Teeth, abuse, hands, Floyd, shoes (too long)

["April" <adlee@mailandnews.com>]

Hi, all,

  I am happy to report that my wisdom teeth are gone.  I am sad to report
that I have yet to return to a normal diet.  It has been 10 days since my
surgery and still have a gaping hole in my mouth where the socket has not
healed up.  I have just gone off the pain pills that I was taking every four
hours.  Now I just take one a day or so.  Still drinking soup and milkshakes
(THAT part isn't bad!).  Anyway...this whole thing sucks!  I don't recommend
the surgery to anybody.

I've read all the horse abuse posts and cried through the one about Hot Shot
and that little filly.  I also read the ones about TWH (Carla, I'm still
laughing).  It breaks my heart that these things happen.  I guess I'm a
little naive, I had no idea of the horrible things people can do to horses.
And I thought that whole trailer loading incident a few weeks ago was
bad....

Speaking of that, my hands are almost back to normal with the addition of
about 7 or 8 scars.  The horse is happy and healing well, although he has
scars on his legs from the incident.  I have informed the owner that my
trailer is not an option until the gelding has had some trailer loading
lessons.  I offered to give them, but, as I suspected, she prefers to do it
herself.

I'm very glad to hear that Howard and the other Floridians are safe from
Floyd.  Very glad to hear it.  Hopefully, the ones we haven't heard from yet
are also safe.

I finally got shoes put on Apache!!!!!!  That is a MIRACLE!!!!  I've had the
hardest time getting a farrier out here.  I finally got a guy named Dennis
Lott to come out.  He is an older farrier that has been shoeing for about 40
years.  He raises and trains QH, Morgans, and some other breed (Arabians?).
He has definite ideas about shoeing and seems very helpful.  He measured the
angle of Apache's hooves and said that they are off by 8 or 9 degrees.  The
last guy that trimmed him had left my poor baby with no heels.  So Dennis
said that we will try to get his angles to the ideal (he explained that the
angle should be the same as the angle of his shoulder in relation to the
ground) over the next several shoeing cycles.  He took his time shaping the
shoes to fit Apache's feet.  He took the shoe and shape it until the nail
holes matched his white line perfectly.  Then nailed the shoe on and rasped
the excess away.

Dennis answered any questions I had and seemed quite willing to talk.  He
said repeatedly that Apache's hooves were his business and that if I had a
problem related to the hooves then HE had a problem and would come out to
fix it.  I'm not sure how familiar he is with endurance riding...The shoes
he put on are size 0 Swedish shoes. They look very sturdy and the nails fit
into the nail holes like a hand into a glove.  I have yet to ride with these
shoes on, but his feet look nice and Apache seems comfortable with them.
Obviously, there is a lot left to be seen before I know whether or not I
have found our new farrier.  One thing I will have to remember to mention
next time is Apache's tendency to clip.  He kicks the toe of his back foot
onto the bottom of the front foot at a walk.  He very rarely does that at a
trot.  He has never pulled a shoe off this way (knock on wood), but is still
something I might should mention.

Any comments on the information I've given about this farrier??  Anything
I've neglected to think about?  I'm cautiously optimistic.

Sorry I got a little long-winded....I'm planning to go for a play ride this
afternoon..first one in awhile.  :)

April and Apache
Chattanooga, TN

I'd rather be riding, but if I can't be riding, I'd rather be reading about
horses.


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