dancing horses

dancing horses

Friday, October 3, 2014

Steele Makes me Look Good

Last week my farrier came to do the horses. This time I was able to be there rather than Ed. I always enjoy talking with my farrier- I pick up some harmless horse gossip (who has a new horse, who's sold a horse) and he's just a genuine nice guy who can hold a conversation.

Steele was getting his pedicure when Paul said to me "you know when you told me that you were buying a baby to raise and train I wasn't sure what to think"
I looked at him curiously.
"well I knew Irish was a nice horse but I didn't really know the role that you played with that. I was concerned that I would end up with a horse that would be a problem to shoe"

That made sense. Why should he have faith in my ability to install ground manners in a horse? Anyone can talk it's results that truly count.

"but you have a really nice horse who's easy to work with and a real pleasure to be around" 

I was thrilled at what he said. He works with all sorts of horses and does not throw compliments around freely.

Now I'm not a fool. I know that Steele came with a sensible character to begin with. That was why I bought him (well one of the reasons, love is not completely logical). But he could have been a real brat. He certainly has tried on occasion. But if there's one thing I hate it's rudeness- in animals or people. So I did my best to install ground manners in Steele. As a result I have a horse that will stand still in cross ties, single tie and ground tied. In fact up in the ring he will stand with no tie at all as I fix the stirrups and made adjustments.

So all the work on insisting on manners has paid off in all sorts of ways.

Most importantly  I still have my farrier.

I'm smart enough to know that bouncing is for the paddock and not the barn


1 comment:

  1. Amen! That's nice to get a compliment like that from the farrier. Chrome had his moments, but now he's great. Sometimes in the summer he gets impatient because of his sweet itch. I couldn't imagine getting a pedicure with chicken pox so I'm more lenient on him then. He stands still without being tied to get groomed and tacked up. I love it! Like you said, part of that is his character, but a lot has to do with the time I've spent working with him.

    P.S. When my husband looked over and saw the picture of Steele above he asked if that was Chrome LOL!!!! I've done the same thing before when looking at pictures of Steele. He is so gorgeous!

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