Back To Work

Fred was here last Wednesday to shoe Bart, Oisin, and Derry. Stone has wonderful, tough Quarter Horse feet, so he is staying barefoot for another cycle. But the Pearl Brothers got 4 shoes each, and are back to work. Derry has stayed fully shod all winter.

As always, Fred’s visit was full of fun (and smoke from burning feet).

After finishing the shoeing, Fred went off shed hunting. Sheds are antlers that fall off the bucks in early Spring. Fred knows our neighbor to the east, and has permission to shed hunt on his property. He returned with one shed, but from last year – it was partially buried. Still, a very cool find!

Jane and I rode in order to try out the new shoes, and our Irish chestnuts were wonderful. The weather is frighteningly warm for February.

Jane McClaren was concerned that Weedy is not being featured in the blog, but Weedy is not keen on the camera, whereas Eddy is a bit of a ham. In deference to Jane, though, here is Weedy.

On Friday, I rode and bathed both Pearl Brothers – in early February! It was very windy. So windy that Jane did not ride!

On Saturday, we had lunch with Anne, the younger, and went to visit the big bear at Chesterfield Mall.

In the afternoon, we rode. I rode Oisin first, and as I was returning to the barn, Marilyn came by with Roy, riding Trigger. By the time I had Bart ready to go, Jane and Derry arrived, and Marilyn was returning. Harry took a picture of all of us, including Marianne, who had come to do barn work later than usual, because she had been showing at the NEC earlier. It was Liam’s first time competing in dressage, and he won both of his classes!

While we were riding, I looked at the hay field and saw an antler – a shed! My very first one. It was quite exciting. And a strange synchronicity!

On Sunday morning, Jane and I went to watch Marianne and Liam show. They were perfect, and won both classes again. So, at Liam’s debut show, he won every class he entered!! We only had time to watch the first class. On the way home, we were astonished by a herd of 21 deer that careened over the hill and ran past us. They stopped briefly at the Barkers’ fence on their dam, and I thought to grab my camera and get a picture.

I told Fred, of course, about my shed find, and he told me to look for another antler, since they tend to lose them around the same time. So Eddy and I went shed hunting on Sunday afternoon. No luck finding the other antler, but we did find a whole deer skeleton with two antlers. Fred tells me the term for that is a “deadhead”. I brought the skull and antlers home and left them in a tree by the equipment shed to cure out, since there was still some stinky hide attached.

This blog post has been a work in progress that keeps getting interrupted. I will end here with some pictures of creatures from the past week, weather continuing to be delightfully warm, not normal for February…

That’s another week gone of the approximately 4,000 we are allotted, with luck.

Be well, be safe, make the most of every day. Remember the value of peace, and quiet, and rest. Slava Ukraini! Peace.