Roland’s nags and nails: dodging the worst of the weather
It seems that luck has been on our side this week as, no matter how hard and randomly it has rained, it has always been when we have been travelling to appointments and not whilst we’ve been shoeing. I have a feeling that our luck might run out this week as the forecast doesn’t look much different and it is only a matter of time before we get caught.
The next few weeks are going to be spent preparing for college. This will be my third block of a total of eight and I have quite a lot of work still to do. That said, I have now finished my assignment on conformation abnormalities which was a biggy! It has involved drawing (I hate drawing) lots of horses’ legs as well as writing detailed explanations on base narrow, base wide, broken forward hoof pastern axis (HPA) and broken back HPA, cow hocks, calf knee and buck kneed, plus how those conformational defects would affect the way you shoe a horse.
I still have my foot conditions assignment to finish and some more shoes to make, but I’m well on the way to completing those. On top of that I have to revise for the dreaded block exam and the topics are becoming wide ranging as I progress though the apprenticeship. Any of the following could come up; ligaments, muscles and tendons, blood circulation, hoof structures, skeleton, bone composition and joints.
I have five weeks to refresh my memory and re-learn the things I’ve forgotten since my last college stint in October and, even though the pressure is on, the fact that it is daylight when I go to work and still daylight when I come back from work makes everything seem so much easier. Roll-on the summer!
Until next week
Roland
www.twitter.com/nagsandnails
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Roland owned a computer software business until he realised he didn't want to be stuck behind a desk for the rest of his working life. So in 2011 he started the four-year apprenticeship to become a farrier on the borders of Somerset, Devon and Dorset. He became fully qualified in 2014.