It was a foggy start to the day today, quite beautiful. But soon enough, it being July in Missouri, it just got hot and humid.
Foggy horses 
“Fairy washing” – webs on the lawn 
A beautiful spider web
I ventured out to Wentzville, and it was not smooth sailing, but I got errands done. There are too many cars and no infrastructure for the population in what was a small rural town not so long ago. Well, forty years is a while, I guess… but the traffic is exceedingly awful.
Jane, meanwhile, picked up a necessity for me at Walgreen’s – chocolate! So, I had another excuse to go over to the Alington Botanical Garden. and see Jane and her happy creatures. Jane’s columnar oak tree is magnificent. We both got that tree at the same time, and mine is a miserable specimen, not thriving at all. Jane is a great planter of trees. They flourish and become magnificent under her shovel.
Gus, and Bobby (and Hazel) 
English Columnar Oak 
Nasturtiums 
Gus
Here, Harry worked in the studio, and I puttered around in the heat. The horses stood in front of their fans. Another day with not much of interest to report.
Harry smiles on command 
Nettie 
Mistletoe on the lookout for Jack
Tomorrow Fred comes to shoe. I have been wrapping Bart’s foot to try to keep damage to a minimum, but he tore the wall up a bit stepping on the clip. I have faith that Fred can fix anything (except politics). Out in Montana, Nancy sent pictures of the trip to a shoeing table for their difficult mule, Fargo. Well, if my horses misbehave for Fred, I will threaten them with a shoeing table!
The mule (who will kick and hurt anyone who tries to mess with his feet) is strapped to the table. And no tranquilizer, by the way!
Then two shoer get to work at the same time. The entire process takes 15 minutes!!
Teamwork 
Fargo can only wiggle his nose
Fargo has been through this many times, and, while hardly a treat, it is just part of life as a Montana mule. Rainy has been imprinted, so she will not be so rank as to need to visit the shoeing table!
Roscoe and Tom Morris are both beloved cats (by me, though not of one another). Outside, they tolerate each other, but this evening, Tom Morris had the effrontery to look in the window of the office. Roscoe was not amused.
Both cats are great subjects…
Roscoe says goodnight and God bless to all.
Stay safe, stay well.
Remind me never to wish I owned a mule.
Shared your pictures of the shoeing table with Jim and Lo. We had a laugh imagining Jack on that contraption. He probably would have died fighting it. He got his drugs and then he got shod. We pretty much just crossed our fingers that he would stay shod for the shows hahaha. What a good baby mule 🙂
And Jack never got better about shoeing? He was an odd character, as I remember, with a huge jump, and yet another witty name (Jackalope).
Oops, the baby mule was yesterday!
The table looks like something out of the Inquisition, however, the placid mule looks resigned. My god! With the many resources out there it’s impossible to imagine using a device such as that in this day and age. May I list them? I’m not sure? I’ve never seen Fairy Washing, how quaint. Lovely. Well, the chores are getting boring. May I suggest you and Jane and the horses come up with a mock show. Set up some unusual, you know, the Three-Day type of gymnastics, decorate the ring, use your lovely flowers, get them to work, and create an innovative amusing horse show for us all. Happy Horses Happy Days!