Gentle Giant Meadows Ranch
  • Home
  • "Almost" Daily Diary
  • Maureen's 60th Birthday Trip to England
  • Gertie and Quest: A True Story - The Book
  • Foresaken Love
  • The Gentle Giants
  • Photo Gallery
  • WWOOFER Program
  • John & Jean Hudson Wedding Nov 2013
  • Lambs
  • Poo Time
  • Memories of a New Cattle Rancher

I Love Carrots!!

2/7/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
Over 2 tons of horsepower, 2 big powerful Shire horses as gentle as a lamb, calm and sweet natured. That's how I would describe Lady and Quest....most of the time. Quest is a wimp, when Quest has an owie, it doesn't matter how big an owie or how small Quest makes a fuss. When Quest makes a fuss, it's a big fuss and like it or not we have to listen ! All the recent Seattle rain has resulted in mud at the gateways where the Shires like to lurk in anticipation of a passing treat... and the mud has softened the horses feet. When you have hooves as big as Lady and Quest, supporting bodies as big as they have, they need to be healthy and hard.Mud causes softening and can in a worst case and untreated scenario cause hoof rot. For some time Greg has been treating one of Quests hooves and since the treatment appears to sting Quest has learnt to object and when a ton of horse objects you have little choice but to listen. Greg has tried various methods of application, we've tried distracting him and we've tried chastising him and Quest still objects. This behaviour was causing us considerable concern because we have one super big horse with a small hoof owie and a huge attitude problem and one little farrier with a back problem who was due to visit yesterday. The farrier arrived early ( which is quite the novelty !) and Ibuprofen was duly offered ( standard practice for our poor farrier). Quest was brought from the field, already with an attitude issue as he had tried to go through a gate that wasn't quite open. ..he will learn one day, maybe. Nerves were tense, we really dont like to see our farrier hurting and we like even less to see him hurting because of our Shire reprobates behaviour. I was the victim nominated to try to control Quest, I'd have said I drew the short straw...but I didn't even see a straw ! Jodie and I devised a plan, she cut the carrots and delivered them to me and I would shovel them into his ever open mouth. She cut, I shovelled... and Quest chomped happily and quietly. Our farrier worked frantically to trim before Quest remembered to misbehave or we ran out of carrots and before we knew it he was done....Carlos was still in one piece, his discs still where they should be and maybe Carlos will come back to us. I know that serious horse owners and trainers will be quivering in their seats, rewarding bad behaviour, feeding treats, how many horse rules did I break ???...but you know what, when you have a 19.1 hand equine brat who could potentially disable our much loved and much needed farrier ANY tactic is worth considering. Oh yes....and I'm fine too which made me available to clean the sheep pen..but thats another story ! Time to go, take care, M



0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Its me, Maureen, (the Boss)

    Archives

    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.