When the horseshoer needs a farrier

I have been hobbling around all weekend because I had an ingrown toenail removed from my giant toe. I always thought it was called the big toe, but the nurse said it is officially a giant toe. Who knew? Tom laughed at me all the way to the walk-in clinic. He thought it was funny that the horseshoer needed a farrier. I had an appointment with a podiatrist two weeks from now, but the nail decided to get infected the day before a holiday. So on 4th of July I had minor surgery.

I have horses scheduled in the morning and hope I do OK. I am still pretty sore and can't take any more of the prescribed pain medicine so I can drive and safely work under horses in the morning. That is one of the joys of working for yourself. You don't have sick leave and you don't get paid if you aren't working. You also take a chance if you call your customer to reschedule. Sometimes, they will move to a different farrier. You just can't be sick or take vacation in this job and keep your customers. The strip mall where the clinic was also has a coffee shop that was new to us. They made great coffee and had awesome sandwiches.

Hubby was on vacation most of last week. Wednesday we spent the day bicycling the levee trail in Lawrence. At 5pm we stopped to regroup so I could trim horses on the way home. The horses are a mother and yearling baby haflingers. They are quiet good horses, except that the baby was taught to bow when you pick up a front foot. That makes it a little bit of a struggle to trim its' front feet. There is also a drop dead gorgeous Holsteiner dressage horse. He is black and all legs. He always trots in from the pasture when his owner calls him. He is magnificent to watch.

I have a new pony on my list that is cute as a bug. He is foundered, but assuming he is taken off grass I think he will come around pretty quickly. I had to move some horses around during the week it was over 100 degrees. Everyone was willing and understood. One afternoon, in the middle of the week, I just couldn't go out again. I had to reschedule a new customer. If I had just waited another two hours before calling him I could have used a thunderstorm as an excuse to cancel instead of sounding like a wimp and cancelling because of the heat! Both of his horses were quiet and stood nicely.

Tom was bicyling on the Landon trail this morning and saw one of my customers riding their horse. He stopped and got off his bicycle because he didn't want the horses to shy. He asked them where they were from and asked if they knew me. One of the horses was my customer. The horse owner said that I was just at the barn last week and that I was telling her how I drop him off at one end of a trail and pick him up at the other end. The Landon trail is only an eight mile round trip ride. Had my giant toe not hurt so much, I would have ridden with him.

I have six new horses scheduled this week that I am looking forward to meeting. I also have to make a stop to check on one customer who's horse probably has a rock bruise on a front foot. I hope not, because he has his horse for sale and if it goes lame he will have to hold onto the horse awhile longer. Truthfully, if I thought I could keep a horse right now I would have bought this one already. It is a good broke quiet horse.