afternoon. (Look at those feet. Aren't they lovely? :)