This is Marquessa. She is about 30 years old and is retired on 40 acres. She has a great mom who takes very good care of her.

I had an opportunity to ride with another shoer twice this fall to work on a hospital shoe for a horse named Dazzle. Dazzle lives up to his namesake, having shown up at the veterinarian clinic with silver hoof polish on his feet! I was able to see the new acrylic superfast pads that Vettec puts out.

One of my customers brought a show horse home from the circuit with what turned out to be a broken side-bone. The horse toes out on the front feet and has never had pathological shoeing to correct it. The horse is a young Arabian. I hope it heals OK, because it is difficult to ask an Arabian to be still for six to eight weeks.

Another of my customers went lame three days after I left. Everyone at her barn is trimmed. I know I don't take a lot of sole off trim horses because I don't want them lame. Of course, I heard all this second hand because she called one of my other customers to ask if it was something I did. She didn't realize how small the horse community is. I heard from the person she talked to, the veterinarian she called and the horseshoer who put a hospital shoe on her horse. I am still learning the more complicated shoes, so I was good with someone else going out, but I would have gone to watch and learn if I heard about it in time. The veterinarian said there was a distinct puncture wound. He also told me that he liked my trim work and that I did I nice job on the horse. Whew!

My fifth season is winding down. I have more time at home again and have already started hitting the gym so I don't lose any muscle strength through the winter. I did add several new customers for the barefoot trim and I really like doing that trim. This summer was difficult with it being so wet for so long, so there were some horses that I felt were better with shoes. Maybe next year they can try going barefoot.