This blog is sponsored by the PRO FEET range of hoof care products from NAF
Laminitis has been a bit of a feature of this week. Actually, it’s a feature most weeks and my training farrier, Kris Parsons, seems to be having an increased number of consultations with vets. As a result, we are tending to do more and more remedial work and I’m becoming more adept at assisting Kris in applying gel pads, glue shoes, hoof filler, bandage casts (equicast) and the like.
Trimming hooves is still my major focus and it will be for the rest of my apprenticeship. It’s the hardest part of farriery to master. I’m very much in the mal-coordinated phase of trimming — never mind trying to master it — and, on a daily basis, I feel completely inept. I now understand just how difficult trimming is even though Kris makes it look so easy.
Finally, I had a couple of unexpected “happenings” this week. Firstly, a blood-curdling scream came from the feed shed of one of our customers. I rushed in to find one of the grooms visibly shaking having just seen the ghosts of two small boys. Apparently she regularly sees them and they just gave her a bit of a fright! Well I’m glad I didn’t see them as I’d have turned myself inside out.
Then, at the very next yard, a kitten jumped from a barn window straight onto my back while I was working on a horse. Feeling somewhat spooky from the previous “happening”, I nearly had a heart attack. Luckily for me, I quickly realised it wasn’t a poltergeist as I saw the cheeky blighter sitting down yards away and looking at me as if to say, “you look like you’ve seen a ghost”!
Until next week,
Roland
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The market-leading PRO FEET range of hoof care products offers formulas designed to nourish and protect your horse’s feet.
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The PRO FEET range is available from NAF stockists nationwide. For more details call the NAF Freephone Advice line: 0800 373106 or email info@naf-uk.com
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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.
